• by Tanya Gazdik , July 28, 2024

After 57 years of offering love-it-or-hate-it open seating, Southwest Airlines is going to try something new.

The budget airline is doing away with its “egalitarian, choose-your-own-seat adventure, all in an attempt to boost revenue and adapt to shifting traveler tastes,” according to Afar. “The airline’s distinctive group-boarding model, whereby passengers race for a seat once on the aircraft, will bid us adieu. In its place, Southwest will assign seats and unveil ‘premium seating options’ that offer extra legroom. In its announcement, the carrier said it expects about one-third of all seats across the Boeing fleet to have additional legroom eventually. No precise timeline was provided for these changes.”

The airline said research indicates that 80% of its current customers and 86% of prospective customers prefer an assigned seat.

"Southwest definitely has a lot of very passionate fans," Sean Cudahy, an aviation reporter at The Points Guy, told Business Insider, adding that with the unassigned-seating method, "you get a mixed bag of people that love the policy and people that hate it."

Southwest will also begin offering so-called “red-eye” flying in February, with the first overnight flights launching for Las Vegas to Baltimore and Orlando; Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville; and Phoenix to Baltimore.

“Experts say the changes, especially the switch to assigned seating, are a smart move and will appeal to many as the company tries to stabilize its precarious finances, which included a 46% drop in profit in the second quarter from a year earlier, to $367 million,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “But it remains to be seen whether Southwest will pay an intangible cost in making the moves: Will it be able to hold on to its quirky identity or will it put off loyal customers, and in doing so, become just another airline?”

Not all frequent fliers are happy about the change. 

“I actually prefer open seating in certain cases; I’m able to avoid kids, seats where someone made a mess, people who look sick, people who are eating something gross,” a user wrote on social media app Bluesky.

But business is business. 

“Southwest is under pressure from activist investors at Elliot Investment Management, who have been pushing for changes in management and growth in profitability,” according to CNN Business.  “Southwest reported a 51% drop in adjusted profit last quarter, despite hitting record revenue. But activist pressure did not factor into the company’s move to assigned seats, Southwest CEO Jordan said on the earnings call.”