Southwest's CEO Explained Why It's Changing Its Policies

If you’re a frequent traveler who gravitates towards Southwest Airlines, you’ve seen a lot of changes in the last few months. In March, Southwest announced that it would begin charging for checked bags, a move that brought it in line with most of its competitors, but which also did away with a feature that distinguished them from the rest of the industry.

More recently, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan suggested that the airline might refine its experience even more, potentially adding a first class cabin or airport lounges. The airline also revealed that assigned seating for its flights is on the way. That begs another question: what’s behind the rapid announcement of so many changes to the airline’s policies?

In an interview with Jordyn Holman of The New York Times, Jordan explained the reasoning behind both the changes and their timing. That included addressing the elephant in the room, namely, the speed at which those changes were being rolled out. “[O]ther airlines went through these changes over a decade or more,” Jordan said. “There is a bit of catch-up here because we’re moving to that world, but in months, not a decade.”

The most interesting comment Jordan made was that cabin crews were excited about the addition of assigned seating. “[I]f in the open-seating world a family gets on and they can’t sit together, the flight attendant is having to police that in the cabin,” he told the Times. “Our open-seat boarding can cause a lot of pre-boards, and our agents are having to police that.”

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Jordan also made an interesting argument: that in parting ways with some of its traditions, Southwest was actually being consistent with, well, other traditions. In doing so, he invoked co-founder Herb Kelleher, telling the Times, “What’s funny is that Herb would say: ‘We’re never going to change boarding. We are never going to go into a big airport like LaGuardia. We’re never going to have a frequent-flier program.’ And then we would do it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Jordan spoke of the need “to play through this period of change.” It’ll be interesting to see what air travelers make of Southwest when that period has concluded — and how many will be along for the ride.