Skift Take
Southwest had been among the more bullish U.S. airlines. But this fall, it will shrink considerably. It probably has no other choice.
During some of the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic in May, Southwest Airlines bet on a quick recovery, with executives saying the carrier might resume its full schedule as soon as December, so it could win share at the expense of competitors. Now, though, Southwest is pulling back.
A couple of weeks after the airline's president told investors August demand was "much softer than we anticipated," and promised changes to future capacity, Southwest has made hefty cancelations to its September schedule. Southwest now will fly an average of 2,680 flights per day between September 6 and October 7, about 26 percent fewer than it had planned the last time it updated its schedule.
"In the context of second quarter results, we said that a ‘re-evaluation’ was under way for August, September, and fourth quarter due to weakness," Brad Hawkins, a Southwest spokesman, said in a