Southwest’s first red-eye flights are coming, but you’ll have to wait

Southwest Airlines is preparing to launch overnight flights for the first time in its history. After hinting at the change last year, the Dallas-based carrier plans to add overnight flights from Las Vegas and Hawaii, CCO Ryan Green said at an air travel conference Wednesday. The airline still has a few technical and labor details to work out before the flights can begin, but it hopes to get them in the air in about two years, Green said. Green added that he sees an opportunity for about 50 red-eye flights a day at Southwest. Red eyes, so called for the appearance of travelers’ eyes after missing a night of sleep, are ubiquitous at most major airlines. Travelers book them for what are often cheaper fares than daytime flights. For travelers from the West Coast, they also offer the advantage of leaving after work and arriving on the East Coast the next day in time for a breakfast meeting. And airlines like overnight flights because they can generate more revenue from an airplane that would otherwise sit idle at an airport until the next morning. Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport boasted no fewer than 26 overnight flights departing after 9 p.m. on almost every US airline on a random Thursday in March, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium Diio shows. These flights, which are typically over four hours, connect Sin City to cities such as Atlanta, Boston, New York and DC.<br/>