Southwest Airlines Announces Major Flight Cuts For New York Travelers

The busy spring and summer travel season is upon us. While many people will elect to fly to their destinations there are a growing number of people who have chosen other ways to get to there due to the rising cost of air travel, and an increase in worry of safety when flying due to several recent incidents in the sky.

Southwest joins a few other airlines in announcing that it will be cutting down on its flight schedule due to fewer people booking flights. That's a major impact for many of us in the Capital Region who fly Southwest out of Albany International Airport. With fewer flight options you can bet those early morning flights will be full and those tickets will be going fast.

According to the announcement from Southwest they expect their revenue to be flat. By cutting flights it will hopefully increase their revenue by spending less on flights that may not be full.

While there are certainly folks booking flights with spring and summer travel, the big post-COVID travel boom appears to be over. That's left many airlines scrambling to find ways to get people back to the sky.

Read More: New Yorkers Set To Pay More To Fly on Southwest

Big Southwest Changes

This isn't the first big change for Southwest in 2025. They had already announced major changes to both bag and seating policies that will cost Capital Region flyers more once they are rolled out.

While they haven't announced when the seating policy changes will officially be taking place, the bag policy change will go into effect on May 26, 2025. It will now cost flyers to check a bag on Southwest, something that made the airline stand out for decades over its competitors. Travelers will still be able to bring a carryon bag for free.

The seating change on Southwest is also a huge undertaking for the airline. They're going from open seating to assigned seating. Those assigned seats will also offer options for seats with more legroom. Southwest announced it will be starting to remodel some of their aircraft to accommodate those changes later in 2025. The move from open seating to assigned seating is expected in early 2026.