Southwest to trim flights 4 percent

DALLAS, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Southwest Airlines said it would trim flights in 2009, after reporting a fourth quarter loss of $56 million.

The airline earned profits of $178 million for the year, a sharp reduction from 2007, when profits were $645 million, the Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram reported Friday.

Southwest said it would forge ahead with plans to begin service at New York's La Guardia Airport and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minnesota, but would reduce flights 4 percent overall.

The flight schedule cuts would not include cutting jobs, the airline's Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said.

"I don't know that we'll be adding a lot of jobs, but we're certainly not cutting any," he said.

Kelly told the Star-Telegram 2008 was "one of the most difficult years in aviation's 100-year-plus history."

American Airlines reported fourth quarter losses of $340 million Wednesday. United Airlines said it lost $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter.

A large portion of the Southwest's losses came, ironically, as fuel prices fell.

Southwest's hedged oil contracts, which lock in prices on future jet fuel purchases, were undermined when fuel prices fell dramatically in the second half of 2008, the newspaper said.