Nashville has grown extremely quickly, with passengers more than doubling since 2010. It ended 2019 with more than 18 million, with coronavirus only temporarily slowing it down. Nashville has added 41 routes since 2019, especially with Allegiant and Southwest, with more to come.
Nashville is named after Francis Nash, a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Founded in 1779, the Tennessee city is one of the most famous centers in the US for music, helping to drive tourism, while its economy has grown very rapidly in the past few years. It’s not much of a surprise that Nashville International Airport’s air traffic has therefore grown extremely quickly too.
18 million passengers in 2019
Nashville’s passenger volume increased by 114% between 2010 and 2019, with 10 million passengers added. It ended 2019 with over 18 million, up by a very strong 14% over 2018, which was up by 13% over 2017. Motivated by this, the airport launched an expansion program in 2018, with concourse D opening in 2020.
Between 2017 and 2019, Southwest added over 2.3 million seats (+24%), although many others expanded strongly too. These include:
- Delta with over 568,000 more seats (+23%)
- United 512,000 (+39%)
- American 455,000 (+16%)
- Alaska 161,000 (+129%)
- Frontier 134,000 (+44%)
Allegiant and Sun Country both entered the market in 2018, and between them had over half-a-million seats in the following year. And British Airways began London.
Nashville’s route map grew 36% in two years
Nashville’s network grew from 56 to 76 routes between 2017 and 2019. A standout addition was Heathrow, which British Airways launched in May 2018 using Boeing 787-8s, although -9s were also utilized. BA is due to resume Nashville on a five-weekly basis from July 1st, before reducing to four-weekly in the winter.
Routes up by 18 over 2019
While 2020 was obviously catastrophic for Nashville, as it was for all airports, it will rebound strongly, helped by its leisure appeal. Indeed, it already is. Some 41 routes have been added since 2019, particularly from Allegiant (+17) and Southwest (+13), together with JetBlue (three), Spirit (three), and American (two). Key additions include Chicago O’Hare and Miami with Southwest, JFK with JetBlue, and Los Angeles with Spirit.
Still to begin this year include:
- Albany: Allegiant; twice-weekly from May 14th
- Austin: American Eagle; seven-weekly from May 6th
- Boise: Allegiant; twice-weekly from May 28th
- Destin Fort Walton Beach: Southwest; 21-weekly (!) from May 6th
- Greensboro: Allegiant; twice-weekly from June 3rd
- Houston International: Southwest; 13-weekly from April 12th
- Key West: Allegiant; twice-weekly from June 2nd
- McAllen: Allegiant; twice-weekly from May 27th
- Myrtle Beach: Southwest; 13-weekly from May 23rd
- New York La Guardia: Spirit; seven-weekly from May 5th
- Portsmouth: Allegiant; twice-weekly from May 27th
Nashville’s 41 additions were offset by 23 cuts, notably by Sun Country (eight), meaning 2021 has 94 routes scheduled, a net increase of 18 over 2019.
Top airlines
Southwest, whose reservations now extend to November, has over four in ten seats at Nashville this summer, analyzing OAG data shows. Indeed, in March, Simple Flying found that Nashville was Southwest’s ninth-largest airport. However, the carrier’s capacity has reduced significantly versus summer 2019, closing the gap with American, aided by American adding two routes (Austin and Phoenix) and increasing capacity on multiple existing routes, especially Dallas.
It is Allegiant and Spirit that have grown the most on a percentage and actual basis. Allegiant has added 277,650 seats and Spirit 442,000. Spirit added only Nashville in October 2019, just before the winter season started, so the extraordinary-looking percentage growth. This summer, it has seven routes from the airport, led by Orlando, although still less than 4% of Nashville’s seats.
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