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Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) will no longer service Bellingham International Airport and three other airports as of Aug. 4.
The other airports are Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Cozumel International Airport in Mexico and Syracuse Hancock International Airport in New York state. Also, Southwest plans to significantly restructure its operations in other markets, including reducing capacity at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
The Dallas-based airline has offered routes from Bellingham to Denver, Las Vegas and Oakland, California, accounting for about 40% of Bellingham's passenger volume last year. Roughly 635,000 travelers passed through BLI in 2023, Kip Turner, director of aviation, told the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Other airlines servicing the airport include Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air and San Juan Airlines.
Turner said Las Vegas and Oakland are both served by Allegiant Air out of Bellingham, and the airport expects Allegiant will add seats to the market to make up for the some of the seats taken out by Southwest.
“We are saddened by this unfortunate news and will look forward to working with Southwest again in the future once their fleet needs are met," he said in a statement.
The airline first announced it would launch service to Bellingham three years ago.
Southwest's departure from Bellingham and other initiatives are expected to contribute between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in 2024 year-over-year pre-tax profits, the company said in its first-quarter earnings report, released April 25.
"To improve our financial performance, we have intensified our network optimization efforts to address underperforming markets," Southwest President and CEO Bob Jordan said in the earnings release.
The Wall Street Journal, which reported Southwest's earnings came in below analyst expectations, linked challenges in the industry with ongoing production issues with Boeing planes.
As a result of Boeing delays, Southwest now expects to receive only a fraction of the 79 Max planes it had originally anticipated to be delivered at the outset of 2024, the company told analysts and investors.
"The recent news from Boeing regarding further aircraft delivery delays presents significant challenges for both 2024 and 2025," the company said in its report," Jordan said. "We are reacting and replanning quickly to mitigate the operational and financial impacts while maintaining dependable and reliable flight schedules for our Customers."
Southwest reported a net loss of $231 million, or 39 cents per diluted share, for the first quarter. When excluding special items, the adjusted net loss was $218 million, or 36 cents per diluted share. Wall Street analysts had expected a loss of 34 cents per share, according to WSJ.
However, the company also reported record first-quarter operating revenue of $6.3 billion and had liquidity of $11.5 billion, well above its outstanding debt of $8 billion.
