Southwest to reduce flights as it juggles Boeing 737 Max grounding
Southwest Airlines Co. will roll back the number of flights it offers as the company works to minimize delays following the recent grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.
David Richardson, a senior director of governmental affairs for Southwest, said the airline will soon introduce a "new schedule with fewer flight options" to account for its reduced fleet.
Southwest has been hit especially hard by the grounding. The company has 34 of the Renton-made Max 8 aircraft, more than any other U.S. airline. On Wednesday, Southwest said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it expects a first-quarter revenue cut of up to $150 million due to the groundings and other factors. The filing projects the airline's cancellations will total 9,400 flights between mid-February and the end of March.
President Donald Trump and the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all Boeing Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft grounded and banned from U.S. air space March 13, three days after an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing Max 8 crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. Another fatal accident five months earlier also involved a Max 8, which crashed minutes after taking off in Indonesia.
Richardson, who spoke Wednesday morning at a meeting of the BWI Business Partnership's Transportation Think Tank in Linthicum, Maryland, said the first few days after the order were "very difficult" for Southwest as the Dallas-based airline dealt with a ripple effect of delayed and canceled service. The grounding affected about 4.5 percent of Southwest flights, he said.
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