
Southwest Airlines just announced a monumental shift in how it approaches flying.
The airline, which started out as a small carrier that sought to disrupt the airline industry, announced recently that it would be doing away with a feature that made it completely different from its competition — open seating.
On all of Southwest Airlines’ flights, there were no assigned seats. Instead, passengers were placed into boarding groups and could pick whatever seat they wanted once they got on board. It was all on a first-come, first-served basis.
In the past, the airline said that their passengers actually preferred this approach to seating, with many specifically choosing the airline because of the policy. As Inc Magazine reported recently, the data also backed those claims up.
But, last Thursday, Southwest announced the major shift in policy, saying in a statement:
“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 preferences have evolved with more customers taking longer flights where a seat assignment is preferred.”
In making the announcement, Southwest said that its open seating policy once gave it an advantage in the industry, but that’s no longer the case. The company said:
“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.”
The airline cited data that showed that 80% of its current customers and 86% of potential customers said they preferred to have an assigned seat.
It’s not just about doing away with open seating, though. The airline also is creating “a premium, extended legroom portion of the cabin that research shows many customers strongly prefer.”
Roughly one-third of the seats on all Southwest flights will have this extended legroom, the company said. Of course, these premium seats will also come at a cost — making flights more expensive for customers and bringing in additional revenue for the company.
Federal regulators will have to approve Southwest’s new layout proposals, which means that the new system won’t be available for bookings until 2025.
As the president, CEO and vice chairman of the Southwest board, Bob Jordan, said:
“Moving to assigned seating and offering premium legroom options will be a transformational change that cuts across almost all aspects of the company. 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.”
Another major change the airline announced last week is that it was adding red-eye flights to its repertoire. Those are flights that leave the West Coast late at night and arrive at East Coast destinations early the next morning.
These changes have been made in large part because one of Southwest’s largest activist shareholders is a hedge fund that has a stake of almost $2 billion in the company and has been demanding that changes be made.