• Southwest Airlines has been known for its affordable flights and fun personality since 1971.
• The airline laid off 15% of its headquarters staff in February, the first mass layoff in company history.
• Some current and former employees fear recent changes at the airline could kill its storied company culture.

Southwest Airlines has long billed itself as different from other carriers — but after the company's first-ever round of major layoffs, some employees say they worry it'll soon just become like every other airline.

Some of the teams affected by layoffs in February — the airline's only mass layoff since it started flying in 1971 — helped maintain a free-spirited culture that saw flight attendants singing announcements, gate agents putting up balloons, and employees making a music video called "Just Plane Fun," which promoted Southwest's lighthearted approach.

The company also thinned the ranks of its training staff — and greatly trimmed this year's internship program. Also gone: Its decades-old corporate rallies where leaders aimed to pump up the staff.

"The love is dead," one current Southwest headquarters employee told Business Insider. The person didn't want to give their name because they weren't authorized to speak to the press, but BI is aware of their identity.

How an activist firm helped upend Southwest

The changes come after nearly a year of upheaval at Southwest, during which time an activist investor bought a large stake in the airline and agitated for an operational revamp to cut costs and increase profitability.

Already, Southwest has given in to one of the most visible things that made it unique: its open-seating policy. Starting in the first half of next year, customers will get seat assignments like on any other airline.

The airline also relented on its one-class-fits-all cabin. It's embarking on an overhaul of its fleet to add premium seating, like those with extra legroom available for purchase — adding a new stream of revenue for the airline.

Now, the latest staff cuts, which saw 1,750 people — or about 15% of Southwest's corporate staff laid off — could mean the slow withering away of the rest of what made Southwest different, some employees say.

Southwest told BI that the airline would still stand out because of its culture, which it said is "woven in the fabric" of its employees.

The airline declined to detail specific department changes. It confirmed that CEO Bob Jordan has asked "all of us at Headquarters to run a leaner organization, and that means evolving the way we approach certain focus areas."

"The strength of Southwest's Culture is critical to the success of our business and our ability to serve our Customers," a spokesperson for the airline told BI in a statement. "The decision to have a reduction in our workforce was extremely difficult and focused almost entirely on Corporate and Leadership positions, but we made every attempt to offer the Employees affected with the care and support they deserve. Our People will continue to be what sets us apart as we drive the Company forward."

One of the teams to see a significant downsizing was the airline's "hospitality" group, the current employee said.

The hospitality team is in charge of tasks like reviewing customer feedback, creating initiatives to make flying Southwest more enjoyable, and hearing from frontline employees.

For instance, the snack cart you sometimes see at a gate during a long delay: That's part of the hospitality team.

Southwest confirmed to BI that its "culture department," which helped plan corporate rallies and other employee- and brand-focused initiatives was also among the teams affected by layoffs.

Aviation expert Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group told BI that the layoffs in certain departments could risk eliminating what made Southwest special.

"Culture is what helped distinguish Southwest Airlines, particularly the commitment to its people and how it went about hiring, training, retention, and more," he said.

Southwest could maintain its culture so long as longtime leaders pass down their institutional knowledge, he said

Conor Cunningham, an airline analyst with Melius Research, echoed those sentiments in recent notes to clients, calling Southwest's culture its "special sauce."

"A delicate balance is very much needed here, as culture is difficult to cultivate but easy to ruin," he said.

Customers may see a change from Southwest founder's original vision

Southwest, which launched in Texas, quickly became famous for its cowboy culture, hotpants-wearing flight attendants, and free on-board whiskey.

Charismatic, chain-smoking founder Herb Kelleher once avoided a legal battle by arm-wrestling another company's CEO over rights to the slogan "Just Plane Smart."

Kelleher's unorthodox methods promoted fun for Southwest customers and staff and pushed employees not to take themselves too seriously — and his leadership style inspired Doug Parker, the former CEO of Southwest's home state rival, American Airlines.

"As a younger CEO at industry meetings, I would just do everything I could to just hang around Herb, just to observe and hope I could get some of it through osmosis," Parker told BI in 2019. "He was in tune with what was happening at all levels of his company. And he really cared about it."

One laid-off employee in the technology department told BI they worry Southwest may lose loyal customers who specifically sought out the airline because of its culture and signature policies, like open seating, no-hassle trip changes, and free checked bags.

"I just feel like Southwest is done," the former employee said. "Why would [customers] choose our airline?" The person asked to remain anonymous because they don't want to hurt future hiring prospects, but BI is aware of their identity.

Not everyone has lost hope, though. Another laid-off employee, who asked not to be named for fear of losing their severance, told BI that everyone they interacted with still "maintains the culture to the best of their ability."

Colleen Barrett, a longtime leader alongside Kelleher who died last May, was also key to building Southwest's culture. For decades, she encouraged employees to promote respect, fun, and spirit during work to codify Southwest's people-focused reputation.

"Books have been written about Southwest and its culture," Harteveldt said. To Kelleher and Barrett, "Southwest was more than efficiency and low costs," he said. "They viewed the culture as an asset that made Southwest as a brand more relevant to travelers than competitors."

Elliott's new vision for Southwest

After Barrett's death, Elliott Management, the activist investor, soon announced its stake in Southwest and pushed to shake up the airline. Some employees said they thought Barrett had been the last gatekeeper of old Southwest culture.

The hedge fund said Southwest was leaving opportunities on the table, accusing the airline's leadership of a "stubborn unwillingness to evolve" its business practices, product offerings like the lack of premium seating, and technology infrastructure.

Even though Southwest has failed to turn an annual profit only once since 1973, Elliott noted that the airline's recent earnings were a mere fraction of what they were before the pandemic, while rivals have reported record hauls.

Southwest has also struggled to keep the price of its stock in line with competitors. Over the past year, its shares are down more than 12%, compared to Delta Air Lines, for example, which is up more than 40%

A spokesperson for Elliott Management declined to comment.

Now, with the latest changes — especially the job cuts in core culture-driving groups — there may be no one to stop Southwest from being just another run-of-the-mill US airline, some employees said.

"There's definitely a different culture from here on out," the former technology team member told BI. "I think people are going to realize this isn't Southwest."

The February layoffs come on top of a huge year of changes at Southwest. Consider this timeline:

• May 2024: Barrett dies at 79 after decades of building Southwest's culture.
• June 2024: Elliott Management takes a $1.9 billion stake in Southwest, or about 11% of its shares at the time, making it one of the company's largest shareholders.
• July 2024: Southwest announced the coming addition of premium cabins and an end to its famous open-seating policy.
• October 2024: Southwest names six new board seats, including five recommended by Elliott.
• January 2025: Employee rallies canceled, and Southwest's popular internship program downsized.
• February 2025: Southwest cuts 1,750 corporate employees, including hospitality staff. A day later, Elliott made an agreement with Southwest that would allow it to acquire up to a 19.9% stake.

Of course, Southwest's culture may endure even after the big changes. The company says it's making these changes to save $510 million over the next two years.

Its first red-eye flights and first international partnership took off in mid-February. Assigned seating will begin in the first half of 2026.

• An American Airlines flight collided with a helicopter, raising questions about air traffic control.
• Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a former Black Hawk pilot, said military and civilian pilots usually do not speak directly to each other.
• The FAA faces a shortage of controllers, impacting high-traffic areas like Washington DC.

The crash of an American Airlines flight in Washington, DC, has renewed anxiety about air-traffic control staffing and procedures at US airports, especially in crowded airspaces.

As investigators began to piece together how a military helicopter collided with the regional jet, questions swirled about communication between the pilots and Reagan National Airport's control tower.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an ex-Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot, told reporters that military aircraft usually do not talk directly to commercial pilots, as ATC is the responsible intermediary.

"Everybody's listening on the same frequency," she said, adding that the American flight that crashed would have been aware of the Black Hawk helicopter in the skies. "You are listening to instructions from ATC. ATC is telling you what to do."

Duckworth said an FAA briefing involving ATC tapes revealed the helicopter pilots were told about the passenger plane, and the crew confirmed "at least twice" that they had the jet in sight before the crash.

She added that the American flight was cleared to land and would have had the "right of way" and that the Black Hawk was told to pass behind. The flight was in visual flight conditions, meaning the helicopter would be visually searching for the plane.

"They would be looking up to try to find this aircraft, pick it out of the sky as it's coming in for a landing," she said.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, some military and civil aircraft, if equipped, can talk to each other using specific emergency frequencies. This is usually reserved for distress situations where immediate communication is necessary. It's unclear if the Black Hawk was equipped.

"[The Black Hawk's] flight path should have been hugging the east bank of the Potomac River, so they should not have been within the flight path of that landing aircraft," she said. "Did one of the aircraft stray away latitude, sideways in the airspace from the route that they were supposed to be on?"

National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said the DC area is a unique environment for helicopters and that the Black Hawk was transitioning zones at the time of the crash. ATC is one of the "human factors" the agency will examine as part of its investigation, he said.

Air traffic control is a complex system with many moving parts and no room for errors

The national air traffic system in the US is immense in both size and complexity, 14,000 air traffic controllers handle upwards of 45,000 flights a day across 29 million miles of airspace.

It's an intricate network that includes hundreds of regional and area control centers, each responsible for a specific piece of airspace.

A pilot flying from San Francisco to Washington, DC, for example, could interact with more than 20 different controllers during the flight.

The job is infamous for its high stress and heavy workload, which can involve managing upwards of a dozen flights at a time.

These stressors are amplified for airports like Ronald Reagan National. The airport has strict flight paths and altitude restrictions. It handles more than 25 million passengers a year and is located in highly trafficked and highly controlled airspace, as it is near the White House, Pentagon, and other government buildings.

The airport has seen multiple near misses recently, including a Southwest Airlines flight that was instructed to cross the same runway on which a JetBlue plane was starting its take-off.

A month later, an American Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff at the same time another plane was given the go-ahead to land on an intersecting runway.

Controllers working the airspace in and around Reagan National also have to handle an extraordinary amount of private and military aircraft that operate in the area.

The situation is exacerbated by a shortage of around 3,000 air traffic controllers, which the FAA has worked to address with plans to hire 1,800 controllers in 2024 and 2,000 this year.

• United and Delta are expanding flights to Europe to capitalize on strong travel demand.
• United and Delta are running 23% and 13% more flights to Europe compared to 2019, respectively.
• Both airlines are upping their European presence with new transatlantic routes.

Airlines say Europe remains among the biggest money-makers going into 2025 as people eagerly flock to more international destinations.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines said in recent earnings calls that they are deploying more seats than ever to Europe to take advantage of the booming travel demand, which has remained strong since the COVID-19 pandemic halted overseas vacations.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, United's passenger revenue to Europe increased 9.5% compared to 2023, with just a 2.3% increase in seat capacity.

Delta saw a 4% increase in transatlantic passenger revenue during the same period, despite a 2% reduction in capacity. (Delta's figures include Europe as well as half a dozen destinations in Africa and the Middle East.)

Both airlines have increased their planned transatlantic presence further into 2025, operating more than 100,000 flights total between the two, well above prior years according to data from Cirium.

Europe is no longer just a seasonal hot spot

Andrew Nocella, United's executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said during Wednesday's earnings call that Europe is becoming a "year-round destination" after being a less valuable revenue stream during off-peak months in previous years, like between January and March.

"Now we're seeing a totally different result, where people are willing to go on a Southern European vacation," he said. "And that really helps de-seasonalize Europe."

Nocella later said United expects quarter one to boast the best transatlantic financial performance in its first-quarter history.

He added that stronger hub connectivity with Star Alliance partner Lufthansa in Germany and money-making business traffic returning to London Heathrow are also helping United across the Atlantic.

Delta expressed a similar sentiment about Europe's desirability as a year-round destination for US travelers, specifically noting the strong dollar's additional buying power and the smaller crowd sizes compared to peak holiday periods.

"You go to a restaurant in New York and then go to a restaurant in Europe, you'll see a vast difference in the bill," Delta president Glen Hauenstein said in the airline's January 10 earnings call. "This is a great time to travel to Europe. People are seeing that."

The Atlanta-based carrier also said it does not believe strong off-peak season demand for transatlantic flights this winter will eat into consumers' appetite for summer travel.

Bernstein analyst David Vernon maintained a buy rating for United following its earnings report, saying international flying and premium services are particularly driving revenue.

CFRA Research analyst Ana Garcia said the firm expects United to see continued profitability. She said earnings are "buoyed by network optimization and operational improvements."

United's stock is up about 13% year-to-date, while Delta's is up about 9%.

New routes to Europe from United and Delta in 2025

United has become so bullish on Europe that it plans to launch new routes to off-the-beaten-path destinations in 2025 that aren't offered by competitors.

For example, this summer, the carrier will fly nonstop to Palermo, Italy, Faro, Portugal, and Nuuk, Greenland. These flights will complement United's already extensive transatlantic network, which includes flights to more than 30 European cities from the US.

Expected deliveries of the long-haul single-aisle Airbus A321XLR — the first expected in January 2026 — will help United push further into Europe as the jet can fly routes previously unprofitable with a widebody or unreachable with older narrowbodies. It will replace the airline's aging Boeing 757s.

Still, United said widebody supply constraints, including for airframes and engines, will impact its long-haul operations through at least the end of the decade.

The carrier has placed orders for 150 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and expects to receive 11 in 2025. That is down from the 18 expected in February 2024 .

Delta has not purchased the A321XLR, and it flies only a handful of Boeing 757 aircraft across the Atlantic.

The airline instead relies on a large fleet of older Boeing 767 and newer Airbus A330 and A350 widebodies to run more than 700 flights a week to 33 European destinations.

This summer, Delta will add new routes to locales in southern Europe, such as Barcelona and Catania and Naples in southern Italy.

• A judge rejected Boeing's plea deal with US prosecutors over 737 Max crashes.
• The deal involved Boeing pleading guilty to fraud and paying a $243.6 million fine.
• Boeing previously agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement with the Department of Justice in 2021.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a July plea deal between Boeing and US prosecutors, citing concerns with the role diversity, equity, and inclusion would play in selecting an independent monitor.

In his decision, Judge Reed O'Connor expressed doubts about Boeing's and the government's ability to select the monitor solely based on capability without consideration of race. The judge noted both groups' strong focus on DEI in their operating policies.

"In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency," the judge said in his decision. "The parties' DEI efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the Government and Boeing's ethics and anti-fraud efforts."

The Texas judge O'Connor also criticized regulators' work overseeing Boeing's progress under the deferred prosecution agreement it signed in 2021, writing in the decision: "It is fair to say the Government's attempt to ensure compliance has failed."

The case stems from two Boeing 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people, the first with Indonesia's Lion Air in October 2018 and the second with Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019. Faulty software was found to be the culprit in both crashes.

Victims' families opposed the plea agreement, voicing displeasure with the process for selecting an independent anti-fraud monitor and the fact that Boeing's compliance with the monitor's recommendations is not a required condition of its probation, court documents noted.

"This is an excellent decision by Judge O'Connor and an important victory for the victims' families," Erin Applebaum, a lawyer representing 34 families of victims lost on the Ethiopian Airlines flight, told Business Insider.

"We anticipate a significant renegotiation of the plea deal that incorporates terms truly commensurate with the gravity of Boeing's crimes," she added. "It's time for the DOJ to end its lenient treatment of Boeing and demand real accountability."

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to fraud, pay a $243.6 million fine, and allow an independent monitor to oversee safety and quality control at its factories.

However, regulators said Boeing violated that settlement after the January Alaska Airlines door plug blowout. The deal was set to expire two days after the Alaska incident.

In May, the Justice Department said Boeing had failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program."

In 2021, Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Department of Justice and families of the victims in January 2021 to settle charges of fraud conspiracy related to the fatal crashes.

Boeing's former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, was fired in December 2019 and was replaced by Dave Calhoun. Calhoun later stepped down in March 2024 after the Alaska blowout.

New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who started in August, has been tasked with overhauling the company culture and getting Boeing back on track with safety and its production targets.