Southwest Ends Its Open Boarding Policy, Adds First-ever Overnight Flights

It’s been whispered about for months, but now it’s official. After more than 50 years, Southwest Airlines is doing away with one of its signature policies — open seating. 

While the airline has not announced when the new assigned seating process will roll out, it confirmed the news in a press release shared on Thursday that in addition to assigning seats, premium seating with extra legroom will be introduced.

Premium seating options are one of the most significant sources of revenue for Southwest’s competitors, and critics of the airline’s financial performance argued it needed to evolve given the softness of domestic air prices. Roughly a third of seats on planes will have the premium, extra-legroom setup, the airline said.

Plus, Southwest noted in the release that “80 percent of Southwest customers, and 86 percent of potential customers, prefer an assigned seat,” admitting that, “when a customer elects to stop flying with Southwest and chooses a competitor, open seating is cited as the number one reason for the change.”

In addition to a shift in its seating policy, it was also announced Thursday that it is introducing red-eye flights for the first time, which will launch in February.

Booking is now available on the following overnight routes: Las Vegas to Baltimore and Orlando, Los Angeles to Baltimore and Nashville, and Phoenix to Baltimore. Southwest mentioned it will be adding more of these routes in the coming year.

The major update comes months the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green confirmed that overnight flights were in the carrier’s future.

“We have the aircraft, it’s a great way to use an asset that you already have and use it more productively which means more hours in the day,” Jordan said in March. “So, we will be doing red-eyes.”