Southwest Airlines will reduce its weekday service from Buffalo to Tampa and Orlando, Fla., in August, while AirTran Airways will increase its Buffalo-Orlando service.

AirTran is now a subsidiary of Southwest, but their networks are not yet connected. The two airlines this week released flight schedules for Aug. 12 through Sept. 28, with changes at numerous airports.

Effective Aug. 12, Southwest will eliminate one weekday flight from Buffalo to Tampa, leaving just one weekday Southwest flight on that route. Southwest will also cut its number of weekday Buffalo-to-Orlando flights from three to one starting that date.

Meanwhile, AirTran in August will increase its average daily flights from Buffalo to Orlando by one, bringing its total to two.

The revisions reflect a major nationwide schedule alignment involving Southwest's acquisition of AirTran and customary schedule changes after the peak summer travel period.

"We continue to work toward the integration of the two airlines," Southwest spokeswoman Christi McNeill said. "The final transition could take several years."

At the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in December, Southwest ranked No. 1 in the number of outbound passengers, with 29 percent, and AirTran was tied for sixth, at 5 percent. In number of flights, Southwest ranked second, with 19 percent, and AirTran was tied for seventh, at 4 percent.

Southwest is expected to obtain its federal "single operating certificate" by the end of March for the deal that was consummated in May 2011.

Southwest in its August schedules will trim systemwide weekday departures from a summer high of 3,422 to 3,250, while AirTran will decrease daily departures from 680 on a typical Friday to 568, said Bill Owen, a Southwest official, on a company blog.

The Baltimore, Chicago and Orlando airports took especially harsh hits from cuts, while Seattle on Aug. 12 becomes the first airport to be fully converted to Southwest-only flights.

"Just like in the Southwest schedule, AirTran's new schedule reflects the seasonal softening of customer demand as well as the need to 'free up' aircraft to go through the conversion process," Owen said.

The Tampa Tribune contributed to this report.

mglynn@buffnews.comnull