Southwest expects to break even on "core" cash flow in
June as the travel rebound continues.
In a regulatory filing on June 8, the carrier said that
operating revenue in May was down just 35% from 2019,
which is in line with the upper end of guidance projections the carrier made
ahead of the month. Southwest expects July revenue to be down 20% from 2019 and August revenue down 15% to 20%.
While leisure travel predominantly continues to drive improvement, business travel demand is nudging upward. May business
travel revenue was down 77% from 2019 compared with
being down 80% in April, 85% in March and 90% in February.
Related stories
Southwest expects to fly 7% fewer seat miles this month than in June 2019. But it expects August capacity to be comparable to
the 2019.
In May, Southwest had core cash burn of approximately $2
million per day. But it expects to reach a break-even level this month.
The carrier doesn’t include the costs of financing transactions,
voluntary employee separation programs and employee emergency time-off programs
in its core cash burn metric. Proceeds from the federal payroll support program
also are not included in the calculation.