Southwest Airlines has tapped a small airport serving California wine country as its newest destination.

The flights to Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport (STS) in Northern California will begin April 7 and come amid an intensifying turf war in the Golden State.

Southwest will fly four routes from Santa Rosa, including daily service to both San Diego and Las Vegas. Flights to Burbank will operate five times per week, while the Denver service will be Saturday only.

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STS sits about 60 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County and next to Napa County — two of California’s best-known wine regions.

Southwest’s arrival will give Santa Rosa three carriers. Alaska Airlines, the busiest carrier at STS, flies eight routes from the airport, while American Airlines offers two.

Santa Rosa will be Southwest’s 14th destination in California, a state Southwest has long enjoyed a strong presence. But the carrier faces new competitive pressures there, particularly from Alaska Airlines’ rapid growth in San Diego and from carriers trying to fill the void in Burbank from the impending exit of budget carrier Avelo.

Competition at STS revved into high gear in April 2021 with the arrival of startup Avelo, which eventually flew as many as eight routes from STS. That drew a competitive response from several airlines in the West, including from Alaska, at STS.

But Avelo announced in July that it would abandon its entire West Coast operation, prompting a number of carriers to unveil routes backfilling service that it had offered from numerous airports – including STS and the Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) near Los Angeles.

Now Southwest is picking up two of the STS routes being left by Avelo: Las Vegas and Burbank. Southwest will compete with Alaska on both routes, as well as to Alaska’s fast-growing operation in San Diego.

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Southwest referenced the competitive California aviation market in announcing STS as its newest destination.

“Adding Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport to our route map provides more access to California’s famed Wine Country for our Customers and further solidifies our yearslong commitment to California,” Andrew Watterson, Southwest’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.

“Southwest offers, without regional carriers, more intra-California service than any other airline. It also leads in available seats, daily departures, and proudly carries the most passengers in the Golden State,” Southwest added in the statement – though excluding regional affiliates of its rivals dramatically undercounts their market share.

More broadly, the addition of STS continues a recent expansion spree by Southwest. With the new destination, the airline has now announced four new destinations in 2025 after not adding any during the previous four years. The other new cities announced this year are Knoxville, Tennessee; St. Thomas in United States Virgin Islands; and the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

At least one more appears to be on the way, with Southwest saying it “intends to moor another new destination to its route map soon.”

Meanwhile, for Southwest’s new California city, it remains to be seen if – or how – rivals might respond there. Stay tuned …

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Southwest Airlines technically doesn’t launch assigned seating for another four months. But starting now, if you’re flying with the airline to Hawaii, you’ll be on a plane that already has its new extra-legroom seats.

And since the airline hasn’t ended its open seating policy just yet, that means a prime boarding position could land you one of those spacious seats at no added cost.

As of this week, the Dallas-based carrier has finished installing extra-space rows on all of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets — the same aircraft it uses on flights to and from the Aloha State. It’s a milestone in Southwest’s push to get all of its planes reconfigured with extra-legroom accommodations before late January 2026, when it officially launches open seating and starts charging extra for those roomier rows.

So, think of this as the “soft launch,” of sorts, during the final few months of first-come, first-served seating.

Nearly half of Southwest planes now have extra legroom

It’s not just Southwest’s Hawaii flights that have its new extra-legroom seats, either. As of Sept. 8, the carrier had retrofitted 380 of its planes with the new seating setup — about 47% of its fleet.

As part of the cabin revamp, crews also installed in-seat power outlets and larger overhead bins on all of Southwest’s MAX 8 planes that fly its longer routes.

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Southwest’s MAX 8 (and Boeing 737-800) planes that have been retrofitted now feature five extra-legroom rows at the front of the aircraft and three additional rows of elevated seating near the mid-cabin emergency exit.

We should note that these are just regular coach seats with more legroom. So for now, as you board a plane that has these spacious rows, you may have to look closely to see what type of seat you’re choosing.

Southwest recently began installing specially-colored headrests to make its extra-legroom seats stand out. But you’ll only notice the colors on about a quarter of the planes that have the new seating setup.

Here’s what the MAX 8 and 737-800 seat map will look like once the aircraft is outfitted with the new configuration.

Retrofits for every plane

Southwest began refitting its planes this spring after announcing its shift to assigned and extra-legroom seating in 2024.

The carrier has already started selling flights with assigned seating, which officially begins Jan. 27, 2026. At that point, customers who purchase the airline’s newly named Choice Extra fare will have access to extra legroom.

Top-tier Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred members will be able to select one of those seats for free within 48 hours of a flight’s departure. Travelers who carry the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card (see rates and fees) the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card (see rates and fees) will be able to do the same.

Read more: Southwest unveils big credit card refresh: 50% fee hikes, but new seating and boarding perks

Best ways to get a Southwest extra-legroom seat in 2025

Between now and January — while Southwest still has open seating in place — your best bet for scoring one of the extra-legroom seats is to secure an early boarding position.

The airline sells Upgraded Boarding as an optional add-on within 24 hours of departure. This guarantees an A1-15 boarding position — and, in essence, ensures an extra-legroom seat will be available when you get on the plane.

Read more: What to know about Southwest Airlines’ 8 boarding groups starting in January

Up next

Southwest still has to finish retrofitting its Boeing 737-800 fleet with the new configuration. The airline now expects to start updating its 737-700s in December, a spokesperson told TPG.

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