Background noise is mentally exhausting, especially for long layovers or early morning flights. Quiet reduces stress.

San Francisco is a ‘quiet airport.’ They limit announcements, background noise and marketing. They cut down on gate announcements, overlapping PA messages, and music. Instead of blasting departure calls terminal-wide, messages are limited to each gate and immediate surroundings. In the International Terminal alone they’ve eliminated over 90 minutes of unnecessary announcements a day, and they’re working to reduce noise from escalators and moving walkways.

Denver airport adopted a similar approach to quiet in August, but aviation watchdog JonNYC flags that Southwest Airlines which has a major presence in Denver has refused to go along.

couple 'a months ago SFO introduced a "quiet airport" initiative (Flight announcements in gate rooms only. Passengers rely on apps and/or monitors through the airport.)

DEN started this last month– no more multiple “final” calls for one flight. No more listing ten names of…

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 10, 2025

pic.twitter.com/esuf2RLh5n

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 10, 2025

I reached out to Southwest Airlines for comment and context on why they might not go along with an airport push for quiet terminals. They actually say they will participate “when it rolls out to concourse C.”

I’d note that the narrative of Southwest pushing back on quiet airport, and saying that they’ll go along with it at some point in the future when it’s imposed, are not at all inconsistent. Indeed, they could adopt their part now if they wanted to.

Most travelers now get notifications via mobile apps, email, text, and digital gate boards. Announcements are frequently unnecessary – except for travelers who don’t know to be looking, such as when a gate changes or a specific person is being paged. Overall travelers seem to very much prefer the quiet.

So why might Southwest not be enthusiastic? I see several related possibilities.

• Cheapest way to comply with Air Carrier Access Act. Under 14 CFR Part 382, carriers must give disabled passengers prompt access to the same information at gates and customer-service areas (e.g., delays, boarding, gate changes). Quiet policies force tighter visual redundancies and timing; blasting a PA everywhere is the simplest way to prove parity. Why invest in an alternative?

• Boarding model still depends on narration. Open seating (A/B/C groups, family boarding, lots of preboards) doesn’t go away until next year. They choreograph the status quo model aloud to manage queueing. Muzzling agents outside the immediate gate area adds friction and risks slowing down boarding as they’re trying to reduce turn time – even as they add more gate checked bags as a result of new bag fees.

• Gate areas spill into each other at Denver. At peak, Southwest’s C-concourse gate areas overflow into circulation space. If announcements are confined to a tight area, more passengers miss calls. Again, that slows down boarding and extends turns.

• Southwest doesn’t capture the upside. Customers love the quiet but that inures to the benefit of the airport. Southwest can’t directly monetize – and under Elliott control it’s like N.W.A.’s take on life from “Gangsta Gangsta’.

Once Southwest moves to assigned seats next year, they may not mind quiet terminal as much, and so I wouldn’t be surprised for the terminal C requirement align with that change.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam Schiphol has had a similar “silent airport” initiative since at least 2011, with announcements mostly confined to essential information. There it is not optional. But Southwest’s current fleet can’t reach that far across the Pond.