{"id":84517,"date":"2025-12-11T21:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/84517\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T21:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:48:07","slug":"austin-greenlights-5-5m-deal-to-bring-2000-southwest-airlines-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/84517\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin greenlights $5.5M deal to bring 2,000 Southwest Airlines jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin has officially signed off on an incentive package worth up to $5.5 million to support a major new expansion by Southwest Airlines<\/a>, the latest move cementing the carrier\u2019s growing presence<\/a> in one of its fastest-rising markets.<\/p>\n

The City Council on Thursday unanimously authorized negotiation and execution of the agreement, which is expected to help Southwest\u00a0add as many as 2,000 jobs in Austin over the next five years. City officials would not say what types of positions the Dallas-based carrier plans to bring, but city documents show the roles would carry an average salary of $180,000.<\/p>\n

Stacy Schmitt, senior vice president of communications for Opportunity Austin, a local nonprofit economic development organization, said the city and Southwest continue to develop the airline\u2019s plans locally but that preliminary conversations include building a state-of-the-art training facility for pilots and flight attendants and establishing a much more substantial crew base, which could help the carrier develop more nonstop routes to and from the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely a great thing because it is a great community partnership with Southwest Airlines,\u201d said\u00a0Schmitt, whose group is helping coordinate the effort. \u201cThere is this real local piece as far as job creation and financial investment. From a regional aspect, it is a great thing for our airport, which serves the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Kirk Watson, Gov. Greg Abbott and Southwest CEO Bob Jordan are scheduled to unveil more Friday morning at an airport news conference.<\/p>\n

Under the approved incentiveframework, Southwest would receive $2,750 per Austin-based hire, provided those employees live within city limits and the airline meets job-creation and performance requirements. Southwest would also return 10% of its award to the city\u2019s Childcare Assistance Reserve Fund.<\/p>\n

In all, the\u00a0expansion is projected to\u00a0generate $19.8 million in\u00a0new local tax revenue\u00a0\u2014 $11.85 million of that going directly to the city while creating another 5,100 indirect new jobs in construction, hospitality, food service and other sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis agreement would bring thousands of good-paying union\u00a0jobs that will help pay the bills and support our families,\u201d Council Member Vanessa\u00a0Fuentes, whose district includes the airport, said Thursday. \u201cWe know that when people have stable work, our whole community benefits from local businesses to neighborhood stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southwest officials have previously said the airline hopes to\u00a0expand its footprint in Austin as the airport expands<\/a>, with a second concourse slated to open in the early 2030s.\u00a0The airline is already the dominant carrier at Austin-Bergstrom\u00a0carrying more than 40% of the airport\u2019s traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthwest appreciates the leadership of Mayor Kirk Watson and the Austin City Council and we look forward to working with them as we make Austin and Central Texas an even bigger part of Southwest\u2019s future,\u201d Southwest said in a statement ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin has officially signed off on an incentive package worth up to $5.5 million to support a major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,1501,134,133,17161,910,251,5454,27],"class_list":["post-84517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-city-council","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-bergstrom-international-airport-abia","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-saen_share","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}