Since it first started running flights in 1967, Texas-based Southwest Airlines LUV has gained a reputation for doing things a little differently from other airlines.
The low-cost carrier does not sell tickets with assigned seating and instead allows passengers to board according to their fare class and then pick a seat among what is available. The airline also does not charge change or baggage fees or run flights outside of standard daytime hours.
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This latter fact may, as Southwest CEO Bob Jordan recently let slip in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, be about to change as the airline mulls over how to use its aircraft most effectively. The airline currently uses different types of Boeing 737 BA planes — the Boeing 737-700, the Boeing 737-800 and the Boeing 737-Max.
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Southwest CEO calls red-eye flights a 'logical evolution'
"It's a logical evolution for us," Jordan told the news outlet at the start of November. "We have the aircraft, it's a great way to use an asset that you already have and use it more productively which means more hours in the day. So, we will be doing red-eyes."
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The airline had previously avoided running flights that leave late at night and arrive in the morning of a different time zone due to an older technical system that required flights to be scheduled in the same day. Even as it updated its software, Southwest Airlines stuck to its way of planning flights in order to minimize staffing needs and keep scheduling consistent.
But as Jordan told the news outlet, travelers have been expressing a desire to get "a full day in" on flights between different coasts by landing at their destination early in the morning along with the need to bring down the amount of time planes stand parked as part of its plan to turn its finances around. At the end of October, the airline released earnings that showed its net income fell by more than 30% in the third quarter.
Here is when you'll be able to book the first Southwest red-eye flights
When pressed for details around specific markets and time frames, Jordan used vague phrases such as "certain markets" and "there's a world" in which the carrier has red-eye flights.
Some speculated that the first Southwest red-eye flights could take off from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) once construction of the new terminal is finished in 2026. The airline has been working to carve out a significant presence in the airport.
The smaller Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL) is less likely due to a quiet period in which flights are not permitted to take off after 11 p.m. – although many red-eye flights from the West Coast leave around 9 or 10 p.m. to arrive in the early hours of the morning at an East Coast city.
"In my mind, it's not going to be the size of Love Field, so it would be a complement to Love," Jordan said of the airline's plans to be across the two airports at the Skift Aviation Forum in Fort Worth on Nov. 1.
