Albuquerque Journal

Southwest To Cut 196 Flights
Journal and Wire Report

Southwest Airlines Co., which had resisted the kinds of capacity cuts being made by other carriers, will eliminate 196 flights as of Jan. 11 as it too struggles with high fuel costs and a weakening economy.
       
That is nearly 6 percent of the airline's daily schedule of close to 3,400 flights.
       
Five out of 65 daily departures will be cut at the Albuquerque International Sunport, where Southwest handles about half of all commercial traffic, spokeswoman Olga Romero told the Journal Tuesday.
       
The nine daily flights to Dallas will be reduced by one; two flights to Kansas City will go down to one; seven flights to Las Vegas down to six; three to San Diego down to two; and two flights to Seattle down to one, she said.
      
 “This is temporary,” she said, adding that the airline hopes to restore many of the cuts nationwide after the slower late-winter travel season ends.
       
Passenger traffic at the Sunport is actually up about 3 percent this year through July, spokesman Dan Jiron said.
       
And it is possible that passenger numbers will hold or grow even with fewer flights if the number of passengers per flight increases, which is what Southwest and other airlines are trying to do, he said.
       
Southwest has been better insulated than its rivals from high jet fuel prices because it bought options to get most of its fuel at below-market prices. Still, the airline's fuel bill has been rising, eating into margins at the most consistently profitable U.S. carrier.
       
Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Kelly said in June that the Dallas-based low-cost carrier hoped to grow modestly in 2009. But he tempered that outlook by saying the expansion plans could be scrapped if oil prices remain high or the economy weakens.
       
At the time, Kelly said Southwest still planned to add 14 new planes next year. Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said Tuesday that new planes will be added while older aircraft are retired, keeping the airline's fleet “relatively flat.” Southwest has about 530 jets, all Boeing 737s.
       
Southwest is the only major U.S. carrier to earn a profit in the first half of the year — it has not lost money in a quarter since 1991.
       
Like other carriers, Southwest has been raising fares to offset rising fuel prices, and Kelly has said more increases are likely.
      
 Southwest serves more than 60 U.S. airports and is not leaving any of them under the new schedule. But it is ending some nonstop service, such as that between Nashville, Tenn., and Oakland, Calif. The carrier is mainly reducing the frequency of flights on routes across its network.