Southwest Airlines CEO Defends Major Seating Change as Not 'Crazy'

Southwest Airlines' CEO isn't shrinking away from the major changes the airline has made in recent months.

He appears to be doubling down.

That's true when it comes to one of the most controversial changes: The airline's move to assigned seating.

For years, Southwest Airlines stood apart from other airlines by not assigning seating. The open seating arrangement has now been scrapped and, starting in early 2026, customers will be assigned seats. This has provoked debate.

However, the CEO, Bob Jordan, says it's not a "crazy" thing to do because other airlines do the same thing. He defended the move.

Jordan's comments came at the Bernstein 41st Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on May 29, 2025, according to a transcript posted by Seeking Alpha.

After bringing up assigned seating, he said, "It isn't a set of initiatives that are sort of crazy things that Southwest is doing that are unique to the industry. These are really things that the industry is doing. So I look at that and I see number one: low risk of implementation."

"Again, these are all things that are -- what the industry is doing, cabin segmentation. They're just things that Southwest has not done, were not part of that model until now," Jordan added of all the changes, including the move to assigned seating but also the elimination of free checked bags, which has also generated controversy.

Jordan was asked, "So Southwest historically, just as we've kind of looked at bag fees, assigned seating, those have not been things that you wanted to do. And you guys made a pretty good case a couple of years ago to not do those things, and then now we've changed. Can you help us understand the -- what shifted in terms of your thinking?"

He responded that the company studied consumer data. He said the data showed that Southwest was giving customers a lot more for its basic economy fare, whereas other airlines were not, meaning they were better able to "'upsell" customers to higher fare levels.

"What I'm proud of is we pivoted and we worked the technology and the operational changes and as of yesterday, it's in place, and it went in flawless, not one single problem," Jordan said, according to the transcript.

"We've had one -- we've been extremely successful for decades, but we've had one product, one model, very galatarian, open seating for all," he added. "And that was terrific when that was primarily what customers wanted. But today, when customers want everything from bare bones to super premium, the only way to answer that is segmentation in the tube itself."

Concluded Jordan: "So I think consumer expectations and desire for what they want, the rise in cost, and therefore, the rise in having to really push revenue production and then segmentation of the cabin. I think those are the three biggest changes that have really changed the industry."

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