International travelers, get your passports ready.
The Colorado Springs Airport on Wednesday announced nonstop seasonal Saturday service to Cancun, Mexico, through Southwest Airlines.
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The weekly service is scheduled to begin June 7 and will be the first scheduled international route the airport will serve. The flights are slated to run through the summer.
Airport and regional officials lauded the move as a new chapter for the airport during a morning news conference.
"This is just the beginning, so let's make this successful," said Greg Phillips, the city's director of aviation.
The historic move will expand Colorado Springs' reach and connect the community to the world, Mayor Yemi Mobolade said in a news release.
He told reporters Wednesday the new service is expected to boost tourism and the local economy.
"This launch is a win-win for our city," Mobolade said.
The Cancun flights will utilize the airport's new Federal Inspection Services Facility (FIS). Construction of the 14,000-square-foot FIS began this year in anticipation that an airline would provide international service. An FIS is an arrivals facility designed to enhance security screening operations; all international flights must go through an FIS, where passengers undergo U.S. Customs and Border Protection screening before entering the United States.
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The facility was originally built in the 1990s as a terminal for the now-defunct low-fare carrier Western Pacific Airlines but was never used, Phillips said in an interview after the press conference. The airline operated a hub from the Colorado Springs Airport before it moved to Denver and later filed for bankruptcy.
Construction of the FIS cost roughly $7.8 million, he said. It is largely paid for by a $6.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration under an airport infrastructure grants program. The airport used reserve money to fund design of the project, Phillips said. No local tax dollars funded the project.
The FIS is expected to be complete in December.
Airport spokeswoman Dana Schield said Wednesday there are no immediate plans to change the name of the airport to indicate international service, but such a change is a possibility in the future, as are other international routes, she said.
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"With the FIS being built, we have the ability to support international service from any carrier," Schield said.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines began serving the Springs in 2021 and quickly became the airport's largest carrier in the first month of service.
Including the new service to Cancun, Southwest will now serve eight destinations nonstop in the summer with up to 15 daily departures, the airline's Senior Manager of Network Planning Becky Kotara said.
Southwest flies nonstop year-round from the Springs to Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas and Phoenix. It also offers seasonal flights to San Diego and San Antonio, Texas, from mid-November through early January.
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