Back in September, Southwest Airlines announced that they’ve be gutting their schedule in Atlanta – drawing back further on the hub they acquired when they bought AirTran. That was one element of their cost-cutting plan, that was presented along with new revenue opportunities, in response to an activist investor that has secured 5 board seats and pushed out the airline’s Chairman and retired CEO Gary Kelly.
Fewer flights means less of a need for pilots, and Southwest has now shared internally with employees how many pilot positions they’ll be shedding across various bases. Aviation watchdog JonNYC shares the details:
WN trimming pilots
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Looking at their plans for the full system, it turns out that they are cutting Denver pilots by even more than Atlanta. Atlanta will lose 115 pilots, and Denver will lose 155. That’s surprising, and suggests that Denver is doing poorly for Southwest. Competitor United’s hub at Denver is certainly the dominant one in the region.
Interesting hub comparisons.
Shows how much larger UA DEN hub is vs other Mountain West hubs.With new gates and new aircraft deliveries in 2025, UA in DEN will grow another 10% over 2024. pic.twitter.com/XBlF9ir9u9
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 21, 2025
Unsurprisingly, Delta and United hired pilots most aggressively in 2024.
- Alaska stopped hiring in March 2024.
- Frontier slowed over the summer, but moved towards growth in their operation to spread costs out across more seats and began to hire pilots aggressively at the end of the year.
- JetBlue, facing its own activist investor in Carl Icahn and cutting routes and cities, stopped hiring pilots back in June.
- Spirit Airlines, which is in bankruptcy, didn’t hire in 2024.
Southwest Airlines reducing pilot headcount in Denver and Atlanta is about cutting costs. The airline is even cancelling employee rallies, events held since the mid-1980’s under Herb Kelleher. It’s further notable that they’re also reducing first officer numbers in Dallas, where they’re headquartered.
They will grow elsewhere. Some of the change in where they need pilots has to do with the introduction of redeye flights. There will be fewer planes remaining overnight, and taking to the air instead. Baltimore, for instance, will ultimately see the number of pilots based there grow as planes terminate there, and pilots from the Baltimore base are needed the next day.
Long-term, though, this is about reducing expenses and future growth in ways that may free up cashflow now, which (combined with a relatively unencumbered balance sheet) should allow them to goose the stock for their activist but will leave the carrier less differentiated in the marketplace and less of what made them the most consistently profitable airline in the past.
Update: Southwest Airlines adds,
The modest reductions to our Crew bases in Atlanta and Denver are part of our previously announced strategy to efficiently maximize the revenue-generating potential of our fleet and accommodate Customer demand. Employees will transfer to other bases and no reductions in force have occurred.
Looks like pilots aren’t being furloughed but may have their base changed. But I think the heavy growth days of airlines is over for awhile.
WN is not going to be here with us in the next five years or so. It’s really very sad. The airline is going to hell right before our very eyes
Hey Gary, you’ve been pretty quick to write about any time a flight attendant is photographed with a Palestine pin. Any thoughts on the CEO of the parent company of United’s wifi partner doing multiple seig hiels at a political event yesterday?
I can jonnyc is back to posting confidential info he shouldn’t have on a platform that caters to transgender ped0philes.
Company you keep.
@Sco – If you watch more than the seven second clip, it looks like Musk is grabbing his heart and throwing it out to the crowd. The guy has said some dumb things (like in the fall when he agreed with a tweet that Jews hate white people), but he also wears a pendant given to him by a family of one of the Hamas hostages, that he says he won’t take off until they’re all returned home. So, no, I don’t think there’s much of a case that he was giving a Nazi salute.
Southwest is clearly scaling back and it may be the next major airline likely to reorganize (Spirit, Silver, etc.).
Perhaps, this is a larger indicator that the overall domestic US economy is objectively in trouble. After all, just a little uptick on inflation and the markets could tank. Sorry, what I meant to say for those that support the regime is that everything is ‘great’ again and nothing bad will ever happen since Dear Leader will fix it all. Praise be!
It’s going to be tough for ATL travelers to find competitive fares now without Southwest. They have effectively priced themselves out of many markets by price-matching Delta, so until they bring down fares, they’re going to continue to lose business, particularly to destinations already served by NK/F9, who have a formidable offering out of ATL.
If you look closely, the RIF in Atlanta closely matches WN’s need for pilots in BNA. If WN wants to keep its commuting crews and WN frequent flyers, it would be wise to add a couple of more sections from ATL to BNA.
@Sco
Why do you HATE successful and wealthy African Americans?…….see two can play this game.
Buckle up cupcake, the next four years are going to be rough for you.