Southwest Airlines has confirmed that it will close two more of its flight attendant bases in Austin, Texas, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the latest of a series of cost-cutting moves that insiders fear will fundamentally change the carrier for good and wreck the long-established connection it has with employees.
On Tuesday, the union that represents more than 20,000 flight attendants at the Dallas-based airline said that Southwest had unilaterally decided to shutter the two satellite bases from which a small number of crew members are currently based.
In a short memo to its members, the TWU 556 union said: “While the Company is within its rights to make this decision, it is not without impact on Flight Attendants.”
The memo added: “After being informed of the Company’s decision, our Union convinced the Company to allow Austin and Fort Lauderdale Bases to stay open an extra month from the Company’s initial closure date, effectively moving it from June 1 to July 1, 2025.”
Southwest currently has twelve main flight attendant bases dotted across the United States, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Orlando, and Phoenix.
In 2018, the airline also opened smaller so-called satellite bases at Austin Bergstrom Airport and Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport, where around 280 flight attendants are currently based.
These flight attendants will have the opportunity to move to Southwest’s main bases. The airline said in a statement that it hoped closing the satellite bases would “ultimately help strengthen our Crew network and support a more reliable operation for our Employees and Customers.”
Last September, the TWU 556 union slammed Southwest over its decision to slash its route network out of Atlanta from 567 flights per week to 381 in a bid to cut unprofitable routes.
The decision meant that Southwest had to reduce the number of pilots and flight attendants based in Atlanta, resulting in around 300 crew members being displaced to other bases.
The union said it was “outraged” by the decision and accused Southwest of “gaslighting” flight attendants.
Last month, Southwest made the unprecedented decision to 1,750 head office employees, representing a 15% reduction in corporate jobs at the airline. Chief executive Bob Jordan admitted that the redundancies represented a “very difficult and monumental shift” in how Southwest does business.
Southwest is under significant pressure from activist investor Elliott to shake up its business model, and later this year, the airline start selling assigned seats ahead of the demise of its open seating model in 2026.
