Southwest plans to cut flights in Atlanta and add them elsewhere, unions are unhappy – WABE

Updated at 5:13 PM

Southwest Airlines plans to cut about a third of its Atlanta flights next year to save money, as it faces pressure from a hedge fund to boost profits and boost the airline’s stock price.

The move to Atlanta, where Southwest is much smaller than Delta Air Lines, will eliminate more than 300 pilot and flight attendant jobs, but they will be given the opportunity to relocate, the company said.

A Southwest official said Wednesday that the airline must cut unprofitable routes and that “demand to Atlanta does not support our flying level.”

While the airline’s planners “try everything they can before making difficult decisions like this, we must make this change to return to profitability,” Atlanta-based executive Tiffany Laurent said in a memo to employees.

Shares of Dallas-based Southwest fell 4.6%.

Southwest executives are expected to outline other changes they plan to make at an investor meeting on Thursday. The session is a response to Elliott Investment Management’s campaign to shake up Southwest’s leadership and reverse a three-year profit decline.

According to the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, Southwest is cutting 58 flights a day and reducing the number of gates at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from 18 to 11. The association says the news is painful for workers in Atlanta.

“It is simply astonishing that the airline with the strongest network in the history of our industry is now withdrawing from a key market because this management group has failed to evolve and innovate,” the union said in a memo to pilots.

Bill Bernal, president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents Southwest flight attendants, said his union is furious about the job cuts in Atlanta. He said Southwest assured the union it would grow in Atlanta.

“This is gaslighting at its finest,” Bernal said in a memo to union members. “Once again, flight attendants are paying the price for poor management decisions.”

A Southwest spokesperson responded: “Decisions like these are difficult for our company because of the impact on our people, but we have a history of more than 53 years of making sure they are taken care of.”

While Southwest pulled back on Atlanta, it released its schedule Wednesday through June of next year, and it includes new routes between Nashville and six other cities, along with five new overnight flights from Hawaii to Las Vegas and Phoenix. Those additions will begin in April.

Earlier this year, Southwest pulled out of four smaller markets and announced it would cut hiring in response to weaker financial results and delays in deliveries of new Boeing planes.

Interestingly, CEO Robert Jordan said in July that Southwest will begin assigning passengers to seats and reserving nearly a third of seats for premium service with more legroom.