Southwest Airlines says ‘assigned and premium seating’ will replace open seating plan

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Southwest Airlines unveiled big shifts in how it does business Thursday, saying it will throw out the open-seating model it has used for decades and introduce redeye flights. Here, an employee and passenger are seen at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport last year in Austin, Texas. / Getty Images

An unofficial motto of Southwest Airlines’ open seating process for its people boarding its planes was once, “You can sit anywhere you want — just like at church.”

But after some 50 years, Southwest passengers will soon encounter a different process when they book and board a flight. The airline will offer assigned and premium seats and a revamped boarding model, it announced on Thursday.

Adopting a system of “assigned and premium seating is part of an ongoing and comprehensive upgrade” for customers, Southwest President and CEO Bob Jordan said, adding that research shows passengers “overwhelmingly prefer” an assigned-seat system like that used by other carriers.

In another change, Southwest also said it would introduce redeye flights. It did not say when the new policies would be enacted.

The company unveiled the dramatic shifts in how it does business as it announced financial results for the second quarter, showing net income of $367 million on record operating revenues of $7.4 billion. In the previous quarter, Southwest lost $231 million. The airline has $11 billion in liquid funds, but it also has $8 billion in debt and is affected by the ongoing struggles at Boeing, its longtime partner.

"We are taking urgent and deliberate steps to mitigate near-term revenue challenges and implement longer-term transformational initiatives that are designed to drive meaningful top and bottom-line growth,” Jordan said.

The Southwest CEO said in April that delivery delays of new planes from Boeing, which has been embroiled in regulators’ concernsover safety issues, “presents significant challenges for both 2024 and 2025.”

In its update, Southwest said it received five Boeing 737-8 MAX planes in the second quarter while retiring seven older Boeing planes. Southwest had ordered 58 Boeing 737-8 MAX planes for 2024; it now expects to receive around 20 of the aircraft this year.

Southwest says it’s carrying passengers in record numbers. But it’s also retiring more aging aircraft than it can add this year: With the delivery delays from Boeing, the airline’s fleet will fall from 817 planes at the end of the second quarter to roughly 802 at the end of 2024.