Inside the Southwest Airlines seat switch: How it will play out in (many ... - Albuquerque Business First (blog)

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Courtesy Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines has indicated a raised rear beam and curve in the lower rear seat will allow for increased shin and leg clearance compared to the existing Evolve seat on hundreds of the carrier's aircraft.

Lewis Lazare

Reporter- Chicago Business Journal

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Yes, it's true. New passenger seats are coming to Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) planes.

But don't get too excited too fast.

The change is not going to mean instant relief — not by any stretch of reality — for hundreds of thousands of Southwest customers who have become painfully accustomed to the Evolve seat that has been very slowly rolling out on Southwest's fleet of nearly 700 Boeing 737 aircraft over the past three years.

The Evolve seat has in fact been sat in by millions of Southwest customers flying in or out of Chicago's Midway Airport, the carrier's largest hub.

But as Southwest spokespeople made abundantly clear late yesterday, the plan in place right now — which like a lot of Southwest initiatives could evolve further — is to install the new curved seats ONLY on new aircraft that the carrier starts to take delivery of in mid-2016.

And that doesn't involve a heck of a lot of planes.

According to recent plane delivery order information published by Southwest, the carrier has firm orders for 31 new Boeing 737 aircraft in 2016 and firm orders for another 29 aircraft to be delivered in 2017 — peanuts compared to nearly 700 aircraft that appear to be stuck with the relatively-new Evolve seating for the foreseeable future.

Asked whether Southwest possibly had plans anytime soon to put the newest seat on planes currently fitted with the Evolve seating, the Southwest spokesman did not respond.

But in a separate comment, the Southwest spokesperson said the new seat is "for forward fitting" and added "it's the future of Southwest Airlines aircraft seats and giving our customers what they asked for — more space."

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