Southwest to assign seats, add extra legroom

After more than 50 years Southwest Airlines is adding assigned seating to its cabins. The carrier will also differentiate seating, with an extra legroom option on board. The company will not, however, bring a true premium cabin on board. At least not yet.

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.

– Bob Jordan, President, CEO, & Vice Chairman of the Board

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Pitching pitch as premium

In making the announcement Southwest acknowledges that customer preference demands the change. The carrier notes that 80% of current and 86% of potential customers prefer an assigned seat. The airline also admits that the open seating policy is cited by former customers as the number one reason they choose to fly with a competitor.

While CEO Bob Jordan suggests the change is part of “purposeful” progress towards improving the passenger experience, he is also clear the move “will unlock new sources of revenue consistent with our laser focus on delivering improved financial performance.”

Read more: Southwest shifts seating supplier in interiors revamp

The new cabin layout will be part of the broader interiors refresh, which includes adding in-seat power and RECARO seating on board. The airline does not expect to market the new cabins to passengers until 2025.

While it seems clear the company will not offer a different physical seat in the front rows for more space, there is still the potential for a blocked middle seat premium option, similar to Frontier’s new “UpFront” option.

Further details about the cabin layout, product designs, and deployment timeline are expected at the company’s Investor Day in late September, though the carrier confirmed it expects about a third of the cabin to be the higher-priced, extra-legroom option. And, while not explicitly stated, it seems unlikely Southwest will remove a row of seats to deliver that extra legroom. Should that prove true, the non-premium seats would need to see pitch shrink to deliver the new offering.

Making such a transition is a complex and time-consuming process, especially with more than 700 aircraft to adjust. Being able to guarantee the extra legroom on a flight in order to sell it as such will take some time to materialize.

Read more: Southwest shows off customizations for new Recaro seats

Also unknown is if Southwest will allow top tier members of its Rapid Rewards loyalty program complimentary access to those seats, similar to other airlines’ elite status programs.

Even more premium?

It is also in line with hints delivered in the company’s April 2024 earnings call and by Brian Tierney, Southwest VP Customer Experience at AIX 2024 in Hamburg eight weeks ago. At that time there was significant chatter about the potential for a true premium cabin on board. Tierney deflected on that idea, noting that seating reviews happen somewhat often at the carrier, “We’ll see what the customer wants, see how that mixes with our model and we’ll go from there. But we take pride in having a strong voice of the customer.”

Given the 80%+ numbers in the survey cited by the company in making the announcement one might wonder why it took so long to listen to those customers.

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Redeyes rising

In addition to the seating changes, Southwest announced its first redeye routes and launch date for overnight flying. The first overnight flights will depart on 13 February 2025 in five markets. Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix are the initial origins. Redeye service from Hawaii, believed by many as a potential invigorator of that market’s potential, is not yet on the schedule.

Redeye flying, in conjunction with other process changes expected to reduce turn time, is expected to provide incremental revenue and cost savings to the airline. Ultimately, Southwest expects to to support nearly all its planned capacity growth for the next three years without incremental aircraft capital expense.