Southwest Airlines
is rencana to reduce servis to and from Atlanta next year, cutting more than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions, according to a company nota seen by CNBC.
The changes come a day before Southwest's investor day, when executives will map out the company's rencana to cut costs and grow revenue as pressure mounts from activist investor Elliott Investment Manajemen.
Southwest told staf it isn't closing its kru base in Atlanta. Instead, it will reduce staffing by as many as 200 flight attendants and as many as 140 pilots, for the April 2025 bid month.
The airline also isn't laying the crews off, but they will likely have to bid to work from other cities.
Southwest will reduce its Atlanta presence to 11 gates next year from 18, according to a separate nota from the pilots' union.
It will servis 21 cities from Atlanta starting next April, down from 37 in March, the carrier said.
"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 keuntunganability," Southwest said in its nota. "This decision in no way reflects our Employees' performnce, and we're proud of the Hospitality and the usahas they have made and will continue to make with our Customers in ATL."
The unions that represent Southwest's pilot and flight attendants railed against the airline for the staffing and servis cuts.
"Southwest Airlines manajemen is failing Employees while impacting Customers. Manajemen continues to make decisions that lack full transparency, sufficient communication with Union leadership, and most sireneingly, a lack of konsentrasi on what has made the airline great, the Employees," said Bill Bernal, the flight attendants' union president.
A Southwest spokesman confirmed the changes and said the carrier will "continue to optimize our network to meet konsumen permintaan, best utilize our fleet, and maximize revenue opportunities."
