Southwest Airlines will revamp its board and the chairman will retire next year, but it intends to keep CEO Robert Jordan in a partial concession to hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, which has been pushing for changes at the airline including Jordan’s ouster.
Southwest said Tuesday that six directors will leave the board in November and it plans to appoint four new, independent directors, potentially including candidates put forward by Elliott.
Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. fell 4% in morning trading Tuesday.
Elliott, the fund led by billionaire investor Paul Singer, has built a 10% stake in recent weeks and advocated changes it says will improve Southwest’s financial performance and stock price.
Elliott blames Southwest’s management for the airline’s lagging stock price -- even after a rally in the past month it has dropped by more than half since April 2021. The hedge fund wants to replace Jordan , who has been CEO since early 2022, and Chairman Gary Kelly, the airline’s previous chief executive.
Southwest said Tuesday that Kelly has agreed to retire after the company’s annual meeting next year. Kelly was among three Southwest directors who met with Elliott representatives Monday in New York. Six other directors, including the chairs of three board committees and former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., will leave in November.
In a letter to shareholders Tuesday, Kelly wrote that Southwest’s recovery from the pandemic has been challenging because of higher costs.
“Now is the time for change," Kelly wrote. "It’s time to shake things up, not just stir them a bit.” He said changes to Southwest's routes, marketing and seating will transform the airline.
However, he dismissed changing the CEO, calling Jordan “a hands-on, detailed, and insightful thinker” who understands Southwest's “unique brand" and enjoys unanimous support of the board.
Elliott praised the moves but suggested that its pressure on Southwest is not over.
“We are pleased that the board is beginning to recognize the degree of change that will be required at Southwest, and we hope to engage with the remaining directors to align on the further necessary changes,” the hedge fund said. Elliott said its nominees are "the right people to steady the board and chart a new course for the airline."
Elliott has argued that Southwest leaders haven’t adapted to changes in customers’ preferences and failed to modernize Southwest’s technology, contributing to massive flight cancellations in December 2022. That breakdown cost the airline more than $1 billion.
Southwest has improved its operations, and its cancellation rate since the start of 2023 is slightly lower than industry average and better than chief rivals United, American and Delta, according to FlightAware. However, Southwest planes have been involved in a series of troubling incidents this year, including a flight that came within 400 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to increase its oversight of the airline.
Southwest was a profit machine for its first 50 years — it never suffered a full-year loss until the pandemic crushed air travel in 2020.
Since then, Southwest has been more profitable than American Airlines but far less so than Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Through June, Southwest’s operating margin in the previous 12 months was slightly negative compared with 10.3% at Delta, 8.8% at United and 5.3% at American, according to FactSet.
Southwest was a scrappy upstart for much of its history. It operated out of less-crowded secondary airports where it could turn around arriving planes and take off quickly with a new set of passengers. It appealed to budget-conscious travelers by offering low fares and no fees for changing a reservation or checking up to two bags.
Southwest now flies to many of the same big airports as its rivals. With the rise of “ultra-low-cost carriers,” it often gets undercut on price. It added fees for early boarding.
In April, before Elliott disclosed it was buying Southwest shares, Jordan hinted at more changes in the airline’s longstanding boarding and seating policies.
The CEO announced in July that Southwest will drop open seating, in which passengers pick from empty seats after they board the plane, and start assigning passengers to seats, as all other U.S. carriers do. Southwest also will sell premium seats with more legroom and launch red-eye flights.
And while Southwest still lets bags fly free, it has surveyed passengers to gauge their resistance to checked-bag fees.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet sits at a gate at the Tulsa International Airport Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Tulsa. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as mourners marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, without disrupting a nearby ceremony.
Hamas also said it attacked Israeli forces in different parts of Gaza. The Israeli military said it launched a wave of artillery and airstrikes overnight and into Monday to thwart what it said was an imminent attack. It said it targeted Hamas launch posts and underground militant infrastructure.
The fighting on the anniversary underscored the militants’ resilience in the face of a devastating Israeli offensive that has killed around 42,000 Palestinians, according to local medical officials. It has also destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population.
Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into nearby army bases and farming communities in a surprise attack one year ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding around 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has also vowed to strike Iran in response to a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.
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BEIRUT — The Israeli military Monday warned people in over a dozen towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate, including the coastal town where the U.N. peacekeeping mission is headquartered.
Israeli evacuation warnings in recent days have expanded to include a provincial capital, as troops continue their ground incursion backed by intense airstrikes.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, is headquartered in Naqoura, not far from the coastal city of Tyre.
Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson Avichay Adraee in a post on X told residents to immediately flee north. “You are not allowed to head southward,” the statement read. “Any movement to the south puts your lives at risk.”
Lebanon’s cash-strapped government estimates that some 1.2 million people have been displaced in the fighting and it's struggling to support them.
Israel says its aim is to weaken Hezbollah to allow its displaced residents to move back to northern Israel. Hezbollah maintains that it will stop firing rockets at Israel when there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, in solidarity with its ally Hamas.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate areas near the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip after Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv.
The military had also ordered an evacuation of the areas east of Khan Younis earlier in the war when it sent ground troops into the territory’s second largest city.
The latest orders on Monday came after a barrage of five rockets triggered air raid sirens in central Israel, lightly wounded two women and caused minor damage. The military said the rockets were fired from the area of Khan Younis.
Hamas claimed the attack, which came as Israelis marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war.
On Sunday, the military reiterated warnings for the entire population of northern Gaza to flee south. Those warnings date back to the early weeks of the war, when Israeli forces sealed off the north and launched heavy operations there.
A year of war has inflicted heavy losses on Hamas, but its fighters have repeatedly regrouped in areas where Israel has carried out large operations.
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “arose as a nation as lions” following the Oct. 7 attack a year ago.
“We remember our fallen, our hostages — whom we are committed to return — our heroes who fell in defense of our homeland and country. We went through a terrible massacre a year ago and we arose as a nation as lions,” Netanyahu said at a memorial commemorating the anniversary of the attack.
He visited the memorial in Jerusalem for civilians, first responders and soldiers killed in the Hamas-led attack and the war it ignited. He spoke alongside the mayor of Jerusalem as the two held a small tribute at an event that appeared closed to the public.
Netanyahu has faced heavy criticism for security lapses that allowed the attack to unfold and mass protests over his failure to return some 100 hostages still held in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The attack one year ago killed some 1,200 people across southern Israel, mostly civilians. Palestinian militants dragged some 250 hostages back to Gaza. The subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million population.
WASHINGTON — The State Department says nearly 700 American citizens, green card holders and family members have now left Lebanon aboard U.S.-contracted planes since late September.
The department said Monday that about 90 passengers — less than a third of the planes 300-person capacity — departed Beirut for Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday on the latest flight.
Hundreds of other Americans have left Lebanon aboard regularly scheduled commercial flights since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensified.
The department said it has made more than 2,900 seats available for Americans on those flights.
BEIRUT — Jordan’s top diplomat on Monday slammed Israel’s war with the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon, saying it is pushing the Middle East into the “abyss of full-scale regional war.”
“We are facing a disaster and a dangerous escalation that threatens the region,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. “Israel bears responsibility of this aggression, the escalation in the region, and any new escalation that the region faces.”
He spoke in a news conference following a meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut.
Safadi said that Jordan backs the Lebanese government’s initiative to elect a new president and commitment to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, and that would keep southern Lebanon exclusively under the control of the Lebanese military and U.N. peacekeepers.
He added that Jordan, like Lebanon, backed an initiative by the United States and France for a three-week cease-fire in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, as the region braces for an Israeli retaliation for Iran's missile attack, Safadi said Jordan rejects either country using its airspace in their tit-for-tat hostitilies.
“We will not a battlefield for anyone,” he said. “We made this message clear to Iran and to Israel as well.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended a vigil commemorating the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and walked in Melbourne with members of the Jewish community and lawmakers from across party lines.
Albanese was not expected to speak at the vigil, attended by thousands. In a statement, he said the day carried “terrible pain” and his government “unequivocally” condemned Hamas’ actions.
“Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day -- and as a nation we say never again,” he said.
“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith,” Albanese said. He acknowledged the “devastating” loss of civilian lives since Oct. 7.
Hundreds of people gathered Monday night at Sydney town hall for a vigil for Palestinian lives lost in the conflict amid a heavy police presence. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters had rallied across Australia’s cities on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the first of two repatriation flights organized by the Australian government to transport Australians from Lebanon touched down in Sydney on Monday evening with nearly 350 people on board.
KIBBUTZ BE’ERI, Israel — Members of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities during the Oct. 7 attack, gathered amid the burned ruins of their homes and demanded an immediate return of the hostages during a memorial and rally on Monday.
More than 95 people were killed there and 30 were taken hostage on Oct. 7, according to the community’s spokesperson. Some of the women and children from the kibbutz were released in a cease-fire deal in November, but 10 hostages from Be’eri remain in captivity. Israel believes most of them are no longer alive.
On Monday, the community marched silently through the streets of the kibbutz bearing signs of the hostages before gathering for a rally, unfurling a massive flag with the words “Be’eri cannot heal until everyone is home.”
Ella Ben-Ami, whose father Ohad Ben-Ami was kidnapped from Be’eri, addressed the crowd and demanded the government of Israel bring her father home.
She said she continues to take solace from the video of his kidnapping, when he stands tall and proud, as if he knew he was being filmed, to broadcast a message to his family that he would be OK.
Many people at Be’eri were dreading the anniversary, which felt like an “impossible” amount of time, she said. “But then I stop for a moment I think that my father woke up today to count a year in captivity, a year!” she said.
ROME — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who has voiced strong support for Israel, commemorated the Oct. 7 anniversary by visiting the main synagogue in Rome and reaffirming Israel’s right to defend itself.
Meloni also denounced the “latent and rampant antisemitism” that has arisen in the year since the Hamas attacks, citing in particular pro-Palestinian protests in Italy over the weekend, some of which turned violent.
While asserting Israel’s lights to live safely within its borders, she insisted that it respect international law and lamented the devastation unleashed by Israeli forces in Gaza. She said Palestinians in Gaza had been “victims twice over: first of Hamas’ cynicism, which uses them as human shields, and then of Israeli military operations.”
As the current president of the Group of Seven, Italy will continue to work for an immediate cease-fire, “the release of Israeli hostages and the stabilization of the Israeli-Lebanese border through the full implementation of U.N. resolutions,” Meloni said.
Since coming to office in 2022, Meloni has taken several initiatives to show her strong support for Italy’s Jewish community and Israel. Her Brothers of Italy party has roots in the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, or MSI, which was founded in 1946 by sympathizers of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said on Monday that projectiles fired from Gaza set off sirens in central Tel Aviv, as Israel marks a year to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The sirens came as Israelis were marking the anniversary to the deadliest attack in their country’s history. That attack one year ago began with a volley of rockets from Gaza.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes hit two makeshift points used by Hamas-run police at a hospital in central Gaza, wounding a journalist. There were no police present at the sites when they were hit early Monday.
Ali al-Attar, a journalist working for Al Jazeera, was hit by shrapnel while he was inside a tent used by reporters nearby, according to an Associated Press journalist.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, operated a police force numbering in the tens of thousands before the war. They have adopted a low profile after being repeatedly targeted by Israeli strikes but still maintain control on the ground in Gaza.
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Hezbollah militant group on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to support Hamas by fighting Israel along Lebanon's southern border.
The statement came a year after its allies from the Palestinian Hamas group staged a surprise attack into southern Israel, setting off the war, and amid ongoing intense Israeli airstrikes and a ground incursion into Lebanon.
Hezbollah maintains that it will stop its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, and although its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed. Large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon have been targeted in Israeli airstrikes.
“We are confident, God willing, in the ability of our resistance to repel the aggression, and in our great and resistant people to be patient, steadfast, and endure until this calamity is removed,” Hezbollah said.
The Lebanese government estimates that some 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced, mostly during the escalations less than a month ago.
Hezbollah also praised Iran and other Tehran-backed groups in the region, notably Yemen's Houthis and Iraqi Shiite militias for their attacks on Israel.
BE’ERI, Israel — Across southern Israel on Monday, families gathered in spots where their loved ones were killed during Hamas’ attack, marking a year since the assault that sparked the war in Gaza.
They crowded into roadside bomb shelters that became death traps when people seeking shelter from Hamas rockets and militants were sprayed with bullets or struck by grenades.
People were also visiting spots on the side of a main road marked with memorials.
In Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities struck in Hamas’ attack, where roughly 100 residents were killed and 30 kidnapped on Oct. 7, hundreds marched silently holding signs bearing photos of people still being held captive in Gaza. They held a rally in front of homes destroyed in the attack.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron took to social media on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary since Hamas’ attack on Israel.
“The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity,” Macron said on X. “We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting. I send them our fraternal thoughts.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was in Israel for the anniversary and attended a memorial service at the site of the Nova music festival where hundreds were killed in Hamas’ attack.
Barrot, talking to the families of victims, pledged France’s support in the face of “the worst anti-Semitic massacre in our history since the Holocaust.”
“The joyful dawn of what should have been a day of celebration was suddenly torn apart by unspeakable horror,” he said. “France mourns alongside Israel our 48 compatriots victims of barbarism.”
Barrot, who is expected to speak with his counterpart Israel Katz later Monday, said that Macron will also meet in Paris with family members of Israelis held hostage today.
TOKYO — Japan has expressed its condolences to families of victims on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and demanded the immediate release of hostages.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Monday that Japan is seriously concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip amid continued fighting, the large number of civilian casualties and the ongoing security threats to both Israeli and Palestinian people.
“Japan continues to urge all parties including Israel to comply with international law, including international humanitarian law, and strongly urges them to steadily work toward realization of a cease-fire,” Hayashi said.
He added that Japan strongly supports mediation efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar in achieving negotiations for the release of the hostages and a cease-fire.
TEL AVIV, Israel — A group representing the families of Israeli hostages announced on Monday the death of a captive whose body is still being held in Gaza.
The Hostages and Families Forum said Idan Shtivi, 28, was captured from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. He was thought to have been taken alive.
Israeli media reported that he was killed that day and his body was taken into Gaza.
It was not immediately clear how Shtivi’s death became apparent, but in previous such announcements, the Israeli military has discovered evidence indicating a hostage’s death.
The announcement of Shtivi’s death comes as Israelis are marking one year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, where militants killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others. About 100 remain in captivity, although more than a third of those are said to be dead.
RE’IM, Israel — Hundreds of families and friends of people killed at the Nova music festival gathered Monday at the site of the attack, where nearly 400 were gunned down during Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault.
Families gathered around photos of their loved ones, which were arranged in a semicircle around what was the DJ stage. Many lit candles and added mementos or photos, crying and embracing. Overhead, army helicopters circled and constant booms echoed across the area, causing many to flinch.
“We can’t understand how a year has passed,” said Shimon Busika, whose son, Yarden, 25, was killed at the festival. “It’s the most natural place to be, to be here for this moment of silence,” he said.
Busika said it took them a long time, piecing together testimony from other survivors, to understand what happened in Yarden’s last moments. They now know he was killed around 9:20 near a yellow container at the festival where many others were killed, and they will hold a second minute of silence there at the moment he was killed.
The last sounds of the trance track that was playing at the Nova site on Oct. 7 one year ago stopped abruptly, as hundreds of family members and friends of the more than 300 victims stood in a moment of silence. One woman’s piercing wail broke the silence as booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few kilometers (miles) away.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Twenty Indonesian nationals and a Lebanese evacuated from Lebanon arrived in Jakarta on a commercial flight early Monday and will likely be followed by 20 more in the afternoon, officials said.
President Joko Widodo has called to prioritize the evacuation of Indonesians in Lebanon as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalate and fears of a wider regional war in the Middle East grow.
“I have directed the foreign affairs minister to take immediate action to ensure the safety and protection of our citizens and expedite their evacuation,” Widodo said last week.
Indonesia’s Embassy in Beirut had prepared evacuation procedures for citizens as part of its contingency planning since August. The Embassy evacuated 25 Indonesian citizens who returned safely to Indonesia last month, said Judha Nugraha, Director of Indonesian Citizen Protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
There are 116 registered Indonesian citizens in Lebanon, most of them students, migrant workers and people married to Lebanese nationals. Many of them have chosen to remain there for various reasons, Nugraha said.
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement Monday that the day carried “terrible pain” and his government “unequivocally” condemned Hamas' attack on Israel a year ago.
Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns on Oct. 7 a year ago, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise attack.
Albanese said that since the attack, Jewish Australians have “felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day — and as a nation we say never again.”
“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith,” Albanese said.
He added that “every innocent life matters” and the number of civilians killed in the conflict was “a devastating tragedy.”
“Today we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible, and the belief that it belongs to all people,” Albanese said.
BEIRUT — A new round of airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs late Sunday as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Lebanon. Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque in Gaza killed at least 19 people.
Rocket sirens and blasts were heard in Haifa in northern Israel late Sunday, and Hezbollah claimed the attack.
Israel’s military said at least five projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon and “fallen projectiles” were found in the area. The military showed what appeared to be rubble along a street. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it was treating a teen with shrapnel injuries to the head and a man who fell from a window due to a blast.
Lebanese men ride a scooter past a damaged building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Victoria stands in front a picture of her sister, Yulia Waxer Daunt, as she visits the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A man takes pictures by his mobile phone of destroyed buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Victoria stands in front a picture of her sister, Yulia Waxer Daunt, as she visits the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)