Southwest Airlines is ‘seriously considering’ equipping at least some of its Boeing 737s with bigger, plusher seats up front – the Dallas-based carrier’s first foray into First Class seating.
Given all the other changes that Southwest has already made or announced in 2025, the introduction of First Class seems more a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if.
Bob Jordan says Southwest is ‘seriously considering’ First Class seats
Earlier this month, Southwest’s chief executive Bob Jordan was asked to comment on what is being known as the ‘premiumization’ of what was once considered a low-cost carrier by many standards.
Jordan said Southwest wasn’t completely abandoning the business model created by the airline’s legendary founder, Herb Kelleher, nearly 60 years ago. Instead, Jordan insisted Southwest was simply ‘evolving’ and giving customers what they wanted.
There’s already been a huge list of changes announced by Southwest in the last 12 months – in fact, Jordan said he has never seen an airline make so many changes in such a short timespan in his 38 years in the industry.
But now, there could be another change coming: Jordan says the airline is seriously considering First Class seats on some of its planes. This would make sense – it would not only allow Southwest to compete head-on with legacy carriers like American, Delta, and United, but also budget rivals like Frontier and Spirit, which have their own First Class-like seats up front.
It also follows a broader trend in the U.S. air travel market – the push for premium passenger dollars and increased segmentation.
This is something that Southwest is already doing with the introduction of assigned seating next year and the installation of premium extra leg room seats and ‘preferred’ seats closer to the boarding door.
How did Southwest’s dramatic strategy shift happen?
Jordan and his team at Southwest didn’t just wake up one day and decide that they needed to make one of the most dramatic strategy shifts the aviation industry has ever seen.
The airline was already struggling to meet its financial targets, but then activist investor Elliott started to circle over Southwest. Elliott believed that Southwest had to radically change its business model if it were to overcome its financial challenges.
In mid-2024, Southwest attempted to resist what many saw as Elliott’s backdoor takeover by announcing the end of its famous open-seating policy, along with extra legroom seats and its first Red Eye flights.
Elliott was far from impressed, saying Southwest’s initiatives were a decade late and didn’t go nearly far enough.
By October 2024, Elliott had succeeded in bringing in its own pick of five directors to Southwest’s board. The changes started to come thick and fast:
- Open seating ends in February 2025 – passengers must pay to prebook seats, but they’ll also have the choice to book extra legroom seats and preferred seats on many planes.
- Just months after promising not to eliminate its iconic ‘two bags fly free’ promotion, Southwest reneged and introduced checked baggage fees.
- Southwest is significantly changing its once generous ‘passenger of size’ policy. In many cases, customers will have to pay to get two seats for the price of one.
- Southwest started to sell its flights on price comparison websites and inked codeshare deals with international carriers to feed connecting passengers from overseas into its domestic network.
What other changes are coming to Southwest in 2026?
And there are more changes on the horizon – or, at least, there are certainly murmurs from Southwest about other big changes.
Chief amongst them is the possibility that Southwest could expand into long-haul, international flights, with a potential order for the first widebody jets in the company’s history.
In the same vein, Jordan has suggested Southwest could build a network of premium airport lounges, which could come in especially handy if the airline is seriously looking at starting long-haul international flying, or introducing its own First Class cabin.
What Southwest’s First Class service might look like is, however, a completely different matter. Southwest could just install fancy recliner seats at the front of the plane and be done with it, or it could look to reinvent its onboard service – a move that would make it more like the legacy airlines.
Bottom line
Southwest has already made a huge number of changes in the last 12 months, but even more could be on the way. The airline is working quickly to introduce segmentization to its business strategy – it has already made strides with its Basic Economy fares, but the airline has largely ignored the other end of the market.
That could, of course, be set to change in 2026.
Good Lord. I can’t get over how fat “normal” is now.