Air Transport

Southwest Airlines will exit three city pairs as it alters its schedule between November and 11 January.

Markets eliminated include: Birmingham, Alabama-Phoenix Arizona Nashville, Tennessee-Seattle, Washington and Nashville-Oakland, California.

During the same time frame Southwest will add frequencies to three existing routes: Orange County, California-Las Vegas Orlando, Florida-Baltimore/Washington International airport and Phonenix-Burbank, California.

The carrier also plans to cut close to 200 frequencies between November and mid-Janaury.

Southwest predicts capacity growth of 4% in 2008 as the carrier "continues to make the necessary adjustments to adapt to higher jet fuel prices and restore our profit margins", CEO Gary Kelly said last month.

As with other airlines, including fellow low cost carrier JetBlue Airways, Southwest is considering flat capacity growth in 2009.