Southwest Airlines will continue to limit the number of tickets it sells on each flight through September so that passengers won’t be forced to sit in the middle seat, another sign that the travel industry won’t be ready to return to normal flying anytime soon.
Southwest said Tuesday it will limit capacity to two-thirds on flights for an additional two months beyond previous plans. It will also ask customers to agree to a “health declaration” saying that they don’t have COVID-19 symptoms and will follow to the mandatory face mask policy.
Airlines including Southwest have been trying hard to convince passengers it’s safe to fly again as parts of the economy open up, but are still struggling with an outcry for social distancing and face masks in public.
On Monday, the nation’s major airlines said they would step up enforcement of face mask requirements to slow the spread of the virus.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said they may suspend flight passengers who get on planes and then refuse to put on face masks. Southwest didn’t go as far, but said it would deny boarding to anyone who refuses to wear face masks and deal with the problem through “normal security protocols.”
Fort Worth-based American is also reducing seating on planes, along with United and Delta. Southwest doesn’t assign seating, so selling fewer seats to give customers the chance to spread out on their own. Families are still allowed to sit together.
Despite efforts to calm customers, airlines are still struggling with historically low levels of passengers. Airline passenger traffic is less than 20% of what it was a year ago, although numbers have been slowly improving in the last three weeks, according to TSA statistics.
Southwest along with other airlines has made a number of other changes to make the travel experience cleaner and reduce contact between customers and staff members. Southwest has reduced food and drink service on flights, limited boarding to 10 customers at a time and put Plexiglass barriers at check-in and gate areas.
Customers will have to agree to the health declaration when checking in for their flight online or through the Southwest Airlines app. The declaration will ask passengers to confirm they don’t have symptoms of COVID-19, don’t have the virus and haven’t been exposed to someone with it in the last two weeks. Customers will also have to confirm they don’t have a fever when they travel, but hasn’t said how that will be checked.
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