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Shares of the company fell about 3% premarket, with those of
bigger rivals United Airlines Holdings Inc <UAL.O>, American
Airlines Group Inc <AAL.O> and Delta Airline Holdings <DAL.N>
falling about the same.
Southwest said it has seen a significant rise in ticket
cancellations and decline in traffic due to the epidemic, which
has killed over 3,000 people and caused airlines across the
world to cut flights and implement cost controls.
United Airlines on Wednesday suspended its full-year forecast
over the outbreak and said it would cut 20% of international
flights and 10% of U.S. flights in April as it launched a hiring
freeze, voluntary unpaid leaves and delayed salary increases for
executives.
Concerns over the still largely unknown impact of the virus led
top executives from Southwest, United Airlines, American
Airlines and JetBlue Airways Corp <JBLU.O> to meet with U.S.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Trump said the executives did not ask for any financial
assistance to make up for the hit to their businesses.
Southwest said it now expects first-quarter total revenue per
available seat mile - a closely followed measure of airline
performance - to be down 2% to up 1%, compared with a 3.5% to
5.5% growth it forecast earlier.
It said it expected operating revenue to take a $200 million to
$300 million hit. The company's total operating revenue for the
first quarter last year was $5.15 billion.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini
Ganguli)
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