Southwest Airlines operates about 4,000 flights a day. A few days ago, they announced that they would be cutting approximately 1,000 flights every day but in just a short amount of time, they have decided to increase this to 1,500 flights. This information came from a memo sent out to employees that was obtained by USA TODAY.
This announcement came shortly after the Southwest CEO Gary Kelly reportedly told employees that the airline is in the “fight of our lives” to keep operations going.
The latest cuts by Southwest brings the total amount of cut capacity down 40%. That is a high amount for the nation’s largest domestic carrier but it is not on par with some other airlines. Other airlines like Delta have had to cut their flights by even more (70%) and there are over 50 Airlines that have had to cut 100% of the flights.
More cancellations are set to happen once Hawaii begins to enforce its new quarantine policy which will require new arrivals to quarantine for 14 days.
The Senate just passed a $2 trillion stimulus package so things might be looking a little bit better for the airlines soon once potential bail out packages are sorted out. Airlines will likely be requesting approximately $50 billion or more in total funds.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.