We are navigating in uncharted waters.

During this crisis, each of us is making the best decisions we can for ourselves, our families and our businesses.

Over the past several weeks, as more of our guests shelter in place at home, demand for air travel has plummeted. In recent days, some of our flights have had only several passengers onboard.

But it remains essential that we keep flying. Some of you have a critical need for us to get you somewhere, and it’s crucial we keep cargo moving, which includes transporting mail, food, medicine, medical supplies and an increasing amount of goods that are being ordered online.

These are unprecedented times that call for unprecedented measures.

We’ve therefore made the difficult decision to implement significant capacity reductions for April and May throughout our network. We’re decreasing our flying by approximately 80% systemwide for each month.

We normally average 1,300 daily flights, so that’s about 950 fewer flights a day.

Some regions we serve will see an even greater reduction of service, such as Hawaii, where the governor has issued a mandatory, 14-day self-isolation quarantine for all travelers entering the state. The state of Alaska has also initiated a similar quarantine process.

Outside of Alaska and Hawaii, we’re still maintaining our basic network footprint but with significantly reduced frequencies of service and the elimination of nearly all red-eye flights. For the capacity reductions, we also selected routes with lower load factors. This allows us to more easily accommodate guests who are traveling to get to their destinations in a timely manner.

Additional reductions are possible as we learn more about demand in the weeks ahead.

This is a time with a lot of uncertainty for many, and we’re thinking about all our guests and the communities we serve.

We’re also grateful to our tremendous employees – from the frontline to maintenance crews to those helping you make changes to your travel plans – who’ve kept our airline operating safely, and to our guests who have expressed their appreciation.

We are realistic about the challenges we’re facing, and those ahead. But we’re also eager to resume service and get back to flying our full schedule.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

This story was originally published on March 25, stating our flying was reduced to 70% systemwide for April and May. For additional information about our flexible travel policies and travel restrictions, please visit our travel advisory page.