Southwest Airways says it’s ending its cabin service earlier on its flights beginning subsequent month.

Starting on Dec. 4, an organization spokesperson stated, flight attendants will start getting ready the cabin for touchdown at an altitude of 18,000 ft as a substitute of 10,000 ft. The change in process is designed to “scale back the danger of in-flight turbulence accidents” for crew members and passengers, the corporate stated.

For passengers, which means they might want to do the same old pre-landing procedures — comparable to guaranteeing their seatbelts are mounted and returning their seats to an upright place — sooner than earlier than.

Whereas turbulence-related fatalities are fairly uncommon, accidents have piled up through the years. A couple of-third of all airline incidents in the US from 2009 via 2018 have been associated to turbulence, and most of them resulted in a number of severe accidents however no harm to the aircraft, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board reported.

In Could, a 73-year outdated man died on board a Singapore Airways flight when the aircraft hit extreme turbulence over the Indian Ocean.

The airline had additionally beforehand introduced different modifications.

Beginning subsequent yr, Southwest will toss out a half-century custom of “open seating” — passengers choosing their very own seats after boarding the aircraft.