Southwest Will Stop Offering Flights In and Out of Newark
Southwest Airlines will stop offering flights at Newark Liberty Airport.
Yeah, a rough earnings report led to the announcement that they will pull out Newark Liberty International Airport here in New Jersey. The airline says they will begin to consolidate their flights in and out of the New York City-area on November 3.
“The financial results at Newark have been below expectations, despite the efforts of our excellent team at Newark,” Southwest chairman and CEO Gary C. Kelly said in a statement.
Southwest just had a rough earnings report for the second quarter. The airline’s financial troubles are likely linked to the issues with the Boeing 737 Max airplanes.
Southwest, which first offered service in and out of Newark Liberty Airport in 2011, offers 20 daily departures from Newark to 10 cities (including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, and Phoenix), according to USAToday.com.
Southwest employs about 125 workers at the Newark Airport, according to a report from ABC News, all of whom will be offered positions elsewhere in the Southwest network, airline officials said.
Southwest has seemingly been hit harder by the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes than any other US-based airline. Southwest has 34 of the planes (Boeing 737 Max) in their fleet. The grounding of the 737 Max has forced the cancelation of about 150 flights per day.
Of course, the grounding of those planes has hit Southwest’s bottom line pretty hard. In an earnings report released this week the airline reported a $175 million operating cost, citing the grounding of the plans as a primary cause.
The Boeing 737 Max planes have been grounded since mid-March following two fatal crashes (in October 2018 and March 2019).
Southwest has removed the Boeing 737 Max 8 from its schedule through January 5, citing delays from Boeing in releasing a repair for the plane. Boeing, however, said in a statement on Wednesday that they plan for the 737 Max 8 planes to return to flight before the end of the year.