Southwest ponders assigned seats

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Southwest ponders assigned seats

By Michael Kinsman
STAFF WRITER

October 29, 2004

The cattle call days at Southwest Airlines may soon be heading into the sunset.

Colleen Barrett, the airline's president, said yesterday Southwest is considering assigning seats to customers for the first time in its 33-year history.

Barrett's unexpected remarks were made at the airline's annual media day in Dallas.

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Southwest is the only major airline not to assign seats, saying its boarding process is needed so its planes stay on the ground for only 20 minutes between flights. The airline says it is faster to board passengers without assigned seats.

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"JetBlue has leather seats, individual TV consoles and assigned seats," he said. "They have sort of raised the bar on services for the low-cost carriers." Southwest said it has no plans to add TVs to its planes, estimating that it would cost as much as $100 million to do so without generating any more revenue.

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041029/news_1b29south.html

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

Michael Kinsman: [phone]; [e-mail]