(CNN) – Southwest Airlines is going to introduce substantial changes to its sales and boarding processes, but it won’t be soon.
Open seats won’t go away for another year. The airline said Thursday that its passengers will be able to begin reserving seats toward the end of 2025 and that those seats will begin to be available on flights in early 2026.
Southwest announced in July that it would abandon the open seating model it has been known for throughout its 53-year history. It also announced that it would offer premium seats for the first time. It currently has the same class of seats in all its cabins.
Part of the reason Southwest isn’t rolling out its assigned seating model sooner is that reconfiguring premium seats on planes will take some time. But reserved seats are available on virtually all other airlines and could have come into use much sooner. Southwest pushed back the planned start date by a advertisement held on Thursday as part of its “investor day” presentation. He did not give details on when the premium seats with more legroom will be available.
Southwest is under pressure from an investor group, Elliott Investment Management, which wants to replace its top management and make other changes to improve its profitability. The airline insists that seat assignment plans were in place even before Elliott’s pressure, saying that 80% of Southwest customers and 86% of passengers choosing other airlines want assigned seats.
It also announced that it would enter into partnerships with foreign airlines to offer their passengers the ability to book international flights. Southwest has far fewer overseas flights than its three biggest rivals, American, United and Delta airlines. Its first partnership will be next year with Icelandair, with which it will connect at its operations center at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The airline confirmed an earlier statement that it would continue to allow passengers to check in up to two bags free of charge.
