Southwest Airlines’ Boeing 737 MAX8 will depart for Chicago from San Diego International Airport on March 4, 2025 in San Diego, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Arlington, Texas – Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said Wednesday he is considering a long-distance international flight to attract more airport lounges, more premium seats and even higher spending customers.
“Whatever the customers need in 2025, 2030, we don’t take it off the table. We do it southwest, but we don’t say, ‘We’ll never do it,'” Jordan said in an interview with CNBC at the Airport Industry Conference. “We know we send customers to other airlines because there are some things that you might want to be unable to ride us. That includes things like a true premium lounge, like the Longhaul International flight.”
The southwest is in the middle of conversion. This includes reverting some of the policies, such as open seats, uniform cabins, and allowing all customers to check for free what set them apart from their rivals for the majority of their 54-year flights.
But it faces pressure from its competitors, and last year urged activist investors to increase revenues for their careers. US airfares have fallen.
Southwest and other airlines cited economic uncertainty earlier this year, citing forecasts for 2025. Jordan said Wednesday that airlines continue to see cheap fares.
“It’s not generally sold in the summer, and it’s now for sale in the summer,” he said.
Despite making major changes to its business model, Jordan said that since carriers introduced unadorned basic economic tickets and bag fees at the end of last month, customers have not seen other airlines have had no flaws.
But making changes at the high end is also important, he said.
Favorite competitor Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines Added more luxurious tourist destinations and wider, more expensive seating. They also invest heavily in airport lounges. For example, early Wednesday, Americans announced plans to nearly double their lounge space at their hub at Miami International Airport.
Jordan said it was “too early” for the potential change, but the airport data said it called for Nashville International Airport, the Southwest-based company where airlines have more than 50% market share, as a place where customers are hungering for luxury.
“Nashville loves us and we know we have Nashville customers who want a lounge. They want first class. They want to go to Europe, they go to Europe,” he said.
But getting these things means those customers have to book on another airline.
“We want to send customers to other airlines,” he said.
Jordan said it was too early to say whether the southwest would move to buying longer-distance aircraft that would require them to go to Europe. It depends on Boeing 737 for over half a century. Southwest has so far formed an international partnership between Iceland Air Airlines and China Airlines, but at one point there is a southwest plane on the table that landed in Europe, he said.
“We have no commitment, but we can certainly see the day when Southwest Airlines offer long-distance destinations like Europe,” he said. “Obviously, we need another aircraft to serve that mission and we are open to seeing what is useful in that mission.”
In the near future, Southwest is still waiting for delivery of the Boeing 737 Max 7, the smallest plane in the Max family that has yet to earn Federal Aviation Administration certification. Jordan said the manufacturers have made progress with more consistent delivery recently, but I don’t think Southwest will fly the Max 7 in 2026.
