Southwest Airlines economy fare passengers may have to sacrifice some precious legroom to make way for new premium seating sections on many of the carrier’s planes.
The company unveiled plans Thursday for new boarding and seating configuration arrangements to accommodate assigned seating in 2025.
Among those changes is one inch less of legroom, or seat pitch, on most of its planes. Southwest will also remove a row of seats on its 737-700 jets, about 45% of its fleet.
The changes come amid a bitter fight with Elliott Management, an activist investor that has amassed a 10% economic stake in the company and is demanding CEO Bob Jordan leave and that the airline overhaul its board of directors.
Assigned seating was a “resounding message” from Southwest’s research that showed it was the carrier’s largest opportunity to broaden Southwest’s appeal, according to Ryan Green, executive vice president of commercial transformation at Southwest. Assigned seating will begin being sold in the second half of next year, and ready to fly by the first half of 2026.
“We were struck by how clear the message was,” Green told investors. “There is an absolute need for us to evolve our model to better meet customer preferences.”
Before these changes, the only way to get a better seat with more legroom, either in the front row or in an emergency exit aisle, was to get a better boarding position through the Southwest Rapids Rewards program or paying to board earlier.
But for the first time, Southwest will start selling premium assigned seating, with 34 inches of legroom, 3 inches more than economy passengers.
Similar to today, Green said, customers will purchase a ticket on Southwest as part of a bundle. Graduated seating and boarding benefits will be included in the fare bundles. Seat maps will be provided during the booking process and seats with extended legroom or a preferred seat in the front of the cabin, he said.
Green said the airline expects to have approximately one-third of its seats on any aircraft available with extended legroom.
To do so, he said, the airline will not remove any seats on its 175-seat aircraft and instead shift from its 32-inch standard seats down to a 31-inch seat pitch, that it has on its Boeing 737 Max-8 and 737-800 fleet today. That’s about 55% of its jets.
To make room on Southwest’s 737-700 fleet for extended legroom, it will remove one row of seats, going from 143 seats to 137 seats. That will leave seat pitch at 31 inches and match the legroom on the 737 Max-8 and 737-800 planes.
“With early work, we believe these premium seats will drive more ancillary revenue per passenger,” Green said.
Green said giving up six seats gains the aircraft 40 extended legroom seats when its spread out.”It’s just a no brainer to do that on the 700.”
If a customer doesn’t want to choose their seat in advance, Green said, they can purchase the airline’s lowest fare without paying more. A seat will be assigned for those customers at check-in.
Southwest has begun the work to get the certification of its cabin reconfigurations from the Federal Aviation Administration, a process that takes months to complete. It plans to start retrofitting cabins in the first quarter of 2025, completing 50 to 100 retrofits per month, Green said, reducing that pace during the high-demand travel period of summer, but on track to complete by the end of 2025.
Boarding will look similar to today as customers will still receive a boarding position number and lineup. Southwest’s loyal customers who purchased at the highest fares will board first. Green said the airline has live-tested boarding methods and simulated over 8 million flights.
