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:
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.
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.
