The weather is getting colder, Election Day is approaching — it’s the perfect time to avoid falling into an abyss of existential dread by planning your next summer vacation. And Southwest Airlines has some good news for travelers who prefer to depart Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The Dallas-based carrier, which handles roughly 70% of BWI’s air traffic, has announced six new nonstop routes between BWI and the West Coast starting in mid-2025. They include flights to and from San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, as well as to three other California airports: Long Beach, San Jose and Ontario, east of Los Angeles.

Starting June 5, flights between BWI and both Portland and Seattle will be daily.

But remember your eye mask and neck pillow — the return flights from all of those cities will be overnight “red-eye” flights. Southwest already operates six other overnight flights into BWI. They are from Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and Phoenix.

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“Every flight in our network is a route,” said Chip Perry, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson, in an email. “If we fly it one way, we fly it an equal frequency the other way. Caveat here is the one daily flight FROM Baltimore to those six airports above is not a redeye flight, but the flights INTO Baltimore — of which there is also one daily from those six airports — are redeyes.”

Southwest now offers service to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, but travelers typically must catch a connecting flight in cities such as Las Vegas or Phoenix.

The new routes are the latest service expansion for the airline that has almost single-handedly fueled BWI’s growth.

Despite a holiday meltdown in 2022 and a difficult negotiation with its pilots union, Southwest continues to be an airline of choice for Baltimore-area residents. It helped BWI set a record last year for international passengers.

“These new flights will foster tourism and business development for our state and region,” said Ricky Smith, the executive director and CEO of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, in a press release. “We are working to enhance the travel product for our customers while creating more opportunities for air service from our airline partners.”