Is southwest airlines downsizing in seattle??

[Will0329]

For 9 years I have lived in seattle. Nine years ago southwest had 5 or 6 gates at sea tac airport. Now southwest only has 3 gates at sea tac airport.

Per pandemic southwest for example used to have 10 non stops between Oakland,California and seattle.

Now on peak days southwest has 4 non stops per day from Oakland to seattle. Off peak southwest will have 2 or 3 non stops from Oakland to seattle.

For the past 9 years I have been flying southwest from seattle to burbank,California to visit my parents.

Post pandemic southwest has fewer connecting flights off peak days from seattle to burbank.

Southwest prices are still half the price of alaska airlines non stop flights from seattle to burbank.

My question is once southwest gets delivery of the 737 max 7s and more 737 max 8s, will southwest increase its seattle flight schedules again?? 

I'd be very very very worried for southwest airlines to leave seattle like they left Newark. I hope that doesn't happen??

[dfwskier]

Courtesy Boeing inc., Southwest is short of planes. Tht forces the airline to pare some routes.

BTW, SW did not leeave NYC, it just left Newark. The chances of the airline just leaving a major city, like Seatlle, are pretty small.

[DancingDavidE]

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@dfwskier wrote:

Courtesy Boeing inc., Southwest is short of planes. Tht forces the airline to pare some routes.

BTW, SW did not leeave NYC, it just left Newark. The chances of the airline just leaving a major city, like Seatlle, are pretty small.

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I think they would be holding onto those last three gates and eventually trying to get more if they are available, when there are more planes in circulation.

Agree with @dfwskier the Newark comparison was a bit of trading to get LGA gates. Since they already did the opposite giving up their secondary airport gates in Seattle area they won't be completely leaving Sea-Tac.

[5280Av8r]

As someone who follows Southwest's route network changed as best as I can, I would agree that it appears that Seattle has been downsized. But Southwest is extremely unlikely to be pulling out of Seattle entirely. It's likely that the competition with both Alaska and Delta has been tough and they've decided to put their limited planes on other more profitable routes. Southwest is still rebuilding post pandemic and with a slew of new airports to the network, they're trying to mature those markets while rebuild. In doing so, they try to put the planes where they will be most profitable. It'll probably take some time, but I think it's likely Southwest will add frequencies back to Seattle once they have the resources and it makes sense for their own profitability.