Southwest Air sees worker shortage hampering growth

While its peers are slowing growth in flying to address rising fuel costs, Southwest Airlines Co. has an additional reason: a shortage of workers.

The carrier’s second-quarter capacity will decline 7% from 2019 levels “due to challenges with available staffing,” Chief Financial Officer Tammy Romo said Tuesday at a JPMorgan Chase industrial conference. Southwest still hopes to add 8,000 workers in 2022, on the way to hiring 25,000 over three years. 

The airline has struggled since at least last fall to hire enough staff, after thousands of people retired early or took buyouts when travel demand was nearly wiped out early in the coronavirus pandemic. Southwest has raised wages, added other incentives and adopted new hiring tactics as it faces unprecedented competition, particularly for entry-level workers from companies like Amazon.com Inc. and CVS Health Corp.

Chief Executive Bob Jordan has said his “No. 1 job” is to hire enough people to stabilize the Dallas-based airline’s flight operations. The company had about 55,000 employees at the end of last year.

Southwest joined other airlines in tweaking first-quarter capacity to gain power over ticket prices, saying Tuesday that it will be down as much as 10% from 2019 on weaker business travel and lingering effects from the omicron coronavirus variant. The company previously projected a decline of 9%.

The airline’s shares rose 3.6% at 12:25 p.m. in New York as the industry rallied.