Southwest Airlines says it is exploring adding “first class, airport lounges, and flights to Europe,” but in chasing everything, it risks becoming nothing to anyone. The era of being loved for simplicity and reliability may be slipping away under pressure from Wall Street and I just don’t see this ending well.

Southwest Chasing Premium Looks Like Desperation, Not Vision

CEO Bob Jordan has recently made some of the most radical statements in Southwest history: “We don’t have a true premium product… A first class. A business class.” He also said, “We are going to continue to pursue the customer and provide the things that they want.” Jordan also noted the airline is evaluating longhaul international flights and premium airport lounges in its turnaround plan.

Southwest To Add First Class, Widebody Planes, European Routes?

• Bob Jordan has said Southwest is exploring longhaul international flights and premium airport lounges as part of its strategic overhaul.
• He acknowledged that entering markets beyond what the 737 can serve will require different aircraft: “Should we choose to fly to Europe… that’s not a mission the 737 Max will do, so we need a different aircraft.”
• On CNBC, Jordan said, “Whatever customers need in 2025, 2030, we won’t take any of that off the table… We’ll do it the Southwest way, but we’re not going to say ‘We would never do that.’”

When “Everything Is On The Table” Becomes “Nothing Is Sacred”

Southwest once succeeded by offering a compelling product to its core demographic: low fares, two checked bags, no change fees, and a fun, reliable customer experience. That was their differentiation: simple, transparent, cheerful. That core business was profitable. It was a model that attracted loyalty because customers felt Southwest offered dependable, reliable value.

Now, with checked bags fees, assigned seating replacing open seating, and endless chatter of “premium” upgrades, the airline is stepping away from what made it beloved when it wasn’t even broken. It’s clear enough to say that when you try to copy airlines with more costly structures, you cannot help but spend more and that can create a further delta (if you’ll pardon the pun) between one of the elements that made passengers loyal in the first place when those higher costs are passed on. And without reliable product basics like fast Wi-Fi, power outlets, and comfortable seats, the “premium” rhetoric rings even more hollow.

Profitability comes from doing few things extremely well, not many things moderately poorly. We see this with JetBlue’s own struggles on transatlantic routes. Longhaul flights are expensive. Lounges cost real money. Premium cabins add weight, training costs, and complexity. If Southwest adds those without strong basics, they’ll bleed margin worse than they already are.

The new baggage fees may have generated $1.0 billion in new revenue, but if they cost $1.8 billion in revenue from customers booking away, the net result is very negative.

Path Back To Sustainability

The way forward isn’t first class lounges or copying legacy carriers. It’s nonstop and direct flights to key destinations, clarity in product offering, restoring perks that mattered (and the numbers in the months ahead will make clear what perks do matter to customers), and guaranteeing reliability. Southwest needs to commit to the things they actually still do well—friendly service, low-fare options, operational reliability—and stop diluting the brand. Easier said than done as business models and competition evolve, but this “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” approach strikes me as destined to fail, and I hear the desperation even in the tone of CEO Bob Jordan, the puppet of Elliott Investment Management.

CONCLUSION

This shift toward “premium” feels less like evolution and more like identity surrender. Southwest should remember its roots: being indispensable for its customers by doing the basics right. Because if you’re nothing special anymore, you’re just another airline with higher costs.

As View From The Wing points out, “The problem is that this implies there’s no real opportunity to return to the kind of growth the airline saw in the past, and the kind of valuation multiples for their stock. There’s no great answer for Southwest, but their approach – to copy the business models of financial laggards JetBlue and American – isn’t promising.”

It seems to me growth should be focused on more planes and more routes, but not new plane types and longhaul routes that are already well-represented by competitors.