Southwest is making another change at Fort Lauderdale airport. What to know about move

Southwest Airlines is relocating flight attendants based at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the latest step in reducing activity at Florida’s third busiest airport.

Two “satellite flight attendant bases,” one in Fort Lauderdale and another in Austin will close July 1, a Southwest spokesperson said in an email.

That means about 125 flight attendants who have been based at FLL for as many as seven years will be transferred to one of the airline’s 12 primary bases across the United States.

“We are consolidating our flight attendant satellite bases into our primary 12 base cities as we work to further maximize our operational efficiency and reliability,” the emailed statement said. “This change will ultimately help strengthen our crew network and support a more reliable operation for our employees and customers.”

Each of these two “satellites,” which opened in 2018 in what the airline calls “a test,” has a small number of Southwest employees. The carrier has a total of nearly 20,000 flight attendants and most are based at one of the 12 bases, the airline said.

TWU Local 556, which represents Southwest flight attendants, declined to comment.

The change comes as Southwest Airlines has made other recent moves to reduce business at FLL.

Moving flights from FLL

Last June, Southwest shifted most of its international flights from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Orlando International Airport. The carrier had averaged six to nine daily international departures, depending on the season, to seven destinations. At that time, it added daily service between Orlando and Cancun; Grand Cayman; Nassau; Providenciales, Turks and Caicos; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and San José, Costa Rica.

Southwest wanted to better match its schedule to current travel patterns and get more out of the nearly 140 daily departures it already has from Orlando, a company executive said during an earnings call in October.

“This will offer better connectivity in our domestic network,” said Andrew M. Watterson, chief operating officer of Southwest.

Orlando’s airport carries people heading to Florida’s theme parks in Central Florida, including Universal and Walt Disney World. The airport also is the site of a new Brightline station, with trains that run to and from South Florida several times a day.

Orlando is one of Southwest’s 12 base cities, so many relocated flight attendants could end up there. Others include Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland and Los Angeles.

Southwest has seen decreased activity at FLL. In 2024, it carried just under 4 million passengers, an 18% decline from 2023, according to airport figures. The airline dropped from third to fourth place among carriers in number of passengers at FLL — while overall passenger volume last year at the airport increased slightly.

That trend is continuing so far this year. In January 2025, Southwest carried about 265,000 passengers to and from FLL, a 37% drop from the same month in 2024.

FLL isn’t the only airport feeling the impact of Southwest’s changes. Last September, the airline cut flights and pilots and flight attendants based in Atlanta.

Southwest also is making other changes as it battles to stay competitive.

Last year, Southwest said it will replace its open-seating configuration with assigned seats. It has also started red-eye overnight flights, which is putting more pressure on flight attendants.

This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM.