Southwest Airlines is reducing the number of flights departing from Denver International Airport as part of a national realignment after setting a passenger record there in 2024.
Southwest, which runs its busiest operation at DIA, will offer an average 7,785 departures a month from DIA this year, down from 8,157 in 2024 and 8,117 in 2023, according to airline data provided to The Denver Post.
The number of flights each month at DIA and other airports will vary more. For example, Southwest scheduled 6,580 flights out of DIA this month, down from 7,413 in February 2024, and in March it will fly 7,873 flights, down from 8,668 the same month last year.
Southwest carried a record 25.5 million passengers at DIA last year, when its total annual number of outbound flights peaked at 97,888, up from 97,411 in 2023, company data shows. But during the final months last year, as fights were reduced, monthly passenger traffic declined compared with the levels in 2023.
While flights will be fewer, Southwest is adopting a new strategy to ensure passenger numbers at DIA continue to increase overall: deploying larger aircraft, company spokesman Dan Landson said. Travelers booking flights this year are more likely to ride on a 175-seater aircraft instead of a 143-seater.
Daily flights out of DIA and other airports will depend more on travel pattern data, Landson said. On winter days this month and next, 243 daily flights will depart, compared with 302 flights a day scheduled in June. Flight frequencies will be reduced mostly on off-peak travel days — Tuesday and Wednesday — and the changes generally will mean fewer flights to colder destinations during winter and to super-hot destinations during summer, he said.
“It’s about efficiency and profitability and matching our flights to travel demand. It comes down to having the right number of flights for the right number of customers at the right time,” Landson said. “If we see there are a lot of people at DIA who want to travel in the dead of winter, we’re going to add more flights.”
Southwest flies about 33% of the flights at DIA, behind United Airlines (36%) but ahead of Frontier (12%), Delta (8%), and American (6%).
The airline began flying out of DIA around 2006 and helped propel DIA’s expansion to become one of the world’s busiest airports, with overall passenger boardings in 2024 hitting a record 82.3 million.
Airlines “frequently make capacity adjustments in response to a variety of factors,” and DIA “constantly monitors these changes,” DIA officials said in an email. The airport “benefits from a deep network of airlines that provide extensive service options to meet the growing demand for travel.”
Southwest is reducing flights at other airports, but not as many as at DIA, Landson said.
Airline strategic adjustments include layoffs of 1,750 employees, mostly at corporate headquarters in Dallas but possibly including a few managers in Denver, and ending the open-seating system starting in 2026.
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