Breaking from the company’s nearly 50-year tradition of offering open seating on its flights, Southwest Airlines announced it would be shifting to an assigned and premium seating system, allowing the airline to charge a premium for some seats on its planes.
With the company using the concept of open seating in many of its marketing and advertising materials, this change is a huge break from its history. Southwest has long been known as a low-cost and low-fare carrier, but recent competition from American, United and Delta (all making much of their revenue from premium seating) has caused the company to reevaluate one of the core tenants of its seating procedure.
And for Southwest Airlines and its CEO Bob Jordan, it’s a change the company is hoping will be a hit with both shareholders and passengers.
“Our implementation of assigned and premium seating is part of an ongoing and comprehensive upgrade to the customer experience, one that research shows customers overwhelmingly prefer,” Jordan said in the company's Q2 financial report.
Southwest has also been dethroned as the most profitable airline in the industry in recent years, which could be in-part the reason behind this change in policy. The company reported a 51% drop in profit in that Q2 report, despite reporting record revenue in the quarter. Southwest’s fleet is also comprised entirely of Boeing 737 jets, making it the most susceptible to the recent issues with Boeing out of any airline in the industry.
“The research is clear and indicates that 80% of Southwest customers, and 86% of potential customers, prefer an assigned seat,” said the airline in a statement. “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.”
Southwest did not give details about when the changes will go into effect but said it would be discussed further in September.
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