March 4 (UPI) — Southwest Airlines says it will close two of its flight attendant bases in Florida and Texas amid sweeping cost-cutting endeavors.
The company announced the decision Tuesday in its effort to reduce costs.
“We are consolidating our flight attendant satellite bases into our primary 12 base cities as we work to further maximize our operational efficiency and reliability,” a Southwest Airlines spokesman announced Tuesday in its effort to reduce costs. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
“We are consolidating our flight attendant satellite bases into our primary 12 base cities as we work to further maximize our operational efficiency and reliability,” Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Perry told The Dallas Morning News in a statement.
The airline will close its satellite bases at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, according to a flight attendant union memo.
“While the Company is within its rights to make this decision, it is not without impact on Flight Attendants,” said TWU Local 556 President Bill Bernal.
According to a Southwest spokesman, the carrier opened the bases in 2018 and the 280 affected flight attendants can transfer to its 12 main bases.
A House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday heard testimony from aviation industry experts how the nation’s air traffic control system is obsolete and understaffed, which they say significantly degrades public safety.
Meanwhile, Southwest and union officials agreed to move to it back one month to an effective date of July 1 to close the so-called satellite bases for its flight attendant staff, but not its pilots.
“This allows affected Members more time to make arrangements for this change in their professional and personal lives,” Bernal added.
This arrived after Southwest cut flight routes and laid off roughly 1,750 employees, or 15%, in its corporate workforce to help fray rising costs and save about $210 million this year.
Like other airlines, the Dallas, Texas-based Southwest has struggled with an oversupplied U.S. market, rising costs and other issues with Boeing, its sole aircraft supplier.
“This change will ultimately help strengthen our Crew network and support a more reliable operation for our Employees and Customers,” the airline wrote Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, a Southwest flight narrowly missed colliding with a privately owned jet at Chicago’s Midway Airport.
In addition, it came nearly six months after the airline settled with the New York-based Elliott Investment Management, an activist investor group, which won five seats on Southwest’s board of directors amid a shakeup and ouster of chairman Gary Kelly.