Southwest Airlines shifting bulk of international service to Orlando

Southwest Airlines shifts service to Orlando

Southwest Airlines is shifting the bulk of its international service to Orlando, the company's chief operating officer said in a quarterly earnings call last week.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Southwest Airlines is shifting the bulk of its international service to Orlando, the company's chief operating officer said in a quarterly earnings call last week.

Andrew Watterson said the move from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando will "offer better connectivity in our domestic network via the nearly 140 daily departures at MCO. We are fully committed to delivering on a plan that enables operational excellence, improves operational efficiency."

Southwest took a second look at its network and moved capacity around to accommodate the move a few hours north.

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"Orlando being a little bit further north and having more flights for Southwest Airlines north of Orlando allows us to have the good complement of the local, plus the flow," Watterson said. "So a lot of the international destinations were to take our customer base here on vacation because we are a repeat purchase business.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - OCTOBER 11: A Southwest Airlines airplane taxies from a gate at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on October 11, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland. Southwest Airlines is working to catch up on a backlog afte

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"And so we want our network in any given location to offer chances to fly for business, to go to Orlando, to go to Vegas, to go see grandma, to go on vacation and the beach. And so sometimes, that's nonstop."

As far as international services goes, Watterson said connections play a big role, especially for cities further north.

"So Orlando, the combination of the local market, plus allowing us to access our big customer bases on the Upper Midwest and Northeast, makes a more network sense given scarce capacity, if you will," he said.

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There's also some relief when it comes to crews based in Orlando.

"(The pilot domicile) in Orlando also makes the costs to serve that go down because you're not staging crews in down to Fort Lauderdale," Watterson said. "So work on both sides of the equation, as (Executive Vice President of Corporate Services Bob Jordan) said, revenue and costs, it made more sense for our international anchor in the Southeast to be Orlando."

FOX 35 News has reached out to Southwest Airlines and Orlando International Airport for more details.