Southwest Airlines has revamped its business model to become just like the rest of the airlines in the country. But for now they offer a product that is ‘the same, but less than’. There are checked bag fees and seat fees and extra legroom seats, but their wifi is poor, no seat back TVs, and they have no first class and no airport lounges.
They’re beginning to address those deficiencies. They will be rolling out Starlink wifi. They are widely expected to introduce first class seats (but probably not galley ovens for hot meals). And they have at least 5 airport lounges in the pipeline though they haven’t officially acknowledged plans for lounges.
Airport lounges are crucial to attract premium credit card customers. That’s why JetBlue has started opening lounges, too. And I was first to exclusively reveal Southwest’s plan to offer a lounge in Austin.
- I learned this by FOIA’ing the new Austin airport use and lease agreement, that provides for construction of a new midfield concourse to open in the early 2030s. Southwest will move to that space.
- They were leasing 40,000 square feet of lounge space, but it was tagged as ’employee lounge’. Southwest is opening crew bases in Austin, but that size makes no sense for that purpose. It’s clear they intend most of the space to be for a passenger lounge.
- What did not make sense was the square footage – it didn’t tie to specific new space on the midfield concourse. It was larger than any proposed lounge space there (although for a concourse that hadn’t yet been built, it’s possible this was reprogrammed).
There’s been a new development. A permit has been filed for “20,000sqft tenant finish out for new lounge space in the airprot” [sic]. Estimated completion date is March 1, 2027 (though these things frequently slip).
- No airline is named. Instead it’s under the code name “Project Oasis.”
- While that’s a funny name to use – project oasis was the the American Airlines plan to enshittify its domestic narrowbody cabins – tighter seating, elimination of seat back entertainment screens, and smaller lavatories – this is not the new American Airlines club in Austin. That has been publicly announced. And that’s just 12,000 square feet, and this is 20,000 feet.
- 20,000 feet of space that’s currently available matches the West Infill Premium Lounge space (‘AUS Lounge Area 4’) that was planned to be for a financial institution. But no RFP for this space was ever announced even though the West Infill project is now online.
So it looks like the new West Infill lounge project has started. And here’s the tell: the ‘tenant’ is listed as John Gutierrez with a Dallas phone number.
I searched for that tenant and found a project for a “Southwest Airlines Baggage Storage Office (BSO) remodel” at the Austin airport and a “Southwest Airlines DAL Inflight Office Remodel” at Dallas Love Field.
So it looks like a Southwest Airlines lounge is coming to the Austin airport sooner than expected. And I imagine that suggests we’ll be seeing a premium Chase Southwest Airlines credit card sooner than expected, too.
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