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Southwest Airlines will temporarily halt flights on three routes early next year as it deals with a decline in air traffic and tries to bend its schedule to fit seasonal demand. The airline published a new schedule Tuesday that covers flights from next Jan. 9 to March 12. The airline will cut one flight per day on 92 routes and increase service on 42 routes, usually by one trip per day as well.

Southwest also will suspend service between Albuquerque (ABQ) and Portland (PDX); and between Manchester (MHT) and Phoenix (PHX) with flights resuming in February. Flights between Kansas City (MCI) and Seattle (SEA) will stop in January and resume in May, according to the airline. Conversely, Southwest will add nonstop service from St. Louis (STL) to Boston (BOS) and Minneapolis (MSP) in January.

Southwest Airlines launches service today from Boston’s Logan International Airport, even as it shrinks its overall flying for the first time ever. The aircraft for the 10 daily flights – five each to Chicago’s Midway Airport and Baltimore/Washington International – were taken from weaker routes on Southwest’s flying schedule of 3,300 daily departures.

Southwest Airlines is seeking to trump a rival bid and acquire Frontier Airlines, a Denver-based carrier operating under bankruptcy protection. A court had already approved the sale of Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. to the parent of Republic Airways for $108.8 million, but that deal can be nixed if a better offer comes along. Dallas-based Southwest said it submitted a nonbinding bid of $113.6 million. Southwest hopes that making the bid will allow it to talk with Frontier and get information to help shape its final proposal. Southwest said it faces an Aug. 10 deadline for submitting a binding bid. If there is more than one qualified bidder, an auction will be held the following day.

Southwest Airlines said Tuesday its second-quarter profit fell to $54 million, or 7 cents a share, from $321 million, or 44 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the Dallas-based airline said it earned 8 cents a share.

Southwest Airlines inspected about 200 planes overnight after a football-sized hole opened up in the passenger cabin of a jet in flight, forcing an emergency landing in West Virginia. Travelers on the Boeing 737 aircraft could see through the 1-foot-by-1-foot hole that appeared during the flight Monday. The cabin lost pressure, but no one was injured on the Nashville-to-Baltimore flight with 126 passengers and five crew members on board. Passenger Brian Cunningham told NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday that he had dozed off in his seat in mid-cabin when he was awakened by “the loudest roar I’d ever heard.” He said the hole was above his seat. People stayed calm and put on the oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling. The incident occurred just four months after Southwest agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle charges that it operated planes that had missed required safety inspections for cracks in the fuselage.

Southwest Airlines will pay a fine of $7.5 million for flying planes that had missed crucial safety checks – $2.5 million less than government regulators initially ordered last year. The agreement announced by the Federal Aviation Administration also gives the Dallas airline nearly two years to pay the fine in three installments of $2.5 million each. The airline was fined for flying 46 airplanes on 59,791 flights without performing mandatory inspections for fuselage cracks. The planes carried an estimated 145,000 passengers.

Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines said it plans to begin flying out of Boston’s Logan International Airport by the fall. Chief executive Gary Kelly said the airline is planning “a conservative launch” with between eight and 12 daily departures from Logan. He said Southwest probably will just fly to a couple of destinations initially, but the airline does not plan to unveil its new routes until the spring. Southwest’s arrival in Boston, Kelly said, will result in 35 to 40 new jobs at the airport.

Southwest Airlines, historically the U.S.’ most profitable carrier, on Thursday reported a loss for the quarter, but a profit for the year. The airline said that it lost $56 million in the fourth quarter, including special items, compared with a $111 million profit in 2007. Full-year profit fell to $178 million, from $645 million in 2007. Southwest said it had reduced its aircraft deliveries for 2010 to 10 planes, and disclosed plans to trim its operations a further 4% nationally due to softening demand.

Southwest Airlines Co. confirmed reports Friday that a pilot is now on leave while the airline and the FAA investigate claims a passenger made in Columbus, Ohio, about the pilot smelling of alcohol shortly before a departure. A spokesman for Dallas-based Southwest says the Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating the matter, but nothing has been confirmed at this point. The flight in question was flight 3396 from Columbus, Ohio to Orlando, Fla., Southwest said.

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) has agreed to pay $7.5 million for bankrupt ATA Airlines’ landing slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The deal would include 14 slots, enough to operate 7 flights per day. The deal is subject to approval by the court handling ATA’s bankruptcy filing. If approved, Southwest expects to start flying from LaGuardia sometime next year.

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) will begin flying to Minneapolis in March, 2009. The low-cost carrier will only offer flights between Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and Chicago’s Midway airport. The company didn’t reveal how many flights it will offer, however, the carrier expects to take up to three gates at MSP.

Citing high fuel costs and a weakening economy, Southwest Airlines (Dallas) will cut 196 flights from its new schedule which goes into effect on January 11. That is nearly 6 percent of the airline’s daily schedule of close to 3,400 flights. Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said in June that the Dallas-based low-cost carrier hoped to grow modestly in 2009. But he tempered that outlook by saying the expansion plans could be scrapped if oil prices remain high or the economy weakens.

The Federal Aviation Administration says a Southwest Airlines (Dallas) Boeing 737 at Los Angeles International Airport got within 50 yards of a runway in which a SkyWest Airlines (St. George) Embraer EMB-120 was on short final to land. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilot of the Southwest flight bound for Sacramento on Sunday morning did not have permission from a controller to cross onto the runway. The SkyWest flight was instructed to go around before touching down. Sunday morning’s incident was the eighth runway incursion at the airport since October 1.

A bomb threat grounded a Southwest Airlines (Dallas) Boeing 737 overnight at the Kansas City International Airport. Airline officials say they received two phoned-in bomb threats around 9 p.m. (local time) about Southwest flight 46, which departed from Dallas and was scheduled to land in Kansas City before continuing on to Chicago. The airplane was taken to a secure location on the airfield while it was searched by police and bomb-sniffing dogs. The 134 people onboard the aircraft were loaded onto a bus on the tarmac and transported away from the aircraft. No explosives were found, and the flight was cleared to continue on to Chicago just before midnight. Investigators are continuing to work on who made the threats.

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) announced two new routes from Denver today. The additional service includes new nonstop flights between Denver and Portland and Indianapolis, as well as increased frequencies between Denver and Las Vegas.

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) says that they are facing an increase of $500 million USD more on fuel this year than it spent in 2007. Southwest spent nearly $2.54 billion USD on fuel last year, and the increase for 2008 is nearly equal to the airline’s profits from 2007. A spokesman for the carrier said that they would try to offset rising fuel costs by raising more revenue and by cutting other costs.

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) has grounded forty-four thirty-eight (38) of their Boeing 737 aircraft pending inspection in the wake of a $10.2 million USD fine being levied against the airline by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA is alleging that the carrier flew forty-six (46) of their aircraft last year without completing mandatory inspections of the fuselage and rudder system. Southwest is continuing their own investigation into this matter. Additionally, the airline placed three (3) of their employees on administrative leave yesterday and hired an outside expert to review its maintenance procedures. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly expressed concern “with some of our findings as to our controls over procedures within our maintenance airworthiness directive and regulatory compliance processes. I have insisted that we have the appropriate maintenance organizational and governance structure in place to ensure that the right decisions.”

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) prides itself on maintaining a clean safety record since starting operations in 1967. Now, the United States government is looking to put a very large blemish on that record. Documents submitted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to congressional investigators allege that the airline flew at least 117 of its aircraft in violation of mandatory safety checks.

The checks stem from several incidents in the history of the Boeing 737 aircraft. In 1994, a USAir 737 crashed in Pittsburgh killing 132. Three years earlier, a United Airlines 737 crashed in Colorado Springs, killing 25. Investigators blamed both crashes on problems in the aircrafts’ rudder control system. This would lead the FAA to demand regular checks of the 737’s rudder system. Additionally, long-term, mandatory checks for fuselage cracks were required after the cabin of an Aloha Airlines 737 tore apart in mid-air in 1988, killing a flight attendant.

Documents show that Southwest Airlines voluntarily disclosed some of the missed inspections last spring. However, even after the airline’s disclosure, FAA inspectors assert that planes continued to fly, in some cases for more than a week before inspections were complete. A FAA inspector is quoted as saying, “Southwest Airlines at the time of discovery did not take immediate, corrective action as required to address this unsafe condition and continued to fly the affected aircraft with paying passengers.”

U.S. aviation regulators are seeking a penalty of at least $10 million USD from Southwest Airlines for failing to properly inspect their fleet. Represetative James Oberstar from Minnesota says it is one of the worst safety violations that he has ever seen and is expected to call a hearing on the matter as soon as possible to ask why the airline put its passengers in such danger.

Photo: Southwest Airlines only operates the Boeing 737 in its fleet of over 500 aircraft. (Photo Copyright Zachary Colescott)

A Southwest Airlines (Dallas) flight enroute to Chicago Midway has returned to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport after pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. A airline spokeswoman says that a short-circuit in a control panel caused the smoke shortly after takeoff, but that there was no fire on board. The Boeing 737 was carrying 126 passengers and a crew of 5. It landed safely and without incident.

A former Southwest Airlines (Dallas) employee and her husband pled guilty to wire fraud, acknowledging they stole more than 5,000 plane tickets. Althea Jackson acknowledged acquiring about 5,600 courtesy airline tickets when she worked at Southwest from 2001 to 2005. The tickets, which are normally given to inconvenienced passengers and vendors, were sold by Jackson and her husband below market value to friends, co-workers and other acquaintances.

Prosecutors said the defendants sold them for cash from 2000 to 2003, and estimate the scam was worth as much as about $1.8 million. The two each face as many as 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines but will likely get 2-2.5 years in prison and a reduced fine under the plea agreement. The couple will be sentanced in May 2008.