Southwest Airlines said it is pulling out of at least four major airports in the United States and Mexico and cutting around 2,000 jobs after problems with profitability and plane delivery delays from Boeing.
"We have made the difficult decision to close our operations at Bellingham International Airport, Cozumel International Airport, Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Syracuse Hancock International Airport," the company said.
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"The recent news from Boeing regarding further aircraft delivery delays presents significant challenges for both 2024 and 2025," the company said in an earnings report this week. "We now expect to end 2024 with approximately 2,000 fewer Employees as compared with the end of 2023," a statement from the company said.
The airline is the fourth largest in the United States, and carried over 126 million passengers in North American in 2022, according to Statista.
Southwest reported a net loss of $231 million during its first quarter of this year, with a "record first quarter" with operating revenues of $6.3 billion the earnings report said.
""Our first quarter 2024 revenue performance, while shy of our prior aspirations, resulted in record first quarter operating revenues, record first quarter passengers carried, and a solid sequential improvement in nominal unit revenue when compared with seasonal norms," the Dallas, Texas-based company said.
Last year industry publications annouced changes in products for the U.S.-based budget airline including the possible addition of red-eye flights, expected as early as 2025 according to the company's CEO Robert Jordan. Simple Flying reported that the company believes the late night flights could be a good way to use already existing assets to provide more flying hour options for travelers.
The company also famously informed "customers of size" that if their body enchroached "upon any part of the neighboring seat(s)" the would be able to "proactively purchase the needed number of seats prior to travel to ensure the additional" seating is available for their trip.
Southwest Airlines started its operations on June 18, 1971 from Dallas, servicing San Antonio and Houston from Love Field. In 1977 the company went public listing shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LUV, subsequently spreading out its service map to destinations across the U.S. and internationally.
