Is southwest airlines serving alcohol on their flights

Travelers wait to check in at the Southwest Airlines ticketing counter at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on October 11, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Southwest will add more soft drinks to its inflight menu in October
What kind of alcohol do they serve on Southwest Airlines?
Has Southwest Airlines stopped serving alcohol?

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Southwest Airlines will resume alcohol sales on most of its flights this month after nearly two years, a pause it extended last spring because of a surge in disruptive passengers.

The move further heightened tension between the airline and its 16,000-member flight attendants' union, which called the resumption of alcohol sales "unsafe and irresponsible."

The Dallas-based airline originally paused alcohol and other services in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Last week, the airline's COO said the carrier would likely bring alcohol sales back late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter.

Starting Feb. 16, Southwest will sell alcohol, including beer, wine, rum, tequila and vodka on flights at least 176 miles long. It is also said it will also add tonic water, apple juice, Coke Zero, Dr. Pepper, hot tea and hot cocoa to current lineup of non-alcoholic beverages.

All U.S. airlines slashed onboard service during the pandemic and food and other beverage services are starting to make a comeback.

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines scaled back some recent service expansions under pressure from flight attendants unions, which argued it would increase the amount of time passengers would not be wearing face masks, which are federally mandated on board, though they can be lowered when drinking or eating. The mask mandate is in effect through at least March 18.

Southwest is facing similar pressure from its flight attendants' union, TWU Local 556.

"We have adamantly and unequivocally informed management that resuming sales of alcohol while the mask mandate is in place has the great potential to increase customer non-compliance and misconduct issues," said Lyn Montgomery, president of Southwest flight attendants' union.

Southwest declined to comment on the union's statement.

Southwest and American Airlines last May said they would hold off on plans bringing back alcohol, in American's case to domestic and short-haul international coach, because of disruptive passenger behavior that in some cases included physical assault against crew members.

"Customers have expressed a desire for more beverage options, so we're delighted to restore additional on-board offerings as a part of the Southwest Hospitality that our Customers know and love," Tony Roach, Southwest's vice president of customer experience and customer relations said in a statement.

Southwest Airlines does not plan to resume onboard alcohol sales until at least January, according to a memo sent to flight attendants on Friday.

The timeline is tied to the extension of the federal mask mandate on airplanes and at airports.

"With the mask mandate being extended to January 18, 2022, there are no current plans to bring back alcohol prior to January 2022,'' Randall Miller, senior manager of inflight ops, initiatives and design said in the memo.

American Airlines made the same decision in August, when the mandate was extended because of the spike in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant. Southwest and American are the only two major carriers still not serving alcohol in economy class. (American serves it in first class; Southwest doesn't have a first class.)

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Southwest was the first major U.S. airline to suspend traditional inflight service at the beginning of the pandemic to reduce interactions between passengers and flight attendants.

In May, Southwest announced plans to start selling inflight cocktails, beer and wine again beginning in late June.

Those plans were scrapped after a high-profile incident on a Southwest flight from Sacramento to San Diego in late May in which an altercation between a passenger and a flight attendant sent the flight attendant to the hospital. The attendant on the Southwest Airlines plane lost two teeth and suffered other injuries to her face, prosecutors said in federal court documents. A cut under her left eye required four stitches, her left eye was bruised and swollen, and her right arm was bruised.

"Given the recent uptick in industry-wide incidents of passenger disruptions in-flight, we have made the decision to pause the previously announced restart of alcohol service onboard,'' Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said at the time. "We realize this decision may be disappointing for some customers, but we feel this is the right decision at this time in the interest of the safety and comfort of all customers and crew onboard.''

Flight attendants have two major concerns with the return of alcohol: It can lead to unruly behavior and encourages travelers to keep their masks off longer.

Southwest is offering only four drink choices on its flights: Coke, Diet Coke, 7-Up and canned water. Flight attendants flash a laminated card to passengers in each row as they approach and ask them to hold up one, two, three or four fingers to signify their choice and to enable them to keep their masks on when ordering.

In October, the airline is bringing back seatback pocket menus and adding several soft drinks to the lineup, some of them because it had them on order as mixers for the return of alcohol, according to the memo. Flight attendants have asked the airline to reduce inflight service, not expand it, because of the delta variant.

The new choices: orange juice, cranberry cocktail juice, ginger ale, seltzer water and tonic water.

"With our original timeline to return alcohol service, we needed to proactively source seltzer and tonic water to ensure availability,'' Miller said in the memo. "Due to the longer lead times to produce product and other supply constraints we’ve experienced, when our original plans changed, we still had an obligation to these suppliers.''

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What kind of alcohol do they serve on Southwest Airlines?

Southwest Airlines brings back alcohol on planes for first time since 2020. On Southwest, non-alcoholic beverage service will also be expanded on February 16. Beer, wine and hard liquor will be offered again starting on February 16, the airline said in a news release.

Has Southwest Airlines stopped serving alcohol?

For some, February 16, 2022, might have as much impact as December 5, 1933. The latter date marks the end of Prohibition in the United States. February 16, 2022, is the date that Southwest Airlines will return to serving alcohol on board its aircraft.