Southwest Airlines to Stop Blocking Middle Seats on December 1

Southwest Airlines will stop limiting capacity on its flights as early as December 1.

Last month, the low-cost carrier promised to continue leaving some seats open to allow for physical distancing on board through at least November 30. Southwest released its third-quarter earnings report on Thursday, revealing its intention to sell every seat beginning in December ahead of the busy holiday travel period.

“This practice of effectively keeping middle seats open bridged us from the early days of the pandemic, when we had little knowledge about the behavior of the virus, to now,” the airline said. “Today, aligned with science-based findings from trusted medical and aviation organizations, we will resume selling all available seats for travel beginning December 1, 2020.”

The decision comes on the heels of research and testing that show the combination of air filtration and face masks worn by passengers and crew makes “the risk of breathing COVID-19 particles on an airplane virtually non-existent.”

The move will allow the carrier to bring in more cash as leaving seats open has proved costly this fall. Southwest estimates that the current capacity limits will cost it $20 million in potential revenue in October and somewhere between $40 million and $60 million in November.

Beginning in December, Southwest will notify customers ahead of time if more than 65 percent of the seats are sold on their flight so that they can make changes to their travel plans if necessary.

Southwest’s decision means that Delta Air Lines will be the last major carrier to block seats. The carrier has promised to limit capacity through January 6, 2021, but hinted that the policy would be going away sometime in the first half of 2021.