Southwest Airlines Reduces Cleveland-to-Phoenix Route to Weekends Only in January
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Southwest Airlines is reducing flights between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and Phoenix to Saturdays and Sundays only, starting in January.
The airline currently flies once daily between the two cities.
Said spokesman Dan Landson: “Our schedules are built around demand and the seasonality of certain markets. We know Phoenix is an important market for Cleveland and we are continuing to evaluate demand to ensure we’re offering the right number of seats based on the needs of the local traveler.”
Southwest’s current schedule runs through March 6, and it’s unclear whether daily service between the two cities will resume then. But Landson emphasized, “We know how important Phoenix is to the Cleveland traveler.”
More than any other U.S. carrier, Southwest has struggled in recent months to deal with the airplane shortage caused by Boeing’s troubled 737 Max, which was grounded last spring after two deadly crashes. It’s unclear when the planes will be approved to fly again.
This week, Southwest announced numerous route cuts, effective in January, including flights between Pittsburgh and Los Angeles and Columbus and Oakland. Last month, the carrier announced it was pulling all its service from Newark International Airport.
In addition to facing an aircraft shortage, the carrier is trying to free up planes to launch additional service to Hawaii, which it started earlier this year.
The reduction in the Cleveland-Phoenix route is similar to one earlier this year, when Southwest announced in March that it was reducing daily service from Cleveland to Las Vegas to weekends only, starting in June.
Demand does not seem to be a problem on either route. The Cleveland-to-Las Vegas route had a load factor of 91 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The Cleveland-to-Phoenix route had a load factor of 90 percent in February 2019. Load factor is the percentage of seats filled on a flight.
Southwest faces significant competition on both routes from low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines. That competition may be keeping fares lower than Southwest would like.
The average fare on the Cleveland-Phoenix route was $219 in the first quarter of 2019, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.
The Phoenix-to-Cleveland route was dominated by United Airlines during that carrier’s Cleveland hub days. Several carriers have flown and dropped the route in recent years, including American and Allegiant.
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