Southwest to chop service and staffing in Atlanta to slash costs

Southwest Airlines is planning to scale back service to and from Atlanta next 12 months, cutting greater than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions, in response to an organization memo seen by CNBC.

The changes come a day before Southwest’s investor day, when executives will map out the corporate’s plan to chop costs and grow revenue as pressure mounts from activist investor Elliott Investment Management.

Southwest told staff it’s not closing its crew base in Atlanta. As a substitute, it would reduce staffing by as many as 200 flight attendants and as many as 140 pilots, for the April 2025 bid month.

The airline also is not laying the crews off, but they’ll likely need to bid to work from other cities.

Southwest will reduce its Atlanta presence to 11 gates next 12 months from 18, in response to a separate memo from the pilots’ union.

It is going to service 21 cities from Atlanta starting next April, down from 37 in March, the carrier said.

“Although we try every little thing we are able to before making difficult decisions like this one, we simply cannot afford continued losses and must make this variation to assist restore our profitability,” Southwest said in its memo. “This decision on no account reflects our Employees’ performance, and we’re happy with the Hospitality and the efforts they’ve made and can proceed to make with our Customers in ATL.”

The unions that represent Southwest’s pilot and flight attendants railed against the airline for the staffing and repair cuts.

“Southwest Airlines management is failing Employees while impacting Customers. Management continues to make decisions that lack full transparency, sufficient communication with Union leadership, and most alarmingly, an absence of deal with what has made the airline great, the Employees,” said Bill Bernal, the flight attendants’ union president.

A Southwest spokesman confirmed the changes and said the carrier will “proceed to optimize our network to fulfill customer demand, best utilize our fleet, and maximize revenue opportunities.”

The airline had already pulled out of certain airports, a few of which it experimented with throughout the pandemic to deal with more profitable service.

Southwest isn’t only facing changing booking patterns and oversupplied parts of the U.S. market but aircraft delays from Boeing, whose yet-to-be-certified 737 Max 7 airplanes are years behind schedule

The airline’s COO, Andrew Watterson, told staff last week that it would need to make “difficult decisions” to spice up profits.

The reduction in Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport and Delta Air Lines home hub, is the newest development for the airline. In July, Southwest announced it plans to do away with open seating and offer extra legroom on its airplanes, the largest changes in its greater than half-century of flying.

Also on Wednesday, Southwest released an expanded schedule, selling tickets through June 4. Along with the planned cuts in Atlanta, the carrier said it would boost service to and from Nashville, Tennessee. It is going to also start offering overnight flights from Hawaii, starting April 8. Those include service from Honolulu to Las Vegas and Phoenix; Kona, Hawaii, to Las Vegas; and Maui, Hawaii, to Las Vegas and Phoenix.