Southwest CEO calls idea of profit this year 'unrealistic'

Southwest CE Gary Kelly said Wednesday he does not expect the airline will be profitable in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, snapping a 47-year streak of posting consecutive full-year profits. "As long as the case counts are high, I think that we have to expect that travel will be relatively modest," Kelly saidt. "We’re continuing to see traffic and revenues down 75% versus a year ago today and to think that would recover to the point we would be profitable I just think is unrealistic.” The company last month posted a $915m loss for Q2. Kelly said it is still burning through about $20m a day. "We're still losing cash every single day," he said. "We've got a long way to go before we can feel like we are out of intensive care." Southwest's has cut its scheduled flights by about 35% to 40%, Kelly added. "The airlines are less full," Kelly said, noting the airline was not booking middle seats. "The solution here is to get our passengers back -- not to try to shrink the airline so radically that we're prepared for a very, very modest travel environment," Kelly said.<br/>