ST. LOUIS — Southwest Airlines Co., the busiest carrier at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, has extended its flight schedule into early 2023 as the carrier continues to restore its network and ramp up service.
The schedule extension announced Thursday enables customers to book flights through Jan. 4, 2023, and comes as Dallas-based Southwest looks to continue its momentum as it proceeds through a busy summer travel season. Southwest raised its revenue projection for the second quarter last month, citing an acceleration in bookings and strength in load factors.
"Summer is heating up early this year, and our network planning teams are focused on holiday travel options for Southwest customers ready to plan family gatherings and winter getaways," Adam Decaire, vice president of network planning, said in a statement.
Southwest (NYSE: LUV) regularly extends its flight schedule by six to 10 weeks at the end of where booking previously had been available as a standard course of business, according to a spokesman. The carrier has eight versions of the schedule for the November-December period ranging from 3,450 to 4,000 departures a day.
As for the airline's St. Louis schedule, Southwest made "a handful" of frequency changes, mostly seasonal, and its schedule averages between 100 and 112 departures a day depending on the month and day of week, a spokesman told the St. Louis Business Journal.
Earlier this year, Southwest canceled 20,000 flights from its summer schedule because of staffing constraints. A spokesman said the carrier cut its schedule on average by 4% to 7% each day but went back in and added flying in markets where the carrier saw demand.
Read the full story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
