Southwest Airlines, the No. 2 carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, plans to reduce staff and service in Atlanta next year, CNBC reported Wednesday, citing an internal memo.
Dallas-based Southwest is under increasing shareholder pressure to improve performance and is scheduled to hold a special meeting with investors on Thursday. The low-cost carrier plans to eliminate more than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions but not eliminate its Atlanta crew base, CNBC reported.
“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,” CNBC quoted from the Southwest 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 (Atlanta).”
Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The report said the changes will affect some 200 flight attendants and up to 140 pilots. The moves are not layoffs, the publication reported, but instead affected workers would bid for routes through other cities.
The union that represents Southwest flight attendants expressed outrage.
“This is gaslighting at its finest: While Southwest management continued to assure flight attendants of the security and growth of its Atlanta base, promises were broken and now the lives of flight attendants and their families are severely impacted,” Bill Bernal, president of Transport Workers Union of America Local 556, said in a statement. “Yet again, flight attendants are paying the price for poor management decisions.”
He went on to say, “management continues to make decisions that lack full transparency, sufficient communication with union leadership, and most alarmingly, a lack of focus on what has made the airline great, the employees.”
In April, the AJC reported Southwest planned to reduce flights to and from Atlanta and pull out of some other airports, as its operations come under pressure from delays in deliveries of Boeing aircraft.
The low-cost carrier has also been under pressure from shareholders to improve performance and faces increasing pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management.
In April, Southwest operated up to 119 departures a day from Atlanta and the company said that figure would decline to 94 daily departures maximum from Atlanta on weekdays in the airline’s revised summer schedule, airline spokesman Dan Landson said at the time.
It’s unclear if that capacity will decrease further.
Southwest has an all-Boeing fleet of 737 aircraft and delays and issues with the MAX line of airliners have put strain on the company.
-This is a developing story and will be updated. Return to AJC.com for more.
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