Southwest Airlines has confirmed plans to open a new crew base in Nashville which will eventually be home to as many as 600 pilots and 700 flight attendants. Nashville will be Southwest’s 12th crew base once it opens early next year.
The base will initially accommodate between 150 and 250 pilots but will soon grow to between 500 and 600 pilots, according to Southwest which said that the new base demonstrated its commitment to ‘Music City’.
“Hundreds of Southwest Employees who work in the air and on the ground already consider their hometown to be in Middle Tennessee, with our presence in Nashville remaining a key factor to our success, future growth, and the Reliability of our network,” commented Southwest’s chief operating officer Andrew Watterson.
“Given our love for Nashville and the critical importance it plays in our network, it’s a natural choice to make further investments by adding a Crew Base,” Watterson continued.
Insiders claim the base will initially be staffed by very senior pilots and flight attendants who will flock to the base from Baltimore and Chicago Midway. To secure a place at the new Nashville base, flight attendants made need 30+ years of seniority, according to some insiders with knowledge of the matter.
Southwest Airlines currently has crew bases in Atlanta (ATL), Dallas (DAL), Houston (HOU), Orlando (MCO), Baltimore (BWI), Chicago (MDW), Denver (DEN), Phoenix (PHX), Las Vegas (LAS), Oakland (OAK), and Los Angeles (LAX).
The airline has served Nashville (BNA) since 1986 and now operates as many as 166 departures per day from the city to 57 destinations nonstop. The airport is already home to more than 1,000 Southwest ground employees.
