As of August 1, 2026, Southwest Airlines will start boarding most flights up to 35 minutes before departure, instead of up to 30 minutes before departure. Not surprisingly, checked bag fees are primarily to blame…
Southwest Airlines updating when it boards flights
TWU Local 556, the union represent Southwest flight attendants, has revealed that many flights will start boarding earlier, as flagged by PYOK. As of August 1, 2026, the airline will be updating its boarding procedures as follows:
- Boeing 737-700s operating domestic flights (excluding Hawaii) will continue to board 30 minutes before departure
- Boeing 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s operating domestic flights (excluding Hawaii) will start to board 35 minutes before departure, rather than 30 minutes before departure
- International flights, as well as flights to and from Hawaii, will continue to board 45 minutes before departure
More specifically, this is about the time that flight attendants report to the gate, but on Southwest they start boarding very shortly after getting to the gate. As you can tell, there’s a difference of five minutes here, compared to the old policy. For context, nearly two-thirds of Southwest’s fleet consists of 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s, so this impacts a majority of Southwest flights.
Why is Southwest Airlines boarding flights earlier?
It’s not too hard to figure out what’s going on here. Historically, Southwest has offered two free checked bags to all passengers. While that was part of an overall strategy of differentiating the airline from the competition when it comes to customer experience, it was also about making aircraft turns as efficient as possible.
However, as of the middle of 2025, Southwest began charging for checked bags. As you’d expect, that also causes people to try to bring on more and larger carry-ons, to avoid having to pay those fees.
It’s not just that it takes longer for everyone to board with bags, but then you often still have to gate check bags, and that can slow down the whole process even more, since you can’t push back until the cargo hold is closed.
Southwest’s 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s have roughly 30-40 more seats than the smaller 737-700s, so it makes sense that it would also take a bit longer to board those flights.
Honestly, even with this update, Southwest still starts boarding closer to departure than most other US carriers, so clearly the airline is doing something right on that front.
Bottom line
As of August 1, 2026, Southwest Airlines will start boarding Boeing 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s 35 minutes before departure on all domestic flights (excluding Hawaii flights, which board 45 minutes in advance). It seems pretty clear that this change is motivated by the impact that checked bag fees are having on operational performance, since it takes more time to board a plane when people have lots of carry-ons, and overhead bins are full.
Even with these changes, Southwest still has the shortest boarding windows of any major US carrier, on average.
What do you make of Southwest leaving more time for boarding?
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