After 50 Years, Southwest Changes its Seating Policy

Southwest Airlines announced a new seating policy. After 50 years, Southwest will no longer have open seating; they are switching to assigned seating.

After listening carefully to customers and conducting extensive research, Southwest decided it will assign seats and offer premium seating options on all flights. The airline has been known for its unique open seating model for more than 50 years, but the airline sites that preferences have evolved with more customers taking longer flights where a seat assignment is preferred.

According to their research, 80% of Southwest customers, and 86% of potential customers, prefer an assigned seat. In addition, when a customer elects to stop flying with Southwest and chooses a competitor, open seating is cited as the number one reason for the change. By moving to an assigned seating model, Southwest expects to broaden its appeal and attract more flying from its current and future customers.

In addition to assigning seats, Southwest will offer a premium, extended legroom portion of the cabin that research shows many customers strongly prefer. While specific cabin layout details are still in design, Southwest expects roughly one-third of seats across the fleet to offer extended legroom, in line with that offered by industry peers on narrowbody aircraft.

The decision to update the seating and boarding model is part of Southwest’s ongoing modernization efforts. During the past two years, Southwest has enhanced its onboard offerings with improvements such as faster WiFi, in-seat power, and larger overhead bins. Work is well underway on a refreshed cabin design, including new, more comfortable RECARO seats. The addition of assigned and premium seating will give Customers more choice and is expected to further enhance the all-in value Southwest Airlines is known for.

“Moving to assigned seating and offering premium legroom options will be a transformational change that cuts across almost all aspects of the Company,” said Bob Jordan, President, CEO, & Vice Chairman of the Board. “Although our unique open seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice— at the right time—for our Customers, our People, and our Shareholders. We are excited to incorporate Customer and Employee feedback to design a unique experience that only Southwest can deliver. We have been building purposefully to this change as part of a comprehensive upgrade to the Southwest experience as we focus on Customer expectations – and it will unlock new sources of revenue consistent with our laser focus on delivering improved financial performance.”

Southwest also announced it is adding 24-hour operation capabilities with the introduction of overnight, redeye flights. Booking on initial routes is available today through Southwest.com, with the first overnight flights landing on Valentine’s Day 2025 in five initial nonstop markets: Las Vegas to Baltimore and Orlando; Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville; and Phoenix to Baltimore. Southwest plans to phase in additional redeye flying in the carrier’s coming schedules as part of its multi-year transformation to a 24-hour operation. Redeye flying, coupled with continued reductions in turn-time through new technologies and procedures, is expected to provide incremental revenue and cost savings, enabling Southwest to fund nearly all new capacity over the next three years without incremental aircraft capital deployment.

The post After 50 Years, Southwest Changes its Seating Policy appeared first on Wilson County Source .