Airline will cut six percent of its flights

While other major airlines are planning to slash their fall and winter flight schedules by an average of about 10 to 13 percent industrywide, Southwest Airlines had been maintaining that it would preserve its schedules pretty much as they are – although it had scaled back 2009 plans to zero growth. But now, according to wire reports and the Dallas Morning News, Southwest says that when its winter schedule takes effect on January 11, the airline will reduce its systemwide capacity by 190 flights a day, or about fie to six percent of its total schedule. The reports quote airline officials as saying that some of the flights will be revived in March. They noted that with no new aircraft due to join the fleet this winter, Southwest wants to have enough planes available to fill in any equipment shortages that might be caused by severe weather. According to the reports, the only Southwest routes to be dropped are Phoenix-Birmingham, Ala.; Nashville-Oakland and Nashville-Seattle, Other reductions will come from reducing the number of daily frequencies on existing routes. For example, the reports said Southwest’s Chicago Midway operation will be the most affected, losing 22 daily departures to 20 cities; Baltimore will lose 13 flights a day, Las Vegas 12, and Phoenix and Nashville 10 each. Meanwhile, Southwest has marked the first anniversary of its return to San Francisco International Airport by noting that it has grown at SFO from 18 daily flights to three cities a year ago, to today’s schedule of 37 flights a day to five destinations (Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego), with SFO-Denver service beginning September 2. The carrier said the San Francisco example proves that the so-called “Southwest Effect” is still working – i.e., that when Southwest enters a market, fares go down all around and traffic increases. It said that between SFO and Chicago, for instance, average fares on all carriers to both Midway (where Southwest flies) and O’Hare dropped by 14 percent when Southwest entered the market, and the number of passengers between the two cities grew by 31 percent.