NEWS
Southwest Airlines Will Stop Blocking Middle Seats
Source: Southwest
In preparation for the busy holiday travel season, Southwest Airlines has announced they will no longer block the middle seats beginning December 1.
The airline has been limiting the number of passengers allowed on board aircraft for months, due to the coronavirus pandemic, but will “resume selling all available seats” once November ends.
After November 30, we will unblock the middle seat on our flights. This decision was not made lightly, and we'd like to share how we arrived at it. (1/8)
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) October 22, 2020
“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 in a statement Thursday. “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.”
Delta and Alaska Airlines are now the only U.S. carriers limiting the number of seats for sale until early January, USA Today reports.
