A lot of changes are coming to Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Plane
The good news is that one of those changes is NOT charging for checked bags: the airline recently confirmed free checked bags are here to stay. However, big changes are coming to how you board a Southwest flight, including assigned seating which will become available in 2025, which has caused a little controversy with its customers. New premium seating options are also on the way, as are changes at airports. Southwest also recently announced it will be cutting routes from the nation’s largest airport.
According to CNBC, Southwest will be cutting its service significantly in Atlanta, including cutting its staffing at that airport in a move to save money. More than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions in the area will be cut, although Southwest has stated it isn’t laying crews off, but they will likely have to bid to work from other cities. The cuts are expected to happen in April 2025.
Southwest plane
The company isn’t completely closing its operations in Atlanta, but it will reduce staffing by up to 200 flight attendants and up to 140 pilots. Southwest will also reduce its presence at the Atlanta airport going from 18 gates to just 11. Instead of 37 cities serviced from Atlanta, it will reduce service to 21 cities.
“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,” Southwest wrote in a 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 ATL.”
Hello from the airport!
The unions that represent Southwest’s pilots and flight attendants are already speaking out against the movie, though, saying that the company “is failing employees while impacting customers.” The unions claim that “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 addition to the cuts at Atlanta, Southwest is adding new routes to and from Nashville, TN, as well as beginning to offer overnight flights from Hawaii beginning next spring.
Stay tuned to DFB for more.
Southwest Airlines Reveals HUGE Update on Boarding Process and Seating Changes
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