Southwest has begun publishing a revised schedule covering the period from June 6 to June 27, in which it envisages operating just over half of planned flights.
The US carrier said that the cuts will reduce flight activity “almost uniformly across the airline by nearly 50 per cent, to approximately 2,000 flights a day”.
Southwest said that the cuts “proactively address significantly lower passenger demand, operational disruptions, and the ongoing suspension of our international service”.
It stressed that demand remained “fluid”, and it would continue to evaluate further reductions, but said that “by making a published change to our planned flight activity, we’re giving our Customers more time with any changes that affect them”.
This week fellow US carrier Jetblue announced plans to consolidate services at Boston, LA, New York, San Francisco and Washington until June 10.
Southwest said that while “we are maintaining passenger service to every city we serve”… “some journeys that had been nonstop might now require a same-plane stop or a connection”.
The airline said that it would not be publishing city or market-specific information, but affected customers would receive updates, and would be offered “additional flexibility within our existing policies for flight changes in the COVID-19 environment”.
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