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Southwest Airlines Exploring Assigned Seating

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 21:04 CDT

CHICAGO _ Southwest Airlines soon could end first-come, first-served seating, which helped define the carrier's no-frills culture, in favor of assigned seating.

"It is a departure from our more traditional thinking, but something we've been looking at seriously," said spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger. "We've not decided at this point to do assigned seating, but we'd like to have the capability to do so in the future."

The airline is incorporating reserved seating in a reservation technology upgrade now under way, but there is no timeline for implementing an assigned-seating system, she said.

While most commercial carriers assign passengers a seat when they make a reservation or check in, Southwest has long avoided that practice. Waiting for people to get to their assigned seat slows the boarding process, anathema to an airline that has built its success on quickly loading planes and departing.

But the practice also has been criticized by some travelers who want the certainty of knowing they will have an aisle or window seat, or that several family members will be assured of sitting together.

The discount carrier is the nation's most financially successful, as it is the only one to consistently make a profit in recent years.

Frontier Airlines, Southwest's primary competitor in Denver, has hit on the seating issue in advertising in that market.

In one radio spot, the sound of mooing is heard while one of Frontier's mascots tells another, "Some airlines have you line up and clamor aboard like cows." Another replies, "Geesh, it looks like the running of the bulls."

Some airlines have tried to turn assigned seating into a revenue generator. Northwest Airlines this year began charging $15 extra to reserve an exit row or some aisle seats. Passengers who want the extra legroom are willing to pay the extra fee.

Southwest, in contrast, issues an "A" boarding pass to the first passengers who check in, with those following getting "B" and "C" passes. Customers board in that order, choosing the seat they want.

Southwest's research has found that some customers like the open-seating policy, while some would prefer a system that assigns seats, Eichinger said.

The airline needs to offer assigned seating to stay competitive, said Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant.

"They have to change now," Boyd said. "Twenty-five years ago maybe it didn't matter, but, today, people are not going to tolerate going transcontinental when they don't know if they have a seat assignment or not.

"If you're commuting to Lubbock from Dallas, fine," he said. "But if you're going from Baltimore to Oakland, then it's not fine."

Southwest's willingness to consider dropping a policy that has been part of the carrier's culture since its founding in the early 1970s may signal other changes, said New York-based commercial aviation consultant Robert Mann.

"It shows once again how (Chief Executive) Gary Kelly is looking outside the bounds of what was considered the sacrosanct keep-it-simple cocoon," he said.

He and Boyd said it is likely Southwest eventually will consider adding another type of aircraft to its fleet. The carrier now flies only Boeing 737s, which seat 137. While some markets are too small to serve with that size aircraft, those same cities could be profitable if Southwest flew a 100-seat plane, Boyd said.

Such aircraft could be profitable serving small Midwestern airports to a medium-size city like St. Louis, Boyd said.

One of Southwest's discount competitors, JetBlue Airways, recently followed such a strategy on the East Coast. JetBlue added Embraer 190 planes to its fleet. The new planes have been exceeding revenue projections, the carrier said recently.

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(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune.

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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