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More International Flights Coming To Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A lot more international flights will be coming to BWI. This weekend, the airport's dominant airline launched flights to Latin America.

In an exclusive interview, the chairman of Southwest Airlines told Mike Schuh many more are coming.

Last week, Southwest Airlines held a meeting with half of its 3,000 Baltimore-based employees. Their CEO had big news about BWI.

Last week, the state approved $100,000,000 to add two international gates and re-do security at the international terminal. The changes here are, primarily, to accommodate Southwest's big expansion plans.

"We're constantly thinking about what's the next challenge, the next opportunity," said a BWI official.

Southwest is, by far, the airport's biggest customer. In an exclusive interview, its CEO says BWI is one of its most important airports.

"BWI fluctuates between second or third but it's huge," said Gary Kelly.

And it's about to become even more important.

"I think there's a potential to add a significant number of international flights," he said.

For instance, just this weekend, Southwest's first flight to Latin America took off from BWI. Of the 50 cities Southwest is looking at for new flights, 49 are international. The company acknowledges the improvements the state has made and is working to bring even more flights here.

"Well, it's humbling, quite frankly, but it's very gratifying to be wanted. It's very gratifying to be thought of as a great company and I'm very proud of all our people. I think they do a tremendous job but we've been in Baltimore since 1993 and it's been a raging success story for us," he said.

Right now, Southwest accounts for over 70% of the passengers who fly through BWI.

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