Report:Southwest Airlines Ends Signature Seat Policy After 57 Years

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Dallas based airline, Southwest Airlines announced on Thursday that it will discontinue its longstanding policy of open seating, a practice that was instrumental in the establishment of its identity. The company is doing so in order to increase revenue and accommodate changing customer preferences.

The airline’s unique approach of having passengers board in groups of 30 and then choose their seats once on board, has announced that it will now allocate seats and present “premium seating options” with additional legroom. According to the release, the carrier anticipates around one-third of its seats to have more legroom.

According to Washington Post, Southwest’s stock price jumped by more than 5% on Thursday.

The firm admitted that modifying the seating rules is an important step forward for the airline, which boasts that its purpose was to “democratize the sky” with low-cost travel when it first began flying service in 1971 connecting three Texas cities — Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. According to Southwest mythology, Herb Kelleher, the company’s late founder, drew the original business plan for the upstart carrier on a cocktail napkin, and his office remains operational at the Dallas headquarters.