As part of its ongoing focus on product evolution, Southwest Airlines is moving forward with plans to assign seats, offer premium seating options, redesign the boarding model and introduce red-eye flying.
What's to know: Southwest will assign seats and offer premium seating options on all flights, a change to its open seating model, which it has used for more than 50 years. According to the airline, "preferences have evolved, with more customers taking longer flights where a seat assignment is preferred."
Additionally, Southwest conducted operational testing that included live and over 8 million simulation-based boarding trials. The airline is confident that these enhancements will meet customer expectations. The research indicates that 80 percent of Southwest customers, and 86 percent of potential customers, prefer an assigned seat. 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 narrow-body 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 Wi-Fi, in-seat power and larger overhead bins. Work is well underway on a refreshed cabin design, including new RECARO seats.
Southwest is also adding 24-hour operation capabilities with the introduction of overnight, red-eye flights. Booking on initial routes is available online, 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 red-eye flying in the carrier’s upcoming schedules as part of its multi-year transformation to a 24-hour operation. Red-eye 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.
Given the significance of the changes, Ryan Green, previously executive vice president and chief commercial officer, will take on the new role of executive vice president commercial transformation, leading development and rollout of these and other commercial initiatives already underway. Green has deep knowledge of customer trends and is leading the work on cabin transformation. He previously directed efforts to transform Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards loyalty program and the digital customer experience. In this new role, he reports to Bob Jordan, president, CEO and vice chairman of the board.
The company will share further details about product designs, cabin layout, timing and incremental financial value at its Investor Day in late September. In addition to incorporating new technologies and procedures for a seamless transition, the new cabin layout will require approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration. Southwest expects to make bookings available in 2025.
For more information, visit www.southwest.com.
Related Stories
Air France Opens New Lounge at LAX
Delta, Riyadh Air Ink Deal For Expansion
Delta CEO Updates Customers on CrowdStrike Delays
Southwest Airlines, Archer Aviation Ink Deal on Air Taxi Network