Southwest to do away with open seating, provide additional legroom in largest shift in its historical past

Southwest Airlines is ending open seating and can provide additional legroom seats on its airplanes as mounting stress on the service to extend income prompts the largest modifications to its enterprise mannequin in its 53 years of flying.

The airline plans to begin promoting the primary flights that may provide additional legroom subsequent yr, it mentioned Thursday. It additionally plans to start in a single day flights, beginning in February.

Southwest executives have mentioned for years that they had been finding out such modifications and hinted in April that the airline was critically contemplating assigning seats and offering extra legroom options. The airline presently places prospects in one in every of three boarding teams and assigns a quantity, setting off a mad sprint to test in a day earlier than the flight. Prospects can get earlier boarding although in the event that they pay for a higher-priced ticket, they’re going to get a greater boarding slot.

When vacationers select a competitor over Southwest, the airline present in its analysis that its open seating mannequin was the No. 1 motive for that selection, the service mentioned in a launch that outlined the modifications. It additionally mentioned 80% of its personal prospects desire an assigned seat.

“Though our distinctive open seating mannequin has been part of Southwest Airways since our inception, our considerate and intensive analysis makes it clear that is the proper selection — on the proper time — for our Prospects, our Folks, and our Shareholders,” CEO Bob Jordan mentioned in a information launch Thursday.

Southwest didn’t, nonetheless, unveil any modifications to its beloved two free checked luggage coverage.

The airline is below much more stress now to section its product like different airways after activist investor Elliott Funding Administration disclosed in June an almost $2 billion stake in Southwest and known as for brand new management because the service underperformed rivals.

“We’ll adapt as our prospects’ wants adapt,” Jordan mentioned at an trade occasion final month.

Southwest mentioned it expects a couple of third of the seats on its Boeing 737s will provide “prolonged legroom, in step with that supplied by trade friends on narrowbody plane.” The Federal Aviation Administration would wish to approve the cabin layouts, the airline added.

The Dallas-based service had prided itself and raked in regular income for many of its greater than 5 many years of flying on its easy enterprise mannequin. Jordan mentioned final month that not assigning seats was simpler to supply when planes weren’t so full.

Analysts criticized Southwest for shifting too slowly. Rival carriers provide a number of choices to upsell prospects like additional legroom seats, premium financial system or enterprise class. Different airways, nonetheless, like Delta, United and American, 4 years in the past took a cue from Southwest and ended flight change charges for many tickets.

Southwest will present extra particulars in regards to the upcoming modifications at an investor day on the finish of September.