This month, Southwest Airways unveiled a brand new cabin design that’s already rolling out in new planes throughout its fleet. It contains slimmer seats, up to date facilities, and much and plenty of blue.
The brand new cabin was revealed on October 14, and there are presently six aircrafts in operation with the revamped design. For Southwest, this design is a part of what it calls a bigger “transformational plan.” Thus far, that plan has included nixing a few of its most iconic model options—like its “luggage fly free” coverage and flat value open seating association—as a way to compete in an airline business that’s more and more reliant on charging ancillary, “premium” charges to drive up earnings.
[Photo: Southwest]
Beginning in January 2026, Southwest will provide a brand new, pricier seating choice that comes with prolonged leg room (ELR). These ELR seats are anticipated to take up one-third of every plane’s whole seating—and as a way to implement the brand new tiered assigned seating course of, the airline is changing seating throughout its fleet. Within the coming months, each new plane that Southwest receives from Boeing will likely be fitted with the totally up to date cabin, whereas older planes will likely be retrofitted with new seats.
In response to Julia Melle, Southwest’s director of name and content material, the brand new cabin design is meant to supply new experiences for a broadening “prosperous” client base, whereas nonetheless holding core prospects in thoughts.
“After the pandemic, we took a have a look at the info, and there’s a extra prosperous viewers that’s rising throughout the class,” Melle says. “We needed to have the ability to ensure that we provided our core prospects and an prosperous buyer extra selections than ever earlier than, and that features an elevated expertise inside our cabin.”
[Photo: Southwest]
A really blue cabin design
The primary change that company would possibly discover after they enter an up to date Southwest cabin is a complete lot of blue.
All through the shopper analysis course of, Melle says, her staff discovered that passengers are primarily in search of a “calming, stress-free, and pleasant setting.” To attain that, the design staff stuffed the cabin with an array of complimentary blue tones, from sky blue on the headrests to navy blue on the seats and a swirling, atmospheric blue on the carpet. Even the lighting scheme has been adjusted to all-blue tones.
“We had a pink that would seem at a sure portion of the flight together with the blues, and now it’s a totally a blue colour scheme,” Melle says. She provides that the brand new lighting system additionally has fewer choices accessible, simplifying the method for flight crew after they’re choosing a light-weight setting for takeoff, cruising, and touchdown.
[Photo: Southwest]
A slimmer seat
Southwest’s new seats are a mannequin designed by Recaro Plane Seating, which confronted some backlash earlier this 12 months when web critics nicknamed them the “Ozempic seat” for his or her skinny profiles. Melle says the seats are engineered for “most consolation” by buyer suggestions and product testing, from the best way they “maximize seat width” to the precise upholstery materials. Every seat comes with a private digital gadget holder on the again and a headrest that may be adjusted up and down or folded in towards the face.
The brand new ELR seats will provide as much as 5 inches of extra pitch for passengers to stretch out, whereas the seating redesign will preserve a regular seat pitch for these in economic system, in line with a Southwest spokesperson. To make this work in older planes, Southwest is eradicating six seats from its Boeing 737-700 plane. Boeing MAX 8 and 737-800 planes will hold the identical variety of seats.
[Photo: Southwest]
Along with these aesthetic modifications, the brand new cabins additionally embrace bigger overhead bins, an added cupholder on tray tables, and USB-A and USB-C port on every seatback. And, for passengers sitting within the ELR tier, Southwest will now serve an unique new snack of both honey roasted or salted pistachios (luxurious!).
Total, the up to date cabin isn’t precisely reinventing the wheel. Nonetheless, for Southwest, buyer reactions to the design will function a vital information level for the reception of the airline’s broader model transformation.
