Southwest Airlines to abandon open seating and offer new upgrades

After successfully using an open-seating policy for decades, Southwest Airlines is making big changes on its planes.

Following several difficult financial quarters, the Dallas-based airline announced a series of sweeping moves on Thursday, including assigning seats and allowing passengers to pay for seats with extra leg room and other upgrades. It said it also will begin offering redeye flights starting on Valentine’s Day as part of efforts to improve the customer experience and financial performance.

“I know there are going to be customers who say, ‘I want to stay with open seating.’ It’s a minority,” Southwest CEO Robert Jordan told CNBC. “But we had the same thing when we switched from plastic boarding passes. We had the same thing when we took peanuts out of the cabin. I’m convinced we can win them over.”

The airline said surveys showed that 80% of its customers — and 86% of “potential” customers — want an assigned seat. Jordan said open seating was the top reason that travelers cited for choosing another airline over Southwest.

The change is expected to be implemented next year.

Since its inception more than 50 years ago, Southwest was known for its open-seating policy, in which passengers were grouped into boarding zones and chose any available seat once they were boarded. The airline allowed passengers to pay extra to get a better boarding position and check in a day before their flights.

Southwest’s unusual boarding process started as a fast way to load passengers and limit the time that planes and crews spend sitting idly on the ground, not making money. It helped the airline operate more efficiently and even squeeze a few more flights into the daily schedule.

It was one reason that Southwest alone among U.S. airlines remained profitable every year until the coronavirus pandemic.

Southwest’s new plans came as it faced significant challenges in achieving its growth plans. The airline reported a loss of $231 million for the first quarter, worse than analysts expected, though its stock price rose 5.6% on Thursday. Southwest, which flies only Boeing 737 planes, said in April that delayed deliveries of Boeing planes had caused it to struggle. In January, a panel of a Boeing 737 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight, leading to a slowdown in production as Boeing faced increased regulatory scrutiny over its quality control.

Southwest also plans to retrofit its planes to make about a third of its seats offer extra legroom, another amenity customers prefer, the airline said. The seats will cost extra, the airline said.

Southwest has a small presence at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The airline served 1,693,000 passengers and operated just over 14,600 flights in the Twin Cities last year, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which operates the airport.

That compares with 20,886,971 passengers who arrived or departed on 145,600 flights operated by Delta Air Lines, the dominant carrier at MSP.

Reaction from passengers was mixed.

“Hearing that announcement today, I was like, no, this is my favorite part of Southwest,” said Lindsey Magness, who works in college athletics in Oklahoma City.

Magness said that with open seating, she can try for a window seat or, depending on her mood, an aisle. And assigned seating doesn’t always work either. Magness said American Airlines seated her away from her husband on their honeymoon trip earlier this summer

Brandon Bowserof Odenton, Md., said he flies on different airlines based on which one has the best deal, but he has found Southwest’s open boarding to be faster and less complicated than other airlines.