Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Southwest (LUV) Offers Staff Double Pay Over Jul 4 Weekend

Read MoreHide Full Article

Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV - Free Report) is offering higher overtime pay to encourage employees to work extra shifts to meet the surge in demand during the Independence Day travel week, CNBC reported. This highlights the steady recovery in air-travel demand as Americans get vaccinated and coronavirus-led restrictions ease.

In a staff note, Alan Kasher, Southwest’s executive vice president of daily operations, wrote that the company will be incentivizing its employees “during this busy holiday travel week by increasing overtime pay from July 1 through July 7”, the CNBC report stated.

In order to avoid flight disruptions during the presumably busy holiday travel period, Southwest will offer double pay to its flight attendants, and ground and cargo operations employees for picking up open shifts during the holiday travel period.


The carrier has also offered double pay for its pilots who pick up extra shifts, which the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association regarded as “inadequate”. The union said that it could not reach an agreement with the company regarding its incentive plan for pilots to pick up more flying.

After having reduced their workforces last year in response to the tepid air-travel demand, thanks to coronavirus-led restrictions, U.S. airlines are now rehiring staff as travel demand improves.

Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) reportedly plans to hire more than 1,000 pilots by next summer as air-travel demand continues to improve, especially on the leisure front. Southwest and other U.S. carriers, such as American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) and United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) , also announced plans to resume hiring staff.

Each of the stocks mentioned above carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Zacks Names “Single Best Pick to Double”

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

You know this company from its past glory days, but few would expect that it’s poised for a monster turnaround. Fresh from a successful repositioning and flush with A-list celeb endorsements, it could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in a little more than 9 months and Nvidia which boomed +175.9% in one year.

Free: See Our Top Stock and 4 Runners Up >>

Published in