It's an important week for Southwest Airlines, as the carrier prepares to announce more details about its move away from the open seating model that's long been its trademark.
That's a major change for the Dallas-based carrier -- one that Southwest has been considering since at least 2006.
"It was a secret project. We had to use code words when we talked about it," says Doug Lawson, who worked for Southwest for more than 20 years, mostly in operations.
Southwest is well known for turning its planes around faster than its competitors, in part by letting passengers pick any open seat during boarding. But its leaders wanted to know if there was an even faster way: boarding the plane from the outside in, window seats, followed by middle seats, followed by aisle seats, sometimes known by the acronym WILMA.
It was so controversial, Lawson says it had to be kept secret -- even inside Southwest. "The code name was D WILMA," Lawson said in an interview. "The D stands for 'Doug.' My boss couldn't think of anything more original," he chuckled.