We all know that almost every thing at Southwest Airways is altering. In a bid to enhance profitability, initially the airline was simply going to introduce assigned and further legroom seating.
However within the meantime, they’re simply ripping off the band-aid, and have determined to be like everybody else. This contains charging for checked baggage, introducing primary financial system, including restrictions on flight credit, and devaluing Speedy Rewards factors, amongst different issues.
With the airline transferring from its open seating coverage to its assigned seating coverage, we additionally know that the boarding course of will change, and Southwest will not have its distinctive “cattle name” boarding, because it’s typically jokingly referred to. We now have some extra particulars about what this may appear like.
How Southwest plans to overtake boarding course of
Justin Jones, Southwest’s EVP of Operations, was on this week’s Airways Confidential podcast, hosted by Scott McCartney (which is superb, and value listening to). In the course of the podcast, he was requested about how Southwest plans to alter its boarding course of because it strikes to assigned seating.
Regardless that Southwest hasn’t made a proper announcement about this but, Jones answered that query intimately:
- Southwest plans to introduce 9(!!!) totally different boarding teams, which is about as many boarding teams as you’ll discover on any airline
- Southwest executives imagine that breaking apart boarding into so many teams will assist preserve boarding orderly, in order that smaller chunks of passengers can board at a time
- Whereas the precise breakdown of the boarding teams hasn’t been introduced, the concept is that elite members, these in precedence seats, and people who pay further for precedence boarding, will board first, after which the airplane will typically board from again to entrance
- Southwest will cease having individuals line as much as board early (as is presently the case), each as a result of variety of boarding teams, and to create a extra constant and business customary expertise, since many airports have shared gate areas
I don’t suppose there’s something terribly shocking about these plans, maybe aside from the sheer quantity of boarding teams. Personally, I feel so many boarding teams does extra hurt than good, as a result of individuals will crowd the gate it doesn’t matter what, and this may create a bottleneck of people that aren’t but eligible to board.
Southwest thinks assigned seating will scale back flip instances
Southwest after all has an enormous deal with effectivity and fast flip instances, and the airline is actively attempting to scale back flip instances, to be able to basically develop its schedule with out truly needing to have extra planes.
So, how will the change from the outdated boarding coverage to the brand new boarding coverage affect flip instances? In keeping with Jones, each situation that the airline has run reveals a discount in boarding time of 5 to 6 minutes. Specifically, Jones highlights two factors:
- Southwest is infamous for having plenty of pre-boarders in wheelchairs, and the airline believes the variety of pre-boards will go down, when there’s not an incentive by way of having the ability to choose your seat
- Below the present system, some passengers board and stroll to the again of the airplane in hopes of discovering a window or aisle seat, solely to seek out there are none, after which stroll “upstream” to attempt to sit additional up
Jones admits that he’s involved in regards to the affect that Southwest’s new checked bag coverage may have on flip instances, since as soon as Southwest costs for checked baggage, odds are that there can be much more gate checked baggage, which is able to complicate turns.
Nonetheless, I can’t assist however level out how humorous some quotes are from senior airline executives. Jones looks as if an trustworthy man who’s sharing his actual opinion, and I feel he’s in all probability proper about assigned seating being extra environment friendly.
However what’s humorous is that for years, Southwest executives have insisted {that a} key good thing about open seating is that it makes turns faster. I can’t depend the variety of instances we’ve heard Southwest of us declare that. Now, instantly, it’s the other — assigning seats will velocity up the boarding course of by 5 to 6 minutes.
It’s hardly the one space the place Southwest has completed an about-face. In September 2024, Southwest executives insisted that eliminating free checked baggage wasn’t even into consideration. They claimed to have completed the maths, stating that they’d achieve round $1-1.5 billion from charging for baggage, however would lose $1.8 billion of market share.
Unsurprisingly, the airline has backtracked on that, with Southwest CEO (and at this level, Elliott puppet) Bob Jordan claiming “in distinction to our earlier evaluation, precise buyer reserving conduct via our new reserving channels corresponding to metasearch, didn’t present that we’re getting the identical profit from our bundled providing with free baggage, which has led us to replace the assumptions.”
It’s humorous how so many of those of us could make utterly conflicting claims with such confidence, solely to then declare they’ve come to a totally totally different conclusion, as soon as it fits their narrative.
Backside line
When Southwest Airways strikes to assigned seating, the airline may even utterly overhaul its boarding course of. The airline plans to have 9 totally different boarding teams, and not have passengers line up upfront.
The top of operations on the airline claims that this may velocity up boarding by 5 to 6 minutes, fairly a distinction to previous claims by Southwest executives, who advised the open seating coverage contributed to quicker boarding.
What do you make of Southwest’s boarding course of updates?
Supply hyperlink
