Southwest Airlines warns on third quarter performance

In an update, Southwest Airlines has reported that July 2021 operating revenues performed in line with expectations, driven primarily by strong leisure passenger traffic and fares which were both above July 2019 levels. Southwest’s July 2021 managed business revenues also performed in line with expectations and decreased approximately 63% compared with July 2019. However, the airline has reported that it has recently experienced a “deceleration in close-in bookings and an increase in close-in trip cancellations in August 2021, which are believed to be driven by the recent rise in COVID-19 cases associated with the Delta variant”. Based on the assumption