Southwest introducing Boston service

Big news!

Southwest Airlines Co. is going to start flying nonstop from Philadelphia to Boston. At a dedication this morning of an expansion of the airport's Terminal E, with seven new Southwest gates, the nation's largest low-fare airline said it will begin five daily nonstop round trips to Boston's Logan Airport on June 27.

Tickets go on sale today, with an introductory one-way fare of $59.

The fare sale will be in effect through April 18 and is available only on www.Southwest.com for flights from June 27 through Aug. 13. The $59 fare also applies to Southwest's other Boston-area airports: Providence, R.I, and Manchester, N.H.

Currently, US Airways Group has a lock on the Philadelphia-Boston market, and tickets can cost several hundred dollars.

"We're really excited about this," said Southwest spokesman Paul Flaningan. "This is a route everyone wanted. When we opened Boston seven months ago, flying there from Baltimore and Chicago, this was the one route people in Boston were asking about.

They kept asking: 'When are you going to go to Philadelphia?' 'When are you going to go to Philadelphia?'

"It was one of the routes Boston really wanted. Southwest has been in Philadelphia nearly six years. It is one of the routes we are asked about here in Philadelphia, as well."

To commemorate the new route to Boston, Southwest will have a new Web site dedicated to its Philadelphia travelers.