Southwest Airlines plans to halt flight overbookings

United’s recent bumping fiasco added to urgency, CEO says

Southwest Airlines plans to stop overbooking flights — an industry practice implicated in an ugly incident on a United Airlines flight that has damaged United’s reputation with the f lying public.

Last year Southwest bumped 15,000 passengers off flights, more than any other U.S. airline. Carriers say they sometimes sell more tickets than there are seats because often a few passengers don’t show up.

The practice of overbooking flights has come under intense scrutiny since April 9, when a passenger was dragged off an overbooked United Express plane after refusing to give up his seat for a crew member.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said Thursday the airline had been thinking about ending overbooking for “a long time” because of fewer and fewer no-shows. But the issue gained more urgency after the United incident, he said.

Beth Harbin, a Southwest spokeswoman, said Thursday that with better forecasting tools and a new reservations system coming online next month the airline will no longer have a need to overbook flights.

Politicians in Washington and elsewhere have called for a ban on overselling flights. Some critics have said airlines should leave a few seats empty if they think they will be needed by crew members.

JetBlue is currently the only major U.S. airline with a stated policy that bans overbooking. United said Thursday that it plans to reduce overbooking but not eliminate it entirely.

Dallas-based Southwest did not put a time frame on the policy change. And Kelly noted that Southwest may still need to bump people if, for instance, the airline substitutes a smaller plane for the one originally scheduled, which happens occasionally.

Chief Financial Officer Tammy Romo said doing away with overbooking would reduce costs — airlines compensate passengers for giving up their seats — which would offset some of the revenue hit.