By Eric Salard – https://www.flickr.com/photos/airlines470/19338030770/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41446589

Southwest Airlines will begin nonstop service from Fort Lauderdale to San Jose Costa Rica on November 5, 2017. Southwest will become the third airline to serve San Jose nonstop from Fort Lauderdale (along with JetBlue and Spirit) and the fourth from south Florida (American flies from Miami). Southwest will also begin Fort Lauderdale-Punta Cana service the same day, becoming the third airline to fly that route again along with Spirit and JetBlue.

Southwest’s complete schedule extension for the winter months is expected later today and whatever other details impact Florida, we’ll update with information in this post.

UPDATE NOON ET May 18:

Southwest has released formally these schedules and while the new service from Fort Lauderdale is listed, the proposed flight to Turks and Caicos we had previously reported on seems to be missing.

UPDATE 12:15 PM ET May 18:

Southwest is seasonally discontinuing flights from Dallas Love Field to Panama City and from Chicago Midway to Pensacola.

UPDATE 8:00 AM ER May 19:

Shuffling through Southwest’s flights for the winter season, Fort Lauderdale to Cancun is up to three daily roundtrips and Fort Lauderdale- Montego Bay is up to two daily roundtrips. Ft Lauderdale to Cancun is served by two other airlines (JetBlue and Spirit) and Fort Lauderdale to Montego Bay is served by three other carriers (Caribbean Airlines, JetBlue and Spirit). With all of these routes being over saturated it’s apparent Southwest is counting on more than local traffic and is looking to connect passengers in Fort Lauderdale.