Southwest Airlines seeks more revenue, but rules out bag fees

Bags will continue to fly free at Southwest Airlines. For now. Under pressure to generate more revenues, the CE of the carrier rejected suggestions that the airline start charging customers to check luggage, even though bag fees have generated billions of dollars for other airlines. Southwest is the only major airline in the United States that doesn’t charge passengers to check their first two bags or to change flight reservations. During a quarterly earnings conference call with analysts this week, Southwest CE Gary Kelly said he won’t consider instituting such fees, as some industry analysts have urged. “We have a unique and beloved position in the industry with this approach and we would be foolish to squander it, so no thought whatsoever on charging bags,” Kelly said. Southwest’s net income declined to $388m in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared to $584m in the year-earlier period. Kelly blamed part of the decline on a technology outage in July. Kelly said the airline is considering other money-making ideas. When asked to elaborate, he declined.<br/>