Southwest Airlines plans to cut back flights to and from Atlanta next 12 months, cutting greater than 300 pilot and flight attendant jobs, in keeping with an organization memo seen by CNBC.
The changes come a day before Southwest's investor day, when executives will outline the corporate's plans to chop costs and increase revenue amid increasing pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management.
Southwest told employees that it might not close its crew base in Atlanta. Instead, it might lay off as much as 200 flight attendants and as much as 140 pilots for the applying month of April 2025.
While the airline shouldn’t be shedding employees, they are going to likely need to apply for job opportunities in other cities.
According to a separate memo from the pilots' union, Southwest will reduce its presence in Atlanta from 18 to 11 gates next 12 months.
Starting in April next 12 months, 21 cities will probably be served from Atlanta, in comparison with 37 in March, the airline said.
“While we try everything we can before making difficult decisions like this, we simply cannot afford continued losses and must make this change to restore our profitability,” Southwest said in its memo. “This decision in no way reflects on the performance of our employees and we are proud of the hospitality and efforts they have and will continue to provide for our customers in ATL.”
Unions representing Southwest pilots and flight attendants have sharply criticized the airline for cutting staff and services.
“Southwest Airlines management is failing its employees and impacting customers. Management continues to make decisions that lack complete transparency, lack adequate communication with union leadership and, most alarmingly, lack the one thing that made the airline great: its employees,” said Bill Bernal, president of the flight attendants union.
A Southwest spokesperson confirmed the changes and said the airline will “continue to optimize its network to meet customer demand, optimize its fleet utilization and maximize revenue opportunities.”
The airline had already withdrawn from certain airports, a few of which it had experimented with throughout the pandemic, to deal with more profitable services.
Southwest shouldn’t be only faced with changing booking patterns and oversupply in parts of the US market, but in addition with delays of aircraft from Boeingwhose not yet certified 737 Max 7 aircraft are years behind schedule
The airline's COO, Andrew Watterson, told staff last week that “difficult decisions” needed to be made to extend profits.
The reduction in Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport and Delta Air Lines The home base is the airline's latest development. In July, Southwest announced it might abandon open seating on its planes and introduce more legroom – the largest changes within the airline's greater than 50-year history.
Also on Wednesday, Southwest released an expanded schedule and is selling tickets through June 4. In addition to the planned cuts in Atlanta, the airline announced it might expand service to and from Nashville, Tennessee. It may even offer overnight flights from Hawaii starting April 8. This includes service from Honolulu to Las Vegas and Phoenix, from Kona, Hawaii, to Las Vegas and from Maui, Hawaii, to Las Vegas and Phoenix.
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