“Because we were able to sit you down and back in your seat, we created more personal space for you. As a result we were able to put in six more seats into the aircraft. So we have gone from 137 seats to 143 seats. We [offer] an average pitch of 31in. That is down an inch from 32in today.” [...]

Southwest says its new 175-seat Boeing 737-800s – which will be delivered with the airframer’s own Sky Interior features – will feature the same carpet squares, bulkhead screen design and seats as the -700s, although a 32in seat pitch will be retained for the -800s “because they’re long-haul” and are laid out in such a fashion that “allowed us to do that”, says Vargo.