On behalf of Southwest Airlines, welcome aboard flight S&P 500 — with nonstop service to Wall Street. 

In an interview with The New York Times, the airline’s CEO, Bob Jordan, was asked how frequently he checks the stock’s performance. 

Travelers who are still upset about the airline’s decision to discontinue its long-standing ‘bags fly free’ policy may not find the answer surprising.

‘I watch it constantly. Daily,’ Jordan said. 

In March, the company announced it would start charging customers for checked bags for the first time in the company’s history. 

The day of the announcement, the stock surged 21 percent, boosting the value of Jordan’s own shares by an estimated $871,000.  

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a Southwest spokesperson defended Jordan’s approach.

According to a spokesperson, as the CEO, Bob carries the responsibility towards Southwest’s Customers, Employees, and shareholders. The spokesperson highlighted that the company’s stock price aligns with the interests of all these groups.

Southwest has changes several customer programs in the months after Elliott Investment Management purchased a large sum of shares

The airline’s share price has been on a tear. In the past year, the company’s stock has risen more than 22 percent.  

But that alignment — between stock performance and customer satisfaction — hasn’t been so clear to many travelers. 

Southwest’s change in policy regarding bag-checking followed other significant changes, such as introducing new basic economy fare options, discontinuing open seating, and experiencing its first large-scale employee layoff in its history.

Many of the changes followed mounting pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which took a $2 billion stake in the airline in June 2024.

Elliott publicly criticized Southwest’s ‘outdated’ business model — and called for Jordan’s removal.

Jordan has framed the changes as a response to post-pandemic customer preferences. 

‘If you don’t follow your customers, you look up one day and your products just aren’t attractive any longer,’ he told the New York Times.

‘The move to bag fees is really about choice.’  

CEO Bob Jordan told The New York Times the bag change was ‘really about choice’

Southwest started charging for checked bags, assigning seats, and had the company’s first mass-layoff

On social media, dozens of customers criticized the CEO’s comments about customer choice, saying they came off as ‘tone deaf’ or even ‘gaslighting.’  

‘Southwest used to be an employee-first airline, then they were customer-first,’ one flier wrote in a top-voted Reddit post. ‘Now they’re shareholder-first.’

In March, communications specialists told DailyMail.com that the company’s baggage fee rollout was especially rough on customers. 

‘Every company is focused on the bottom line,’ Eric Wein, a California-based communications executive, said.

‘But it’s surprising that Southwest seemed to have lost sight of its customer loyalty and brand appeal in making some of these rather necessary financial moves.’ 

But despite the pushback, the financial upside to the policy changes has been hard to ignore. 

Competitors like Delta, United, and American collectively earned more than $33 billion from baggage fees in 2023 alone.