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Lack of nonstop flights

Smorrison
Explorer C

I have been flying direct nonstop flights on SW for years. Now some of those same destinations have very limited nonstop flight options now. Why the change? 

6 REPLIES 6

Re: Lack of nonstop flights

ZevSupport
Frequent Flyer A

Demand is the biggest reason; other reasons is competition in the area. Which airports specifically?


Community Champion | PHL based | ex-Companion Pass Holder | Southwest Passenger

Re: Lack of nonstop flights

SWFlyer007
Aviator C

I'm with you on this, but at the same time I know it will also take time for those destinations to start getting competitive for them to add non-stop.  I fly out of Albuquerque, NM, and 80 percent of the flights for me to somewhere I fly to a SW destination only to fly back over Albuquerque on my second flight to where I'm going.  I'm hoping that will mandates going away that more folks will fly.  But it's also about SWA, and other airlines, building back up their number of pilots and flight attendants.  I can honestly live with this inconvenience for now as long as SWA has held their ground that all their pilots and FA be vaccinated.    

Re: Lack of nonstop flights

RobKiss
Explorer C

I'm with you.  I'm getting really tired of travel taking all day/night when it used to be a 3 hour ordeal. The lack of nonstop flights, or at least connections that make sense or don't have multi-hour layovers is really forcing me to consider abandoning SWA.  Jacksonville, FL to Chicago Midway should not take all day.  

Re: Lack of nonstop flights

dfwskier
Aviator A

You should ALWAYS fly the flight / airline that makes the most sense for your trip - regardless of airline..

 

If Southwest is badly inconvenient, then you really should fly the other guy.

Re: Lack of nonstop flights

GatoFlyer
Explorer C

Add me to the list of customers dissatisfied with the elimination of so many nonstop flights.  We live on the west coast and can’t take any trip to the central or eastern time zones without hours of additional flight time and the risk of cancellations/delays.  We used to frequently travel these routes and they were always ALWAYS packed!  We truly understand Covid, staffing issues, etc. but it’s disconcerting there’s no info about whether this situation is long term.  I just booked two family trips today on competitors that I would normally have booked on Southwest.  We’re also cancelling our Southwest credit card.  Sorry to see this step backwards in service levels.

Re: Lack of nonstop flights

dfwskier
Aviator A

Southwest does not have the planes or crew to do what you want - at the moment. I suspect that changes in the future as the airline has a large number of 737 Max planes on order - 40 of which are supposed to be delivered this year.

 

Southwest had 741 planes in it's fleet in 2019.  SW added something like 24 new destinations since then. Southwest had to retire a bunch of planes that were at end of life cycle, and because MAXs were not being delivered there were no replacements for the retired planes. Thus  fleet size shrank. The combination meant that some routes were dropped or the number of flights were reduced.

 

SW's fleet size at the moment is 732 planes.