When checking out an airline, a route map is the first thing I look for, it gives me a quick snapshot of what a particular airline is like. Good to see the route map back at Southwest! Too much going on for one page in a magazine.Īll the overseas airlines have great route maps in their inflight magazines. I think if American tried to post a route map they'd run into the same problem, especially on the East Coast.ĭelta still posts excellent route maps in Sky magazine, although as they've turned more and more flying over to Delta Connection, the mainline route map is looking more and more pathetic (the DFW hub only has about twenty mainline routes left - it looks like a focus city on the map!)ĭelta, Northwest and Continental have all started showing each other's routes on their respective maps, and it's become a mess. For instance, US Airways has a route map in its Attache inflight magazine, but their East Coast routes are so dense that you can really follow any of the lines. I like the actual route maps too, but in some cases it just becomes too complicated. Southwest's Spirit magazine also used to show the routes, but now just has a map with each city labeled on it. Now, only the *new* routes are shown on the timetable map. This stopped a few years ago when the route network became so dense and complicated that it was too hard to read. Southwest used to display a route map on the back of their timetables.

Southwest airlines interactive map