Southwest Airlines Co. is quietly changing another hallmark of its business to help it close a gap with the fuller planes flown by rivals.

The carrier, famous for its point-to-point direct service between cities, is reworking its schedules to concentrate arrivals at key airports during a short timeframe. The strategy is designed to offer passengers more opportunities to connect to flights with minimal waits.

Known as “flight banks” in industry parlance, the practice has long been used by competitors such as American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. to efficiently funnel people from smaller markets to major hub airports where they catch flights to final destinations.

Southwest has dramatically increased its use of the scheduling tactic to help boost the number of seats it sel

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