Southwest Airlines has tread very lightly with its customers since its 2022 holiday meltdown. The company largely botched the public relations side of handling the mass cancellation of flights which left tens of thousands of people stranded.
There is, of course, no easy way to tell people, "Your plane won't be taking off and we don't know when we'll have another one," but to say the airline's approach was wrong is putting things mildly.
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Since that catastrophic systems failure caused by weather and compounded by the company's aging technology, Southwest Airlines (LUV) -) has slowly won customers back. That's not just a question of people being willing to fly on the airline — sometimes consumers have very little, or no, choice when it comes to picking an airline —but Southwest actually winning back trust.
The airline has invested heavily in its behind-the-scenes technology and in taking steps to be better prepared for bad weather. That clearly paid off during the holiday season when Southwest did lead all domestic carriers in cancelations and delays, but the number of flights impacted was relatively small.
Southwest has made a commitment to improving, which current CEO Bob Jordan addressed in a comment that references the airline's founder Herb Kelleher.
"You can never stop working to get better, and as our beloved Founder Herb famously said, ‘If you rest on your laurels, you'll get a thorn in your butt!'," Jordan said.
Image source: Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Southwest making customer-friendly onboard change
While Southwest Airlines does not offer many perks, it's adding one that many more expensive airlines offer. The company has committed to bringing USB ports to its new Boeing BA 737 Max airplanes, it's adding them to some of its planes.
"In addition to bringing in-seat power onboard new aircraft deliveries, we are retrofitting existing Max aircraft with in-seat power and began that work in 2023. As of Jan. 1, 2024, we currently have 17 aircraft equipped with in-seat power and plan on ramping the number of Max aircraft retrofitted each month by mid this year," a spokesperson for the airline told TheStreet via email.
When the airline says "in-seat power," it means USB ports, not traditional power plugs.
"We’re installing USB-A and USB-C ports on each seat back using a space-saving, zone-based power system," the airline added.
Southwest is adding new planes
Southwest only flies the Boeing 737, but it has multiple models in its fleet. At the end of the third quarter of the airline's fiscal third quarter of 2023, the company owned the following 817 planes of the following types:
- 206 737-8 (MAX) aircraft
- 404 737-700 aircraft
- 207 737-800 aircraft
The company also shared details of its Boeing orders going forward in its third-quarter earnings release.
"During third quarter 2023, Southwest received 18 MAX-8 aircraft and retired four -700 aircraft, ending third quarter with 817 aircraft. In light of the company's new order book with Boeing, the company now plans for approximately 85 MAX-8 aircraft deliveries from Boeing in 2023, compared with its previous plan for approximately 70 -78 aircraft," Southwest shared.
As the airline adds more of the new planes, it will be increasing the number of planes with USB ports. It will, however, take years before every plane offers the ports.
The airline is also working to make its onboard internet more useful for passengers.
"Southwest is upgrading WiFi equipment on its existing fleet with longstanding connectivity provider Anuvu's latest-generation hardware capable of providing a significant improvement in speed and bandwidth up to 10 times the current hardware onboard," the airline shared in a press release.
In 2023, Southwest began charging passengers $8 for internet for every leg of their flight when it previously charged $8 per 24 hours no matter how many segments someone had to fly.
