Southwest Airlines Announces the End of Open Seating

Southwest Airlines is ending their open-seating policy after over 50 years of offering it, which will end one of their core policies that was an original part of their low-cost model.

Southwest's cost-effective model that has multiple factors that attract Americans looking for a cheap flight, including zero initial baggage fees and no cabin classes. One of their longstanding policies at the center of that model was the fact that there was open-seating. Passengers were able to sit on a first-come, first-serve basis, so anyone who entered the plane early would be able to take whichever seat they wanted.

Then, in recent polls, Southwest discovered that 80% of their customers actually preferred assigned seating, and 86% of potential customers flying on other airlines also favored assigned seating over their open seating. Open seating can cause confusion over seats, anger at others over claimed seats, and some passengers believed that the policy was also ruined by 'inconsiderate people' who would save seats for others.

Due to this, the airline announced this week that they are stopping their open-seating policy, switching to a randomly assigned seating arrangement in which they can charge extra to choose seats. This will help Southwest attract more customers while making more money. In addition, as another attempt to increase revenue, they are adding premium seats with extra legroom, which will be a first for an airline that has never added cabin classes to any flight in their 53-year history. To increase efficiency and add more flights, they will also begin to offer red-eye flights in February 2025, which will also increase revenue. These new adjustments will also make them more like standard American airlines like United, Delta, and American.

Boeing's recent ailments have costed the airline, who fly only Boeing's 737 jets. They expected 46 planes to arrive this year, and only 20 are on schedule to arrive. Southwest is definitely hurting though, as all airlines are, due to sky high operating costs from costly labor and expensive fuel. Despite an increase in revenue by 4.5% since last year, profits are down by 46%.