DALLAS — Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is offering buyouts at 18 airports across the country, reports say, amid “aircraft delivery delays” from Boeing.
Employees impacted include airport ground workers, customer service agents, ramp and operations agents, cargo employees and more. The carrier’s Dallas headquarters is among the airports affected.
It’s unclear how many employees are affected, but a Southwest Airlines spokesperson said the company previously announced plans to end this year with 2,000 fewer workers than it had at the end of 2023.
“Southwest has reduced overall capacity to meet demand with a constrained fleet due to aircraft delivery delays,” the airline said in a statement. “Offering voluntary separation and extended time off to contract and noncontract Employees, along with continued slowed hiring, will help us avert overstaffing in certain locations.”
Bloomberg reports Southwest has been struggling with a slowdown in Boeing’s ability to deliver aircraft in a timely manner, and the carrier has said it will receive 20 new airplanes this year, down from 79 as previously expected.
The announcement of the buyouts comes after Southwest announced plans earlier this year to cut flights to 16 cities from Atlanta beginning in April 2025. That reduction included cutting 140 pilot and 200 flight attendant positions in Southwest’s Atlanta crew base.
Bloomberg reports the new buyout offers are going to workers at airports in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Baltimore, Detroit and Cleveland, as well as Buffalo, New York; Corpus Christi, Texas; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon; Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers, Florida; and Burbank, Long Beach, San Jose and Santa Ana, California.