Southwest Airlines is preparing to launch overnight flights for the first time in

its history. After hinting at the change last year, the Dallas-based carrier plans
to add overnight flights from Las Vegas and Hawaii, Chief Commercial Officer Ryan
Green said at an air travel conference Wednesday. The airline still has a few
technical and labor details to work out before the flights can begin, but it hopes
to get them in the air in about two years, Green said. Subscribe to The Post Most
newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.
Green added that he sees an opportunity for about 50 red-eye flights a day at
Southwest. Red eyes, so called for the appearance of travelers’ eyes after missing
a night of sleep, are ubiquitous at most major airlines. Travelers book them for
what are often cheaper fares than daytime flights. For travelers from the West
Coast, they also offer the advantage of leaving after work and arriving on the East
Coast the next day in time for a breakfast meeting. And airlines like overnight
flights because they can generate more revenue from an airplane that would
otherwise sit idle at an airport until the next morning. Las Vegas’s Harry Reid
International Airport boasted no fewer than 26 overnight flights departing after 9
p.m. on almost every U.S. airline on a random Thursday in March, data from aviation
analytics firm Cirium Diio shows. These flights, which are typically over four
hours, connect Sin City to cities such as Atlanta, Boston, New York and D.C. - - -
Southwest plays catch up on red eyes Southwest is beloved by travelers for its
quirkiness, all-economy seating with no seat assignments and free checked bags.
What it is not known for is being on the forefront of travel technology. Remember
the plastic boarding cards you picked up at the gate well into the 2000s? Or the
Great Meltdown of 2022? For most of its 50-plus years flying, Southwest could not
offer anything more than daytime flights in the U.S. due to limits with its
reservations system. That changed in 2014 when it began implementing a new, modern
booking system from airline IT provider Amadeus to launch international flights.
Overnight flights became possible in 2017 when the platform was fully adopted. It
took another six years before Southwest began selling tickets with overnight
connections last July. Southwest CEO Robert Jordan in November described the
possibility of overnight flights at the airline as the latest “evolution” of its
business model. - - - Cheap, easy growth Southwest, like most airlines, is in a
bind. Aviation supply chain issues mean many of the new planes it has ordered from
Boeing are years behind schedule. Costs are also up thanks to inflation and new
post- pandemic labor agreements. Boeing’s issues have forced Southwest to cut its
growth plans this year. Instead of 79 new 737 Max planes, it will only take around
46. “We have to be maniacally focused on being efficient,” Green said, adding that
the airline wants to grow but without “adding to the cost structure.” Enter
overnight flights. Savanthi Syth, an airline analyst at investment bank Raymond
James, said in an email that adding red-eye flights would allow Southwest to grow
at less cost than buying new planes. “In the Hawaii-mainland U.S. market, red-eye
flight capabilities should enable more connections or just a better schedule than
Southwest can offer today,” she added. That’s good news for the many loyal
Southwest fliers in, say, Dallas or Kansas City, Mo., whose only flight option home
from Hawaii is to lose an entire day to travel. Similarly, more flights from Las
Vegas could help slow fare increases. The average U.S. domestic airfare from the
city, not including added fees such as checked bags or seat assignments, was up 12
percent to $264.38 in the third quarter of last year compared with 2019, according
to Bureau of Transportation Statistics data. Airfares were down 6 percent when
adjusted for inflation. “Southwest’s significant volume of red-eye flights will
bring additional capacity to an already crowded Las Vegas market,” said Seth
Miller, an airline analyst and editor of the PaxEx.Aero website. “Passengers should
benefit as destination options expand and fares remain competitive.” Related
Content After voting to legalize weed, Marylanders are mixed on impact, poll finds
Shadowing Trump’s attacks on mental fitness — his own father’s dementia In
Wisconsin, a vote for Biden or Trump could come down to grocery prices