Flight experience at LGB will change as Southwest Airlines says it's ending open seating
The airline is Long Beach Airport's largest tenant and operates 50 of the 58 daily flight slots out of the airport.
The next time you fly out of Long Beach Airport your boarding experience could be a lot different after Southwest Airlines, the airport’s largest tenant, announced Thursday that it will begin assigning passengers seats after decades of allowing them to choose where they sat.
The airline released a statement Thursday morning saying the change in seating was part of its continued “strategic transformation” to elevate customer experience.
Southwest, which had allowed customers to board in groups and choose their own seats for over 50 years, said it conducted research that included live and simulated boarding scenarios and it showed that 80% of its customers preferred an assigned seat.
The airline controls nearly all of the 58 commercial flight slots that operate at Long Beach Airport.
Southwest said its research showed that when customers left Southwest to fly a different airline, its open seating model was cited as the number one reason for the change. The change to assigned seating is a move to attract more customers to fly the airline, which also reported a profit decline of 46% in the most recent quarter.
The announcement from Southwest also said that the airline will deploy more extended legroom seats across its fleet with approximately one-third of seats expected to offer more room for customers in the future.
It's unclear when the changes to seating will be implemented.
"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, & 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."
The announcement also noted that Southwest would be moving to a 24-hour operation with addition of redeye flights but those are not expected to affect operations at Long Beach.
Under the city’s noise ordinance, commercial flights are not supposed to operate between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The first overnight flights are projected to start in mid-February, according to the company's news release.
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