Southwest Airlines gives up overbooking
It is no surprise that airline operators and accommodation units practice overbooking!
What is overbooking? Airlines, accommodation units, but also concert organizers have the habit of selling more tickets than available seats. If we refer to commercial aviation, there is a small percentage of people who will not attend the boarding, and the commercial operators do not want to remain empty seats in airplanes.
No overbooking on Southwest Airlines
Unfortunately, overbooking has two edges for the air carrier. There are situations in which all passengers are on board, including those considered "reserves". In such situations, the airline needs to change the aircraft and introduce one with a larger capacity to transport them all. At the same time, there is a risk that # reserves # will be diverted on other flights. In any case, the image of the company is affected.
Following the incident in the United States, the one in which a passenger was dragged out of a plane Republic Airways (a subsidiary of United Airlines), Southwest Airlines has made the decision not to practice overbooking.
Gary KellySouthwest Airlines president and CEO said it was time to give up on overbooking. According to some calculations, the economic impact on the company will be very small.
It may be an image statement, but at the same time it sounds an alarm about this technique of selling more tickets than available seats.
We hope to stop seeing unpleasant situations like United Airlines. It is true that there may be rare situations where an aircraft of a certain capacity is no longer available and the airline replaces it with an aircraft of lesser capacity. But we hope these moments are as rare as possible. There should also be financial compensation for the discomfort created.