Although they’re not for everyone, some travelers love redeye flights. There’s just something about beating long TSA lines and skipping congested terminal traffic without hundreds of others flitting around. It may be early, but for some, redeyes are just better.
While Southwest Airlines may not be rolling out redeye flights anytime soon, the carrier is incorporating more overnight connecting flights into its schedule. According to View From The Wing, overnight flights will be available at select airports. However, there will not be any new flights added to the schedule.
“They won’t offer redeye flights but will use their current schedule to sell itineraries that involve an overnight at six airports – Baltimore; Denver; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Chicago Midway; and Oakland,” View From the Wing reported.
Southwest Faces Growing Pains
The announcement is good news for Southwest fliers after months of complaints and issues regarding the airline. The company is still facing backlash after 16,700 Southwest flights were canceled and 2 million passengers were stranded during the Christmas holiday season.
Travelers flocked to social media to discuss their turbulent travels with Southwest between December 20 and 29. Images of thousands of unclaimed baggage dampened the consumer view of the favored airline company.
To make matters worse, information about dissatisfied Southwest workers and pilots surfaced around that same time despite the company being known for treating workers well. During the holiday meltdown, pilots revealed many of the Southwest cancellations were due to outdated backend technology.
“A half dozen small-scale meltdowns occurred during the mid to late 2010s,” pilot Larry Lonero said in a Facebook post. “With each mini-meltdown, leadership continued to ignore the pleas and warnings of the employees in the trenches. We were still operating with 1990s technology. We didn’t have the tools we needed on the line to operate the sophisticated and large airline we had become.”
Details On Southwest’s Journey To Redeye Flights
Many believe the overnight connecting flights are the first step towards Southwest selling redeye flights. However, due to a current pilot shortage at the airline, Southwest probably won’t be offering redeyes anytime soon, according to the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“We are reducing our full-year 2023 growth plans due to a lower planning assumption for Boeing MAX deliveries this year,” CEO Bob Jordan said on the call. “This relates to the recent news of further supply chain challenges at Boeing. The outcome is a reduction to our 2023 capacity and capex outlook, and we are currently reevaluating our hiring needs relative to our most recent expectation to hire more than 7,000 net new employees this year.”
While redeyes may not be in Southwest’s near future, travelers are hopeful. However, following the announcement of the overnight connecting flights, the airline delayed the launch. The select flights were originally slated to begin on June 26. “The work has been delayed and we do not have a sell date and we’re working on communicating this update to our employees this week,” the company shared with View From the Wing.