Originally Posted by
Drum
You guys cut too far too fast and too deep. Don't make the same mistake with the pilot group.
This thing is going to bounce back much quicker than you thought. You'll have us stuck in concrete shoes as SWA, JB, and a host of other carriers lap up the market share.
SWA has cut the least amount of flying amongst the big 4. Here is where they are at.
The capacity cuts are needed. Southwest is fresh off its first quarterly pre-tax loss in over a decade, reporting a $144 million pre-tax loss during the three months ending in March on Tuesday. It has
cut flying by up to 70% from previously published schedules in April, between 60% and 70% in May and roughly 50% in June.
Flights removed from Southwest schedules include those in “shoulder” periods, or before 7 a.m. and after 8 p.m. local time. In addition, it has
reduced its popular Hawaii service to just two daily flights between Honolulu (HNL) and Oakland (OAK).
Despite the cuts, the airline only anticipates filling about 6% of seats in April, and between 5% and 10% in May. This is far below the more than 86% of seats that Southwest filled in the second quarter of 2019.
“To date, capacity cuts have not been enough,” Cowen analyst Helane Becker on Southwest wrote on April 20. She added they they expected further cuts as demand sat near zero.