✈ Southwest to add 3 new cities, Delta’s big week & more ✈

July 16, 2025

New routes, new lounges, new concepts

by Ben Mutzabaugh, Managing Editor for Aviation

Hello TPG readers!

Fares priced by artificial intelligence. An end to overcrowding at lounges. Add-on fees for business-class tickets that already cost thousands of dollars? And a return to Hong Kong — plus a historic new route to South America from one of the nation’s small, but fast–growing, hubs.

That may sound like a busy week for the entire industry, but those headlines came from just one carrier: Delta Air Lines.

I’ll have more on Delta in a moment, but other airlines were busy, too. American Airlines detailed its first grab-and-go lounge, matching offerings like those recently rolled out by United Airlines and Delta. And American Express announced an overhaul of its lounge offerings, including two new locations and a new lounge concept.

Southwest Airlines revealed its first new city in more than four years — and said two more are coming soon. American boosted its Latin America network with new routes from Chicago and Philadelphia. United unveiled a three-route expansion that makes it the first U.S. carrier to serve Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit. It was also a busy week for “flights” on buses — with American expanding its offering to five routes while United said it would end its flight-by-bus altogether.

Back to Delta. It was the first U.S. carrier to report earnings this quarter, and that came with a slew of stories that we’re still talking about.

Among those is the possibility of a “basic business” fare class. Economy flyers have long gotten used to “basic” fares where everything beyond boarding the plane costs extra. But what about in international business class, where customers already pay thousands of dollars for posh lie-flat seats?

Would an airline really dare charge $150 for an advance seat assignment to a passenger who’s already paid $4,000 or more for a ticket? It’s already happening on some European carriers, and Delta did not shoot down the idea that it could soon do the same.

Elsewhere, Delta thinks it’s a couple of years away from finally winning the battle against lounge overcrowding. And the carrier’s western loyalists will likely be excited by Delta’s just-announced service to Peru from Salt Lake City — that airport’s first-ever regularly scheduled route to South America — as well as two high-profile new routes from Los Angeles.

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Photo Credit: BEN MUTZABAUGH/THE POINTS GUY.

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