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Southwest cut their schedules down to the bone due to covid

Will0329
Explorer B

From seattle to Oakland non stop there used to be 9 or 10 non stops per day and 5 non stops from Sacramento and San jose,California to and from seattle. With southwests covid schedule there are now only 2 non stops from seattle to Oakland per day. 

 

That's a huge cut.

 

For my parents who live near burbank,California airport there are only 2 flights between burbank and Oakland and 2 flights per day between Las Vegas and burbank. There used to be 8 to 10 non stop flights per day between burbank and Oakland as well as 8 non stop flights between burbank and Las Vegas.

 

My question is does southwest plan on going back to their precovid schedule or is this permanent??

 

Many of the legacy carriers didn't cut their flights as much as southwest has.

 

Where will southwest get the planes from to go back to their pre covid schedule?? It seems that southwest is using many of their unused planes to fly to new cities.

2 REPLIES 2

Re: Southwest cut their schedules down to the bone due to covid

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

The short answer? Probably, but it is hard to say.

 

SW is different from the other major carriers in that its route map is less hub-and-spoke focused (where you sometimes have to connect through major hubs). That means that they can only operate direct flights where there is enough demand. And it is worth noting that all carrier slashed available flights due to gutted demand.

 

Simply, there must not be as many people travelling between the city pairs you are mentioning. If that is the case, SW has cut the schedules to ensure it survives financially.  

 

What IS good is that despite these trying times, SW has started service to many new cities and airports. There is also the fact that many of SW's planes (737 MAX aircraft) have not returned to service. So as the network grow with new cities, they have to prioritize where they can serve the most customers and mitigate the most loss.

 

I am not travelling much these days, but here in Nashville, I also have seen the impact of gutted flight schedules.

 

Here's to us all hoping the frequency of some cut flights will return!

 

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: Southwest cut their schedules down to the bone due to covid

dfwskier
Aviator A
Solution

@Will0329 wrote:

  to their precovid schedule or is this permanent??

 

Many of the legacy carriers didn't cut their flights as much as southwest has.

 

Where will southwest get the planes from to go back to their pre covid schedule?? It seems that southwest is using many of their unused planes to fly to new cities.


First off, nothing the airlines do is permanent.

 

The answer to your question is: as soon as there is enough traffic to profitably fill the planes.

 

As far as where will Southwest get planes, the airline still has planes in storage that were placed there at the height of the crisis last year. The airline is also scheduled to receive 35

new planes this year.