Southwest Is Dialing Back on Growth to Appease Investors
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Southwest Airlines Co. said it will cap growth in 2015 seating capacity at 7 percent, backing off a plan last month to expand as much as 8 percent that helped send U.S. carriers’ shares plunging.
“We don’t want to grow 8 percent, we’re not going to grow 8 percent and we can easily trim the schedule to stick to 7 percent” expansion of available seat miles, Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said Monday in an interview. The stock rallied on the news, reversing an earlier decline.