Travelers in two of America’s most musically rich, flavor-packed cities are about to get a little closer. Southwest Airlines has announced that it will launch new nonstop service between Memphis International Airport (MEM) and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), stitching together the home of the blues and world-famous barbecue with the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World. The route, scheduled to begin operating six days a week on October 1, 2026, adds fresh competitive energy to a corridor already proving its popularity with both leisure and business travelers.
A New Nonstop Bridge Between Music Capitals
The new Southwest service will operate Sunday through Friday, providing Memphis and Austin travelers with a near-daily nonstop connection. According to schedules released by the airline and the airport, flights will depart Memphis at 10:55 a.m. Central Time and arrive in Austin at 12:50 p.m. The return leg will depart Austin at 2:25 p.m. and land back in Memphis at 4:10 p.m., offering a full afternoon and evening on either end of the route.
For Memphis International Airport, this is another sign that its post-hub era evolution is in full stride. Memphis has steadily rebuilt its network with a mix of legacy, low cost, and ultra low cost carriers. The addition of a Memphis to Austin nonstop by Southwest reinforces the city’s growing profile as both a tourism draw in its own right and a convenient jumping-off point for the Mid-South.
For Austin-Bergstrom, the new route is one more stitch in an increasingly dense map of Southwest connections. The carrier is already the dominant airline at AUS and has been steadily adding new destinations and frequencies. Linking Austin with a city that shares its deep musical heritage and rising culinary visibility underscores the airline’s strategy of connecting culturally resonant metros that speak to its leisure-focused customer base.
Competition Heats Up on a Growing Corridor
The Memphis to Austin corridor has already attracted the attention of another major carrier. Delta Air Lines launched its own daily nonstop service between the two cities in May 2025, using 76 seat Embraer 175 jets to offer morning departures from Memphis and evening returns from Austin. That move gave Austin based and Memphis bound travelers a first taste of nonstop convenience on a route that previously required a connection through another hub.
Southwest’s entry into the market in October 2026 signals that demand on the route has matured to the point where two national carriers see room to compete. While Delta leans on its global network and connectivity through Atlanta, Minneapolis, and other hubs, Southwest brings its point to point model, free checked bag policy, and strong brand loyalty among domestic leisure flyers.
For passengers, the arrival of Southwest is poised to bring tangible benefits. Additional daily capacity and a second airline should help stabilize fares, widen time of day options, and create more flexibility for both weekend trips and midweek business travel. The two carriers will also appeal to different segments: Delta loyalists can accumulate and redeem miles within SkyMiles, while frequent Southwest customers can fold the new route seamlessly into their Rapid Rewards strategy.
What the Schedule Means for Travelers
Southwest’s midday departure from Memphis and early afternoon departure from Austin are well timed for travelers looking to maximize productivity or playtime without sacrificing sleep. Departing Memphis late in the morning allows business travelers to start their day at home or at the office before heading to the airport, while leisure travelers can avoid the pre dawn scramble that often accompanies early bank departures.
On arrival into Austin just before 1 p.m., travelers gain nearly a full afternoon to settle into a hotel, head straight to a meeting, or begin exploring the city’s food trucks, live music venues, and outdoor trails. The 2:25 p.m. return from Austin lands back in Memphis just after 4 p.m., early enough for same day return trips, family dinners, or evening events along Beale Street.
The six day per week pattern also offers flexibility for long weekend itineraries. A Thursday or Friday departure from Memphis followed by a Sunday return allows for a three day immersion in Austin’s festivals, nightlife, and Hill Country day trips. Conversely, Austinites can easily fly into Memphis for a Grizzlies game, a pilgrimage to Graceland, or a culinary weekend anchored in classic ribs and hot chicken, with the return flight late enough to avoid that rushed, red eye feel.
Connecting Cultures: Blues, Barbecue, and Live Music
Beyond the hard numbers of departure times and weekly frequencies, the new route is a cultural connector, aligning two cities whose identities are inseparable from music and food. Memphis has long marketed itself as the cradle of the blues and a foundational node in the story of American rock and soul. Beale Street’s clubs, the legacy of Stax and Sun Studios, and the gravitational pull of Elvis Presley’s Graceland draw visitors from around the world.
Austin, for its part, has firmly established itself as a modern music city, underlined by festivals such as Austin City Limits Music Festival and South by Southwest. Live music spills out of clubs in neighborhoods from the Red River Cultural District to South Congress, and the city’s creative scene runs parallel to a booming tech sector and a surging population.
Southwest’s Memphis to Austin nonstop flight effectively ties these two musical narratives into a single, convenient journey. Touring musicians gain an easier path for routing shows between the Mid-South and Central Texas. Fans can build itineraries that pair a weekend of Memphis blues and barbecue with a few days of Austin indie bands and Tex Mex. Cultural organizations, festival planners, and civic promoters in both cities suddenly have a far more efficient way to collaborate and cross pollinate.
Economic Ripples for Memphis and Austin
New air service is as much an economic story as it is a travel tale. Both Memphis and Austin stand to gain from the increased connectivity, particularly as companies look to deepen ties in fast growing Southern and Sun Belt markets. Austin’s rise as a tech and innovation hub has attracted corporate relocations and expansions, while Memphis continues to leverage its strengths in logistics, health care, and advanced manufacturing.
For Memphis based businesses, the nonstop to Austin opens doorways to Central Texas clients, investors, and conferences without the downtime and uncertainty of connecting flights. For Austin firms, Memphis presents opportunities in distribution, supply chain optimization, and regional market reach. Shorter, more reliable travel encourages more frequent face to face meetings, which in turn can foster new partnerships and investments.
Tourism agencies and convention bureaus in both cities are also likely to capitalize on the link. Joint marketing campaigns, targeted packages for music and food enthusiasts, and bundled event promotions become more practical when a nonstop flight makes the journey nearly as simple as a road trip. The regular cadence of flights Sunday through Friday supports both long lead group bookings and quick, spontaneous getaways.
Southwest’s Bigger Bet on Austin
Southwest’s decision to launch Memphis to Austin service fits into a broader pattern of growth in Central Texas. In recent years, the airline has dramatically expanded its Austin schedule, adding new domestic routes, boosting seasonal destinations, and preparing to open a full pilot and flight attendant crew base at AUS. The carrier has signaled that Austin will play an increasingly central role in its network and operations, with more than 130 peak day departures and dozens of nonstop destinations radiating from the airport.
By layering in additional nonstop routes to cities like Cincinnati, Fort Myers, Palm Springs, and Steamboat Springs alongside Memphis, Southwest is turning Austin into one of its most versatile and leisure friendly gateways. The Memphis link adds a distinctly cultural and culinary dimension to that strategy, complementing beach, ski, and outdoor oriented destinations with a city rooted in American music history.
From a network planning perspective, Memphis also sits at an advantageous geographic crossroads. The city provides Southwest’s Austin passengers with closer access to parts of the Mid-South and lower Mississippi Valley, while Austin offers Memphis travelers an easy springboard into the rest of Texas and the Southwest. That two way potential is critical in Southwest’s point to point model, which prizes O and D traffic over complex hub and spoke flows.
What Travelers Should Expect Onboard and On the Ground
As with its other domestic routes, Southwest is expected to operate the Memphis to Austin service using its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft. Travelers can anticipate the familiar all economy cabin configuration, open seating policy, and two free checked bags that distinguish the airline from many of its competitors. Lighthearted in flight service, free onboard entertainment via personal devices, and no change fees remain central to the Southwest experience.
On the ground in Memphis, the new flight adds to a gradually diversifying menu of nonstop destinations. For local travelers who have become accustomed to connecting through larger hubs, having an additional point to point option on a major leisure and business route may help shift habits back toward using Memphis as a true origin city, rather than a mere spoke. At Austin-Bergstrom, the Memphis flight will join a busy parade of Southwest departures, but its timing in the midday bank should help avoid some of the peak crowding associated with early morning and late evening flows.
Travelers with flexible schedules may want to build in a margin of time to explore each airport’s evolving amenities. Memphis International has invested in its modernized concourse, dining options, and passenger experience upgrades, while Austin-Bergstrom has become known for live music performances in the terminal and a lineup of local food and beverage outlets that mirror the city’s wider culinary scene.
Planning Ahead for 2026 and Beyond
Although the first Southwest Memphis to Austin flight will not depart until October 1, 2026, the announcement gives travelers, event organizers, and businesses ample time to plan ahead. Large festivals, regional conferences, and multi city tours that touch both destinations can now be scheduled with the confidence that a reliable, six day a week nonstop link will be in place.
For individual travelers, early awareness of the new route makes it easier to pencil in future trips that pair the charms of both cities. A spring pilgrimage to Memphis for a music festival, followed by an autumn weekend in Austin for college football and barbecue, becomes a straightforward proposition. Families with ties in both metro areas can look ahead to more frequent, less stressful visits that minimize layovers and weather related disruptions.
As 2026 approaches, schedule fine tuning, promotional fares, and potential adjustments to frequencies may emerge, but the core story is clear. With its new Memphis to Austin nonstop service, Southwest Airlines is betting that the shared appeal of blues, brisket, tech, and twang will keep planes full in both directions. For travelers, it is an invitation to bridge two of America’s most distinctive cultural landscapes with a single boarding pass, letting the soundtrack shift from Beale Street guitar riffs to Austin guitar jams in just a couple of hours.