Southwest Airlines Unveiled New Cabin Seats, And People Are Freaking Out!

Southwest Airlines put out an upbeat press release last week talking about their redesigned cabin, new seats, and uniform refresh, and on the surface, it sounded like a good thing. The improvements include onboard power ports, larger overhead bins, RECARO aircraft seats, and a modern uniform refresh for the more than 53,000 Southwest employees.

Debuting in early 2025, the new cabin interior design “brings to life Southwest’s warm energy with deep blue tones, sky blue accents, and a nod to the Southwest Heart woven throughout the carpet. As part of this refresh, Southwest selected RECARO to provide comfortable seating that complements the calm blue palette planned for the refreshed cabins. The Southwest Heart will be threaded throughout the interior with the recognizable symbol debossed on seat headrests, alongside a sunray pattern on the seats.

The new RECARO seats include a multi-adjustable headrest cushion for enhanced head and neck support, an intuitively designed seat for ultimate comfort while maximizing seat width and overall support. Each seat will include a personal electronic device holder for customers to enjoy free Inflight Entertainment on their devices more easily.”

But as you can see from the photo and video above, these seats look seriously thin, presumably in an attempt to cram in another row or two of seats in each plane, comfort be damned! While it’s too soon to say if this is indeed the case, based on their appearance, these seats can’t be all that comfy given the lack of padding.

It didn’t take long for people to flock to social media to voice their concerns (and jokes), with many comparing Southwest’s new seats to those rock-hard seats found on Spirit Airlines.

Only time will tell how Southwest reacts to the public backlash. Will they have a change of heart, or if they will just continue ahead as planned. After all, most people will forego a few hours of comfort if it means saving a few hundred dollars on a flight.

What do you think of Southwest Airlines redesigned cabin?