{"id":86054,"date":"2025-12-12T22:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/86054\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T22:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:16:12","slug":"southwest-airlines-will-bring-2000-new-jobs-to-austin-as-city-works-to-expand-crowded-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/86054\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Airlines will bring 2,000 new jobs to Austin as city works to expand crowded airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southwest Airlines is building a new crew base for pilots and flight attendants that will bring 2,000 new jobs to Austin as part of an economic development agreement struck between the company, the city and the state, the company announced at a Friday news conference alongside Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new base, located at Austin Bergstrom International Airport, will open in March and initially hold roughly 1,000 employees, according to a news release by Southwest, one of the state\u2019s largest employers. By mid-2027, the base will expand to reach its expected size of 2,000 employees, who will be paid an average salary of $180,000, according to the news release. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve seen Southwest grow, the Texas economy has grown,\u201d Abbott said at the news conference. \u201cThen, when Southwest recently decided they wanted to achieve another expansion that will lead to 2,000 more employees \u2026 we knew that we wanted that project to be located in Texas and located right here in Austin.\u201d <\/p>\n

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan credited a package of economic incentives from the state and the city for bringing the expansion to Austin. <\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office awarded the company a $14 million grant from the Texas Enterprise fund, along with a $375,000 bonus for reserving some of the new jobs for veterans, Abbott said. The enterprise fund is administered through the governor\u2019s office and is intended to give \u201cdeal closing\u201d grants to companies that are considering a new project in Texas as well as other states, according to the governor\u2019s office<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe collaboration between the city, the state and Southwest to get to this agreement sends \u2026 an important message about what we can do together to benefit the people of this city and this state,\u201d Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said. <\/p>\n

The Friday announcement came a day after the Austin City Council unanimously approved an incentive package for Southwest worth up to $5.5 million over five years. Southwest will receive $2,750 from the city for every Austin-based hire it makes, as long as the employee lives within city limits, according to city documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis economic partnership made this decision easy,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n

The crew base\u2019s construction comes as Austin works to expand its airport, which has struggled in recent years with crowded terminals and long security lines as the city around it continues to boom. A new concourse is being constructed and is expected to open by 2030 at the earliest, part of a $4 billion expansion<\/a>, according to the city. <\/p>\n

The concourse will add as many as 40 new gates to the airport over time, more than doubling its current number of 34. <\/p>\n

Southwest currently operates roughly 130 daily departures from the airport, a number that could balloon to \u201cwell over\u201d 200 per day once the expansion is completed, Jordan said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southwest Airlines is building a new crew base for pilots and flight attendants that will bring 2,000 new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,918,392,287,1564,293,840],"class_list":{"0":"post-86054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-greg-abbott","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-state-government","15":"tag-texas-legislature","16":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86054","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=86054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}