Southwest Airlines will open premium airport lounges across the country starting late next year, a major shift for a carrier famous for catering to budget travelers.
The airline announced on Wednesday that it had begun construction on its first four lounges, at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, in Texas; Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport; Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu; and Nashville International Airport. The company added that it planned to open at least seven more lounges in the next several years.
“We know our current customers want lounges — especially in the initial locations we’ve chosen,” Bob Jordan, Southwest’s chief executive, said in a statement, “and we will provide them with an experience that matches or exceeds any that’s currently in the marketplace.”
For months, including in a July earnings call, Mr. Jordan had teased the idea of opening airport lounges, stressing their importance in retaining loyal customers in a competitive landscape where most major domestic airlines already operate them. Delta Air Lines, for example, has more than 50 Sky Clubs worldwide.
Loyalty programs and co-branded credit cards are generally very lucrative for airlines. The biggest U.S. carriers, such as Delta and United Airlines, make billions of dollars each year from their cards and frequent-flier programs.
And in recent years, customers’ appetites for premium airline amenities like cushier seats and exclusive lounges has exploded.
In a survey of more than 1,400 travelers conducted last fall by J.D. Power, the analytics firm, nearly half of airport lounge customers said they planned their flights based on preferred lounges. The majority of lounge customers said that access influenced their choice of airlines.
Southwest said it would team up with J.P. Morgan Chase on the lounges, including offering a new, co-branded premium credit card that would give travelers access. Chase already has its own Sapphire Reserve Lounges at nine airports, including Dallas Fort Worth, Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, and LaGuardia and Kennedy Airports in New York.
The airline’s expansion into lounges is a “stark shift from the former Southwest brand identity built around simplicity and egalitarianism,” said Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet, a personal finance website.
“It’s also further evidence that airlines have completely given up on expanding their base of economy fliers,” she added.
Southwest has long branded itself as a maverick in the airline industry, resisting industry pressure to invest in lounges, assign seating and charge for checked bags. But that began to shift in 2024, as Elliott Management, a hedge fund, amassed a sizable stake in the airline and pushed for change.
Elliott accused Southwest of losing its way, pointing to sagging profits and rising costs. The airline has since adopted common practices like offering premium seats with extra legroom, selling restrictive basic economy tickets, operating red-eye flights and charging many customers for checked bags and advance seat selection.
Many of the changes, including the forthcoming lounges, are aimed at attracting big-spending travelers, who have become an important source of profits for major airlines.
The news that Southwest has joined the lounge fray with a premium credit card “shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise,” said Clint Henderson, a travel expert at The Points Guy. “It’s not really even about how much you fly anymore,” he said. “It’s really about what you are spending on the credit card in the airline’s ecosystem.”
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