A Southwest Airways Boeing 737 taxis at Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport on Could 16, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Kevin Carter | Getty Pictures
ARLINGTON, Texas — Southwest Airways is contemplating airport lounges, extra premium seating and even long-haul worldwide flights to win over high-spending clients, CEO Bob Jordan stated Wednesday.
“No matter clients want in 2025, 2030, we cannot take any of that off the desk. We’ll do it the Southwest approach however we’re not going to say ‘We might by no means try this,'” Jordan stated in an interview with CNBC at an airport trade convention. “We all know we ship clients to different airways as a result of there’s some issues you may want which you could’t get on us. That features issues like lounges, like true premium, like flying long-haul worldwide.”
Southwest is in the course of a metamorphosis. That has included undoing a few of its insurance policies like open seating, a uniform cabin and permitting all clients to examine two baggage without cost, issues that had set it aside from rivals in a lot of its 54 years of flying.
Nevertheless it has confronted stress from rivals, and an activist investor final yr pushed the service to extend income. And airfare within the U.S. has dropped.
Southwest and different carriers pulled their 2025 forecasts earlier this yr, citing financial uncertainty. Jordan stated Wednesday that the airline is constant to see cheaper fares.
“The summer season is usually by no means on sale, and the summer season is closely on sale proper now,” he stated.
Regardless of making main adjustments to its enterprise mannequin, Jordan stated the service hasn’t seen clients defect to different airways because it launched no-frills primary financial system tickets and bag charges late final month, insurance policies rivals already had.
However making adjustments on the excessive finish is necessary, too, he stated.
Opponents like Delta Air Traces, United Airways and American Airways have added extra luxurious tourism locations and roomier, costlier seats, and so they’ve additionally invested closely in airport lounges. For instance, earlier Wednesday, American unveiled plans to almost double its lounge house at its Miami Worldwide Airport hub.
Jordan stated it is “approach too quickly to place any specifics” on potential adjustments, however he referred to as out Southwest stronghold Nashville Worldwide Airport — the place the airline has a greater than 50% market share, in keeping with airport information — as a spot the place clients are hungry for luxurious.
“Nashville loves us, and we all know we have now Nashville clients that need lounges. They need first-class. They wish to get to Europe and they’ll Europe,” he stated.
However getting these issues means these clients must guide on one other airline, which may make them extra doubtless so as to add that rival’s co-branded bank card to their wallets, too, he stated.
“I wish to ship fewer and fewer clients to a different airline,” he stated.
Jordan stated it is also too early to say whether or not Southwest will make the shift to purchasing longer-haul plane, which it could have to go to Europe; it is relied on the Boeing 737 for greater than half a century. Southwest has been forging worldwide partnerships — Icelandair and China Airways, thus far— however a Southwest aircraft touchdown in Europe in some unspecified time in the future is on the desk, he stated.
“No dedication, however you may actually see a day after we are as Southwest Airways serving long-haul locations like Europe,” he stated. “Clearly you would wish a distinct plane to serve that mission and we’re open to what it could take to serve that mission.”
Within the nearer time period, Southwest remains to be awaiting deliveries of Boeing 737 Max 7s, the smallest aircraft within the Max household, which nonetheless hasn’t gained Federal Aviation Administration certification. Jordan stated the producer has made progress with extra constant deliveries lately, however Southwest does not count on to fly the Max 7 in 2026.