Southwest sees break-even by June

Southwest hopes to break even by mid-2021 as air travellers return in greater numbers. Gary Kelly, the Dallas-headquartered airline’s CE, says on Monday that the company’s cash burn has slowed and revenue is improving thanks to increasing demand for leisure travel. Southwest lost $3b in 2020, its first full-year loss since 1972, ending a 47-year streak of profitability. “It feels like it’s the beginning of the end,” Kelly says. “Our hope is that by the time we get to June, where you’ve had most of the population having had access to vaccinations, we have got a chance at breaking even at least.” In a 15 March filing with the SEC, Southwest said its average daily cash burn in February was $17m. It expects Q1 daily cash burn to come in around $14m. That is down from a high of $30m daily in April 2020, just weeks after the pandemic took hold. “My hope is that by the time we get to the end of this year we have most of this pandemic behind us,” Kelly adds.<br/>