Houston Intercontinental Airport Seeks To Replace Southwest Airlines’ Flights

Houston Airports says it is in discussions with U.S. airlines about filling the gap to be left when Southwest Airlines pulls out of Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) from Aug. 4.

Southwest is the dominant carrier at Houston Hobby Airport (HOU), with a more-than-90% passenger traffic share, but restarted service to IAH as well in 2021 after a 16-year absence. Houston Airports runs both IAH and HOU.

Citing “significant challenges presented by Boeing aircraft delivery delays and the related reduction in second-half 2024 capacity,” Southwest said last week it has “made the difficult decision” to pull out of four airports from Aug. 4: Bellingham, Washington; Cozumel, Mexico; IAH; and Syracuse, New York. Additionally, the carrier said it will implement “capacity reductions” at Atlanta and Chicago O’Hare.

According to its website, Southwest now operates to six airports nonstop from IAH: Chicago Midway; Dallas Love; Denver; Las Vegas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Orlando, Florida.

Cutting routes from IAH and other airports “is something we need to do,” CEO Bob Jordan said on Southwest’s recent first-quarter earnings call. “We need to manage ourselves, manage our appetite … [and] work on the part of the network that is underperforming and moderate our capacity until we are hitting our financial targets.”

Speaking of the new project, Szczesniak said: “Additional gates, baggage claim carousels and amenities will continue to elevate the passenger experience.”

Jordan said it is “never an easy decision to close a station or to materially reduce flights in the station. We love our airports … But again, we have a higher-than-normal portion of the network that's just not performing to the level that we need.”