Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 | 6:20 p.m.
Southwest Airlines will cut 13 Las Vegas flights, and add one, as part of a nationwide trimming of the airline's schedule during the typically slower winter months.
McCarran International Airport's busiest carrier will cut one round-trip each between Las Vegas and Albuquerque; Denver; Kansas City; San Francisco, Oakland, Ontario and Sacramento, Calif.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Reno; Seattle and St. Louis. The airline will add a daily round trip to Orange County's John Wayne Airport as part of the schedule change.
Southwest routinely decreases its flight schedules after the Christmas holiday, then ramps up in the spring. Spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said flights cut on Jan. 11 likely would return for spring break and summer vacations.
Southwest is cutting 190 flights nationwide, about 6 percent of its capacity. The company's operation at Chicago's Midway Airport took the biggest hit with 22 flights scratched.
Eichinger said a number of the decisions on where to cut flights is based on the likelihood of bad weather that can create delays.
Southwest currently offers an average of 239 flights a day to and from Las Vegas so the cuts represent a 5 percent reduction in capacity. Las Vegas is Southwest's busiest destination.
Southwest's capacity reduction comes on the heels of announced reductions in Las Vegas by United, Delta, Northwest, Allegiant, Frontier and US Airways. Phoenix-based US Airways, the second-busiest operator at McCarran, earlier this year announced capacity cuts that would trim nearly half its Las Vegas capacity, including most of its night flights, by the end of 2008
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