“It’s been a few years since we last studied this in depth, and customer preferences and expectations change over time,” Jordan said. “We are also examining the operations and financial benefits of any potential change.”
Unlike most airlines, Southwest does not have a premium section on its planes that requires higher fares. While other carriers may charge extra for a comfortable seat in the first few rows or the option of extra legroom in the front, Southwest customers can take any available seat. A place near the front, however, will not have additional decorations.
In a news release announcing the quarterly earnings, a conference call discussing those results and an interview with CNBC, representatives said they are taking a deep look at customer seating and boarding preferences. The current open seat system was introduced when planes were typically less full, the company said, noting that preferences change as planes fill up.
“There’s no decision, nothing to report, other than we’re looking into it seriously,” Jordan said in response to a question about the locations. “But the early indications for both our customers and Southwest look pretty damn interesting.”
While Southwest has been considering seat assignment for at least nearly two decades, the review has accelerated in the past six months, the CEO said. Jordan said the company will say more at an investor event in September. The company also recently said it is preparing to add red-eye flights in the next few years.
Today, Southwest passengers can pay more to get a better seat, even without choosing that seat in advance. Enhancements that provide priority boarding and early check-in give customers first choice seats. The airline makes “hundreds of millions of dollars” from these enhanced boarding options, executives said last year.
“They’re kind of a pickle in terms of revenue generation, so they’re looking at everything,” said Robert W. Mann, a consultant and former airline executive. “I think what they’ve seen is that when they’ve changed their existing livestock … they’ve found it very profitable.”
He said if the airline could provide a more “pleasant” boarding process or seat selection for a fee, it would likely be attractive to passengers.
“There’s nothing in their onboarding process that they can’t improve,” Mann said.
Travel analyst Henry Harteveld, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said he did a study more than a decade ago that found large numbers of people avoided Southwest because it didn’t offer seats with extra legroom, assigned seats or a first-class cabin in business the class. He said the airline could make “a huge amount of money” by adding designated seating – and that passengers would probably be happy to know what seat they would end up in.
“I think this could be an incredibly positive thing for the airline, but I recognize that Southwest has a 50-plus year history of being egalitarian, having open seats and being different from other airlines,” he said.
