AIRLINES
As planes fill and tastes change, Southwest Airlines mulls assigned seating
Southwest Airlines Co. may ditch open seating, a classic hallmark of its business model, to offer assigned spots and premium seats in a bid to appeal to a younger generation of travelers. The move arguably would be the largest change undertaken by the carrier since it began flying in 1971. “We are seriously studying customer preference around our seating and our cabin,” chief executive Bob Jordan said Thursday. “We’ve been doing that for awhile — you have to be committed to understanding and meeting customer expectations.” Jordan’s comments were a step up from last year, when the carrier acknowledged it was monitoring growing industrywide preference among travelers for premium products. But chief commercial officer Ryan Green noted then that such things are often cyclical and the carrier would wait to see if the trend persisted. Now Southwest is expected to announce a decision on seating changes and introduce “a whole series of initiatives” — including overnight red-eye flights — at an investor day Sept. 26. While the carrier was known early on as being firmly against tweaking its no-frills model, it did give up plastic boarding cards, changed its boarding proces and expanded ticket sales beyond its own website. But its aircraft are crowded now, with passengers often filling more than 90 percent of the seats compared with 60 percent to 70 percent in past years, and “customer expectations change over time,” Jordan said. The carrier is also considering how such a change would affect its flight operations. “There’s no decision,” he said. “The early results for both customers and for Southwest look really interesting. If data says this what customers want, this is good for demand, for Southwest, for shareholders, then I think you have your answer.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS
FOOD
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Chipotle reverses course on staff meals, says ‘Let them eat chicken’
Chipotle says its employees can choose chicken once again. Last week, the chain asked its US and Canadian employees to temporarily select another protein for their work meals to preserve the company’s supply of chicken. The directive applied to both corporate staff and restaurant employees. Newport Beach, Calif.-based Chipotle has more than 114,000 workers in the United States and Canada. But Laurie Schalow, the Mexican chain’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, said Thursday that the directive has been rescinded and employees can return to ordering chicken with their meals. “We are not experiencing outages of chicken in our restaurants,” Schalow said in a statement. “Last week we temporarily asked employees to select non-chicken options for their employee meals to maintain supply for our guests based on our strong sales, but employees are now free to select chicken in their meals as normal.” Chipotle’s chicken al pastor, which is marinaded in morita peppers, ground achiote, and pineapple, debuted in March 2023. It grew so popular that it soon made up 20 percent of all orders, Chipotle said. It was removed from the menu last August. During a conference call with investors Wednesday, Chipotle said its reintroduction of chicken al pastor in March as a limited-time offer drove strong traffic to its 3,371 US stores and 66 international stores. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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AUTOMAKING
Toyota to open new EV plant in Indiana, its second such announcement this year
Toyota Motor Corp. is moving ahead with plans to manufacture and sell more electric vehicles in the United States by investing $1.4 billion at a plant in Indiana, the Japanese carmaker’s second such announcement this year. The Princeton, Ind., facility — which currently makes four gas and hybrid models — will add an unnamed all-electric, three-row SUV to its line-up, the company said Thursday in a statement. It follows Toyota’s disclosure in February of plans to spend $1.3 billion at a factory in Kentucky to make a separate three-row, fully electric SUV. Both vehicles will use lithium-ion batteries supplied by a new plant being built by the automaker in North Carolina that is expected to start production in 2025. Toyota has been slower than other major carmakers to embrace EVs, preferring to spread its bets by selling popular hybrid gas-electric powered models. The decision to manufacture EVs in the United States is part of its efforts to keep compliant with toughening US emissions standards. Toyota also wants to stay competitive with rivals’ EVs that benefit from US government subsidies that favor local production. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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SHIPPING
First trapped ships make their way out of Baltimore Harbor
The first of seven ships trapped in Baltimore Harbor after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last month has cleared the wreckage and is en route to its destination. The Balsa 94, a general cargo ship that sails under Panama’s flag, has left the Port of Baltimore and passed by the bridge’s remains, according to Bloomberg ship tracking and the Unified Command Joint Information Center. A total of five ships were be able to leave Baltimore Harbor Thursday, the center said, without confirming which ships would be departing. Officials in Baltimore established a temporary channel so essential ships can traverse the harbor for the first time since the Singapore-flagged ship Dali collided with the bridge on March 26. The new 35-foot-deep channel — deeper than previous channels ranging from 11 feet to 20 feet — will be open between April 25 and April 29, pending inclement weather. Salvage operations are still in progress. A safety zone has gone into effect for all navigable waters within a 2,000-yard radius of the Key Bridge, according to Baltimore sub-agent Capes Shipping. Port movements will be suspended for an uncertain amount of time, and “prolonged delays are expected due to the magnitude of the situation,” the group said. Ships are entering the harbor as well. American Sugar Refining Inc. said a full-size vessel delivered raw sugar from Florida to its Baltimore refinery on Wednesday via a new 20-foot channel. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Musk tops Zuck again in rankings of billionaires
Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune plunged $20 billion as shares of Meta Platforms Inc. tumbled, allowing Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk to cement his status as the world’s third-richest billionaire. Meta shares fell as much as 16 percent Thursday after the social media company said second-quarter sales were likely to come in below estimates. Zuckerberg’s one-day drop in net worth is the fourth-largest ever related to a stock move among those in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with his fortune now at $155 billion. Musk, 52, gained $400 million in wealth to $178 billion as Tesla stock continued its post-earnings rally. The two billionaires switched ranks earlier this month, when Zuckerberg, 39, overtook Musk for the first time since 2020 following news that Tesla’s vehicle deliveries fell in the three months through March. Shares of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Meta fell Thursday by the most since October 2022 after the company increased spending estimates for the year and projected second-quarter sales that were below Wall Street’s expectations, once again raising questions about whether its bets on artificial intelligence will eventually pay off for investors. The stock is still up 22 percent for the year and has been trading near all-time highs for the past month, in part reflecting excitement around AI. Shares of Austin, Texas-based Tesla surged 12 percent on Wednesday after Musk vowed to offer less-expensive vehicles as soon as this year, easing concerns about disappointing earnings results and diminished growth prospects. The stock was the worst performer on the S&P 500 Index before the rally, falling 42 percent through Tuesday’s close. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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