Southwest Airlines Reportedly Halts Corporate Hiring, Suspends Most Summer Internships To Reduce Costs: Retail Turns Bullish

Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) CEO Bob Jordan reportedly told his staff in a note that the firm is halting corporate hiring and promotions, suspending most summer internships, and doing away with some employee team-building events to reduce costs and better margins.

“Every single dollar matters as we continue to fight to return to excellent financial performance,” Jordan said, according to a CNBC report.

A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman has reportedly confirmed the development. “We’ll continue to evaluate hiring needs on an ongoing basis to determine when it makes sense for the business to resume hiring,” she said in an email, according to the report.

“We made a lot of progress in 2024, and we have a lot of tangible momentum ... but we’re still far from our goal of returning to industry-leading profit margins,” Jordan reportedly wrote. “A key risk in 2025 is acting as if the urgency has passed and therefore not sustaining the focus and energy from 2024.”

The report added that the airline also halted employee “rallies,” a team-building tradition from 1985.

Following the development, retail sentiment on Stocktwits flipped into the ‘bullish’ territory (65/100) from ‘bearish’ a day ago.

In October last year, Southwest Airlines struck a deal with Elliott Investment Management after a months-long tussle with the activist investor. As part of the agreement, Executive Chairman Gary Kelly accelerated his retirement while Bob Jordan remained the CEO.

The firm also announced David Cush, Sarah Feinberg, Dave Grissen, Gregg Saretsky and Patricia Watson as independent directors of the Board.

Meanwhile, Southwest is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings before the bell on Jan. 30. Wall Street expects the firm to report earnings per share (EPS) of $0.44 on revenue of $6.95 billion.

Notably, Southwest Airlines shares have risen over 14% over the past year.

Also See: H&E Equipment Services Stock More Than Doubles On $4.8B Acquisition By United Rentals: Retail’s Enthusiastic

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