Welcome to a special Saturday edition. Why are we posting today? Well, we told you about Southwest’s cuts yesterday but boy, were we off. Now that Diio by Cirium has been updated with the details, we were able to dive in. This is a whole lot more involved than the cursory look we had yesterday, and we want to set the record straight for you as quickly as possible.
Southwest’s Cuts Are Broader Than Reported
Southwest’s route cuts are much more complicated than we originally said yesterday. There are several routes, including Cincinnati to Phoenix and Dallas to Pensacola, that only operate a couple days around Thanksgiving. There are others, like Boston to Orlando and Dallas to Seattle, that operate once weekly but only through December 12. Then they disappear.
Really what we’re looking at here is a tale of two schedules. There’s one before December 17 and then another after. On that day, Southwest is scheduling the return of the 737 MAX to the skies. With it comes an increase in daily flights from 3,770 to just over 4,000. Some routes that temporarily disappear before that, like El Paso to Los Angeles and Charleston to Denver, return on December 17.
Below you’ll find a list of routes that are gone the entire time with one exception. If they are scheduled to operate only for 1 or 2 days around Thanksgiving, we’re considering them canceled for the purpose of this list.
Note: We have tried to report the disappearing markets by the primary city impacted, but in some cases, we’ve reported it twice. For example, Baltimore saw many long-haul cuts while San Jose saw broader cuts, so we included the loss of Baltimore – San Jose under both cities. Those with * are ones we reported yesterday.
- Atlanta – Los Angeles*/Oakland*/San Diego
- Baltimore – Sacramento/Salt Lake*/San Jose*
- Boise – Spokane*
- Boston – Columbus*/Dallas/Houston*/Milwaukee
- Charleston – St Louis
- Cincinnati – Orlando/Phoenix
- Cleveland – Dallas/Milwaukee*/Ft Myers/Tampa
- Denver – Lubbock*
- Houston – San Juan
- Indianapolis – Austin/Chicago*/Los Angeles/New Orleans
- Islip – Tampa
- Kansas City – Ft Myers
- Las Vegas – Detroit/Ft Lauderdale*
- Milwaukee – Boston/Cleveland/Los Angeles
- Nashville – Buffalo/Ft Myers/Norfolk/Omaha
- Panama City – St Louis
- Pensacola – Chicago/Dallas
- Portland – Burbank*/Kansas City/Los Angeles*/Ontario*/San Diego*
- San Antonio – Albuquerque/Oakland
- San Diego – Atlanta/El Paso*/Honolulu/Omaha*/Orlando*
- San Francisco – Ontario*
- San Jose – Albuquerque*/Baltimore*/Reno/Salt Lake*/Tucson*
In addition, we reported the following route closures which aren’t actually closing:
- Charleston – Houston (weekly through December 13)
- Raleigh – Ft Lauderdale/Las Vegas (latter takes a break from daily service Nov 1 – 11)
- Tampa – Albany/Hartford/Manchester