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Ongoing 737 MAX crisis forces Southwest to cancel 20 non-stop routes

Southwest Airlines has been forced to drop 20 non-stop routes from its schedule, beginning January 2020. The American carrier has identified 20 “weaker-than-expected”, non-stop services and will use some of those aircraft to provide additional capacity on new routes, particularly to Hawaii, a market it has recently heavily targeted. Currently 9% of Southwest’s fleet is made up of 737 MAX aircraft, the 34 planes having remained idle since being parked up at Victorville, California. These planes comprise part of an order for 260 of the aircraft, delivery of which also stopped at the same time owing to the worldwide grounding of the jet after two recent fatal crashes. Southwest is one of the largest 737 MAX operators and has therefore been harder hit by the jet’s grounding. According to OAG, a leading provider of digital flight information, Southwest has dropped three million seats from its regular schedule since the 737 MAX was grounded, which equates to approximately 180 flights per day.

The following is a list of most of the non-stop services that will be cancelled in January 2020, though Southwest has confirmed that these routes will still be covered by a one-stop service: