Southwest Airlines issued a press statement Thursday declaring their intention to fire around 2,000 employees and cancel service to four airports following financial difficulties.
“[W]e are implementing cost control initiatives, including limiting hiring and offering voluntary time off programs. We now expect to end 2024 with approximately 2,000 fewer Employees as compared with the end of 2023,” Bob Jordan, the president and CEO of Southwest Airlines, said in the press release. (RELATED: ‘Listen To The Screams’: Planes Nearly Collide On Reagan Airport Runway)
Southwest Airlines to end service at four airports, fire 2000 employees https://t.co/qzjCv5tWdg pic.twitter.com/Lm1PL6v8Ba
— New York Post (@nypost) April 25, 2024
Jordan also announced that the company was shutting down its service to three airports in the United States and one in Mexico. “[W]e have made the difficult decision to close our operations at Bellingham International Airport, Cozumel International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Syracuse Hancock International Airport,” the president said in the press release.
The company is also planning to reduce its aircraft from its own fleet from 814 to 802 planes by the end of this year, the press release noted.
Jordan mentioned that he was grateful to the company’s over 74,000 employees who have continued to demonstrate the “Warrior Spirit to maintain a reliable and resilient operation as we adapt to aircraft delivery constraints and adjust to slower-than-planned growth for this year and next,” the press release read.
The company claimed in the press release that the rising labor costs “as well as pressure from planned maintenance expenses” had taken their toll in these difficult times. Not everything in the press release was gloomy. “While it is disappointing to incur a first-quarter loss, we exited the quarter with healthy profits and margins in the month of March,” Jordan noted in the press release.