and anyone that welcomed Elliot Management is an idiot.. Wall Street is not your friend

 

yeah, it’s Elliot’s fault! 🤦‍♂️

 

Didn't realize Elliott was making operational descsions...makes you wonder why they need to oust the CEO and board if they are already running the show...

Seriouly thou...give up gates in Atlanta? We're never going to get those gates back. We can't complete in ATL due to our product and lack of frequency. Why not try and fix some of these things first?

 

The Blue Horseshoe loves SWA.

 

Fixing it costs more money which wouldn’t drive up the stock price. That’s why Elliott is around.

 

Southwest Airlines is planning to reduce service to and from Atlanta next year, cutting more than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions, according to a company memo seen by CNBC.

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

Southwest told staff it isn’t closing its crew base in Atlanta. Instead, it will reduce staffing by as many as 200 flight attendants and as many as 140 pilots, for the April 2025 bid month.

Southwest also isn’t laying the crews off, but they will likely have to bid to work from other cities.

Southwest will reduce its Atlanta presence to 11 gates next year from 18, according to a separate memo from the pilots’ union.

“Although we try everything we can before making difficult decisions like this one, we simply cannot afford continued losses and must make this change to help restore our profitability,” Southwest said in its memo. “This decision in no way reflects our Employees’ performance, and we’re proud of the Hospitality and the efforts they have made and will continue to make with our Customers in ATL.”

Also on Wednesday, Southwest released an expanded schedule, selling tickets through June 4. In addition to the planned cuts in Atlanta, the carrier plans to boost service to and from Nashville, Tennessee. It will also start offering overnight flights from Hawaii, beginning 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.

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

Southwest had already pulled out of certain airports, some of which it experimented with during the pandemic to focus on more profitable service.

Southwest is not 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 told staff last week that it will have to make “difficult decisions” to boost profits.

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

 

Adding red eyes from Hawaii...

 

We didn't start losing money in ATL three months ago. Reading the tea leaves, I think this was always part of the BNA plan.

 

I wouldn't say that. GK said ATL took a while to turn it from hub and spoke to almost p2p operation. At it's peek SWA carried more O&D then Airtran ever did. Which is what they were trying to do. Yields were within the "system average", his words. Fast forward to 2024, not so much. ATL is the most dominate hub of any airline in the world. It is very hard to crack. In a town hall meeting many moons ago the former CEO of Airtran was asked to comment about Delta's bankruptcy. "I'm very worried". I'm paraphrasing here, "when they come out, they will be a much leaner airline, better financially and will be able to compete". Delta exited bankruptcy in 2008. One year later SWA announced it would acquire Airtran.

 

Phase 1 - Buy airline.
Phase 2 - Get rid of it's airplanes and routes.
Phase 3 - Get rid of it's gates and bases.
Phase 4 - ???
Phase 5 - profits!