Ribbon cutting held for BNA’s new Concourse D before July 8 opening
Officials celebrated the grand opening of Nashville Airport’s new Concourse D, part of BNA’s New Horizon expansion, set to open July 8.
Nashville International Airport landed nonstops to two of its most in-demand destinations in the United States on Feb. 12. BNA keeps adding to its list of nonstop destinations, reaching record passenger numbers and signaling continued growth.
Southwest Airlines announced three new routes to BNA as part of its 2026 schedule. Those include a year-round flight to Reno-Tahoe International Airport that will be available four times a week, seasonal service to El Paso International Airport four times a week and five times weekly flights to Manchester-Boston International Airport.
Nashville airport officials have been working to recruit nonstops to Reno, Nevada, and El Paso, Texas, for at least the last three years. Back in 2023, airport president and CEO Doug Kreulen told The Tennessean that both cities were in high demand for Nashville travelers.
Airport leadership tracks the most popular locations where people travel from BNA and uses that data to entice new airlines with ready customers. This includes people who have layovers and connecting flights to get to their ultimate destination.
In 2023, Reno and El Paso ranked among BNA’s top five most-wanted destinations, with a respective 37,000 and 39,000 BNA passengers traveling to each city annually. They ranked behind Buffalo, New York; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and West Palm Beach, Florida. Southwest already added nonstop flights to those three destinations in recent years.
By the end of 2026, Southwest will service all five of BNA’s most-desired domestic destinations.
Southwest to increase California service in fall 2026
The Dallas-based airline also plans to increase the frequency of service between Nashville and Burbank, California, later this year.
While the Nashville airport has invested $4.5 billion in expanding and renovating its existing terminal, Hollywood-Burbank took a different approach. The Burbank airport authority decided to build a brand new, $1.2 billion replacement terminal from the ground up. Once that opens to the public in October, Southwest officials said they will add more flights between Burbank and Nashville.
Nashville moves up in Southwest ranks
Once the new flights launch, airlines officials said Nashville will officially become one of Southwest’s top five largest operations, behind cities like Chicago and Denver.
Through the end of the year, Southwest will set its record for Sunday trips in and out of BNA with 215 trips, a 25% year-over-year increase.
Southwest’s Nashville growth is fulfilling a promise airline officials made to BNA leaders as the new Concourse D was designed: If BNA provides more gates, Southwest will add more flights.
Southwest moved into a brand new, $292 million concourse at BNA in 2020, and five years later, a $247 million extension opened with five additional gates.
“These gates we have in Nashville will be fully utilized from almost day one, and then we’re waiting for the next phase of expansion where we can get more gates in here,” Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson said in 2025. “What we like about Nashville is that it’s a combination of tourism traffic, business traffic and of course the community traveling. Those three things are what drive the need for air service.”
Hadley Hitson covers business news for The Tennessean. She can be reached at [email protected]. To support her work, subscribe to The Tennessean.
link