Southwest Airlines wants to grow its ancillary revenues, but it still won’t consider charging customers the much-maligned checked baggage fee embraced by many other airlines.
That’s what Southwest Airlines CFO Tammy Romo told investment bankers today at the Morgan Stanley 2nd Annual Laguna conference, which ended a few minutes ago (about 1:15 pm EST).
The Travel Update blog has been listening to the webcast to give you some highlights. During her presentation, Romo was specifically asked about bag fees; her response:
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“We are focused on growing our ancillary revenues. We are seeing revenue grow with Business Select, Early Bird (check-in) and premium boarding at the gate. We have opportunities to continue to grow our ancillary revenue without charging for bags. Our customers don’t like bag fees, therefore, we do not like bag fees. We have no plans today to charge bag fees.”
Romo acknowledged that when Southwest finishes the multi-year project of replacing its old domestic reservations system, the new system “will bring incremental revenue opportunities, particularly in revenue management.” She did not elaborate on how that might work.
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