As you undoubtedly know, Southwest Airlines plans to make some vast changes in their business practices in the upcoming months. They include introducing assigned seats, as well as an option of extra legroom seats that will take up roughly the front 1/3 of the plane. However, during their recent Q4 2024 earnings conference call, the airline announced a delay in the installation of its seats with extra legroom.
What Southwest Originally Planned
The seats with extra legroom will offer a spacious (and, of course, more expensive) 34 inches of space between rows. To make room for that extra space, the airline also plans to make changes to the seats in the rear 2/3 of the planes.
- On 737-800 planes, there will be a reduction of 1 inch between each row of seats, shrinking the space to 31 inches.
- The space between seats on 737-700 planes is already 31 inches and that will remain unchanged (isn’t that nice of them?). To make up for the extra space up front, the airline plans to remove some of the current seats.
Southwest’s plan had been to begin rolling out these retrofitted planes as soon as March 2025.
Southwest’s Updated Timeline
Ryan Green is Southwest’s Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. He said during the call that the airline expects to get FAA weight and balance certification for the new configuration during the first quarter of 2025. They will then need to get a second certification before the retrofit can begin – that is called a Supplemental Type Certificate.Green said that Southwest would not likely be awarded it until the second quarter—that’s why the retrofits are now delayed.
Once the retrofits begin, the airline expects to make the changes at a rate of about 50 to 100 planes per month (they have roughly 800 planes in their fleet).
What this means for passengers
Regardless of when the retrofit begins, the airline doesn’t plan to begin assigned seating (and with it, the option to purchase an extra-legroom seat) until sometime during the first half of 2026. Until it does start, and once the retrofitting begins, anyone has “first dibs” on getting those seats up front with the extra legroom. Everyone else boarding a 737-8 will ‘get’ to choose a seat with 1 inch less legroom. Yee-haw, huh?
But for now, at least, all that will be delayed a few months. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing probably depends on which seat you wind up with. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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