Summary
- Southwest Airlines may change its boarding process to boost revenue with the possible removal of unassigned seating on its aircraft.
- While it ended Q1 2024 with a $231 million net loss, its March profits were “healthy.”
- The airline will continue to be weighed down with Boeing’s delivery delays of the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 8.
Southwest Airlines’ chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Jordan has hinted that the carrier could change the process of how its passengers board its Boeing 737 aircraft. This has prompted speculation that the airline may remove unassigned seating.
Looking into new initiatives
In an interview with CNBC, Jordan said that the airline was looking into new revenue-driving initiatives, including “things like the way we seat and board our aircraft.” Currently, Southwest Airlines travelers are welcomed with open seating yet are assigned a boarding group (A, B, or C) and position (between 1 and 60) as they check in on a flight.
“Southwest-operated flights have open seating. Once onboard, simply choose any available seat and stow your carryon items in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you.”
Photo: Southwest Airlines
The free-for-all boarding method is a good way to encourage passengers to purchase ancillaries like speedy boarding, so that they get the pick of the seat. But it’s not the best way to get the aircraft boarded rapidly – it inevitably leads to passengers hanging about in the aisle, standing in line for long periods while others sort themselves out, and some people even being forced to go against the flow of traffic, having arrived at the rear of the aircraft and found no suitable seat.
Changing this to a more organized form of boarding could speed up Southwest’s turnaround time. For budget airlines, the time it takes to deplane, clean, restock, refuel, and re-board the aircraft is all money wasted. The faster they can make it happen, the more chance of turning a profit on that service. European low-cost carrier Ryanair has whittled its turnaround time down to about 20 minutes; for Southwest, it’s an average of 35.
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According to research by the University of Nevada, as shared by Scientific American, computer modeling has been used to investigate better methods of boarding. Some of the options considered included back to front, where rear-seated passengers board first, followed by those further forward. However, the model found that this process failed when passengers got held up by people stowing their bags. In fact, it was so ineffective that it barely saved any time over what researchers considered to be the ‘worst possible scenario’ – boarding from the front to the back.
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Another popular method is the so-called WILMA method – window, middle, aisle. This is something United Airlines has recently implemented, designed to stop people from standing up to let their neighbors in. Other airlines have more simplistic ‘groups’ to control boarding flow. However, the researcher in question, Jason Steffen, believes he has developed the fastest boarding method in the world. It’s been nicknamed the ‘Steffen’ method and goes as follows:
- Start boarding from window seats, but skip every other row along the way
- Even-numbered window seats board first, followed by odd-numbered window seats
- The process is repeated for middle and aisle seats
According to simulations, the Steffen method reduces boarding time by around 30% compared to Southwest’s random boarding and is around twice as fast as a back-to-front boarding strategy.
Photo: Elliott Cowand Jr | Shutterstock
However, there are downsides to this. Humans are not always the best at following instructions, particularly when anxiously waiting at the gate for their flight. This means compliance could be an issue, and it doesn’t account for things like unaccompanied minors or family groups who don’t want to be split up on the jetbridge.
It’s unlikely any airline will attempt to implement the Steffen method due to its complexity, even if it does save time. But it does give some validation to the WILMA method as a potentially faster way to board. Whether Southwest will join United in WILMA boarding remains to be seen, but doing away with unassigned seating will certainly be welcomed by passengers who don’t enjoy the stress of trying to secure a good seat on the day.
Mixed quarter
Jordan’s comments came shortly after Southwest Airlines presented its Q1 2024 results. The CEO described the $231 million loss as disappointing yet added a positive note that the carrier’s March had “healthy profits and margins.” In comparison, the company lost $159 million.
“We are focused on controlling what we can control and have already taken swift action to address our financial underperformance and adjust for revised aircraft delivery expectations.”
Photo: Nashville International Airport
Furthermore, Jordan remarked that while the airline’s revenue performance was short of its expectations, the quarter’s operating revenues of $6.3 billion were record-breaking. The executive added that the airline’s passenger numbers broke the carrier’s Q1 records, with the company welcoming 40.8 million travelers during the three-month period.
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Positive signs
Still, the airline said that the record revenue performance was driven by strong demand trends, which also resulted in record ancillary revenues for the carrier. Still, its revenue per available seat mile (RASM), denoting its efficiency with its capacity, came at the lower end of its previous expectations and was flat Year-on-Year (YoY) due to lower-than-expected close-in leisure passenger traffic and lower-than-expected maturation of some development markets.
“Based on current booking trends, the Company continues to expect an all-time quarterly record for operating revenue in second quarter 2024. Second quarter 2024 RASM is expected to decrease in the range of 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent, on capacity growth of 8 percent to 9 percent, both year-over-year.”
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
However, the airline will continue to be weighed down by delivery delays from Boeing. The all-Boeing 737 operator said that it ended the quarter with 819 aircraft, expecting to finish the year with 802 737s. In 2024, the airline plans to introduce around 20 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, significantly fewer than the previously expected 46 aircraft of the type. Contractually, Boeing was scheduled to deliver 85 aircraft during the year, including 27 Boeing 737 MAX 7, which are yet to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
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