Southwest Airlines Comments on Letter and Presentation From Elliott Investment Management
Southwest Airlines Co. reiterated its willingness to meet with Elliott Investment Management L.P. to further discuss the airline's strategy to enhance value for all shareholders. The airline issued this statement on June 10:
Southwest Airlines maintains an open dialogue with our shareholders and values their perspectives related to enhancing shareholder value. We were first contacted yesterday by Elliott.
Our board and executive leadership team are thoughtfully reviewing Elliott's letter and presentation and look forward to further conversations with Elliott to better understand its view on the company.
We are confident that Southwest Airlines has the right strategy, the right plan and the right team in place to drive long-term value for our shareholders. We are focused on restoring our industry-leading financial performance, the successful execution of our multi-faceted Tactical Action Plan to improve operational performance announced in first quarter 2023, alongside recent technology investments and operational resiliency programs that led to the operation of 99% of scheduled flights in first quarter 2024. Our ongoing effort to optimize our network is addressing underperforming markets to better align capacity with observed passenger demand. We recently implemented a new revenue management system which, combined with our ongoing review of transformational initiatives, such as enhancing the customer onboard experience, represent tangible steps toward achieving improvements in our financial and operational performance and positioning us for sustainable success in an evolving marketplace. The company looks forward to sharing additional detail on our plan at Investor Day in September.
The Southwest Airlines Board of Directors diligently oversees our strategy and Leadership Team and, based on the company's ability to overcome strong headwinds in the past, is confident in our CEO and Leadership Team's ability to fulfill our strategy to drive long-term value for all shareholders, safely and reliably serve our customers, create new and exciting career opportunities for our employees and serve the interests of all stakeholders.
In recent years, our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee has also sought to identify prospective Directors with a view toward maintaining an effective mix of skills and experience, introducing fresh perspectives while balancing continuity, and continuing to strive for diverse representation. This focus on refreshment has resulted in the appointment of seven new independent directors to the board in the past three years.
