Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. is doing the unthinkable: It will start to assign seats.

The airline has been known for its open seating model for more than 50 years, but according to a release, customers have stated a preference for seat assignments, and that is what Southwest will do.

As part of this transformation, the airline will also offer premium seating options on all flights, redesign the boarding model, and introduce redeye flying.

Assigned and premium seating
After conducting extensive research, Southwest determined that 80 percent of current customers and 86 percent of potential customers preferred an assigned seat. When customers chose a competitor, open seating was cited as the number one reason for the change.

In addition to assigning seats, Southwest will offer a premium, extended legroom portion of the cabin, strongly preferred by many customers. While cabin layout details are still in design, Southwest expects roughly one-third of seats across the fleet to offer extended legroom, in line with that offered by industry peers on narrowbody aircraft.

The decision to update the seating and boarding model is part of Southwest's ongoing modernization efforts. During the past two years, they've made improvements such as faster WiFi, in-seat power, and larger overhead bins. Work is underway on a refreshed cabin design, including new, more comfortable Recaro seats. Oooh Recaro.

"Moving to assigned seating and offering premium legroom options will be a transformational change that cuts across almost all aspects of the Company," said Bob Jordan, president, CEO, and vice chairman of the board. "Although our unique open seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice — at the right time — for our customers, our people, and our shareholders."

Also: redeye flights
Southwest is also introducing overnight, redeye flights. Booking is available today through Southwest.com, with the first overnight flights landing on Valentine's Day 2025 in five initial nonstop markets:

• Las Vegas to Baltimore
• Las Vegas to Orlando
• Los Angeles to Baltimore
• Los Angeles to Nashville
• Phoenix to Baltimore

Southwest plans to phase in additional redeye flying in the carrier's coming schedules as part of its transformation to a 24-hour operation.

Redeye flying, coupled with continued reductions in turn-time through new technologies and procedures, is expected to provide incremental revenue and cost savings, enabling Southwest to fund nearly all new capacity over the next three years without incremental aircraft capital deployment.

New EVP
Given the significance of the changes, they've created an official position: Executive Vice President Commercial Transformation, a role that will be filled their current Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer, Ryan Green.

The Company will share further details about product designs, cabin layout, timing, and incremental financial value at its Investor Day in late September. Founded in 1971, Southwest Airlines Co. operates at 121 airports across 11 countries.