In a move that would make even the savviest of airline passengers adjust their tray tables, Elliott Investment Management has taken a $1.9 billion stake in Southwest Airlines. This significant investment appears to be less about collecting frequent flyer miles and more about pushing for leadership changes at the struggling carrier.

Elliott Management didn't waste any time boarding its agenda. The activist investor is pushing for major shakeups at Southwest. It's directing its ire at the top brass, and no one is safe—not even CEO Bob Jordan, who only took the helm in February 2022. In corporate speak, that's the equivalent of getting unceremoniously bumped from a prime window seat to the dreaded middle row in front of the restrooms.

On the exciting news that someone is actively trying to reboot the airline, Southwest shares soared more than 6% in regular trading and even hit a 7% rise in premarket action. It's like watching a delayed but finally boarding flight—everybody's optimistic, but cautious.

One can almost hear Elliott's frustrated sighs as it cited Southwest's poor execution and management's utterly heroic stubbornness to evolve the company's strategy. Kind of like a pilot refusing to follow the latest GPS coordinates and opting for a trusty old map instead.

Adding to the grim picture, Southwest's share price is down over 50% from early 2021 and trades lower than its pre-pandemic price. While most airlines are at a cruising altitude, Southwest seems stuck on the tarmac, struggling with delayed deliveries of Boeing 737 jets, which forced it to freeze hiring. Forget the seatbelts; this one's a rough ride.

Arguably, Southwest hit its biggest turbulence during the year-end holiday travel chaos of 2022, where it spectacularly canceled 16,700 flights. A failure attributed to outdated staff scheduling software, or as we like to think of it, the technological equivalent of navigating by astrological charts.

Elliott's letter reads like a prickly in-flight magazine editorial. It called for increased customer choice, improved cost execution, and a complete overhaul of Southwest's ancient IT systems. That's right, folks, the push is on for WiFi that actually works and boarding procedures that don’t resemble a herd of cattle stampeding towards a water source.

In addition, Elliott criticized the Board for failing to hold management accountable and lamented the disturbing lack of directors with external airline experience. This is like finding out your flight crew’s most relevant experience is from the movie "Catch Me If You Can." But perhaps the toughest nut for Elliott to crack is Southwest's consideration of changing its single class of airplane seating and its longtime boarding method. For an airline famous for its "cattle call" boarding, this is tantamount to suggesting that Leonardo da Vinci might have considered painting more happy little trees.

Despite these issues, the airline sector bravely expects strong demand for summer travel. Sure, and we’re betting everyone will also leave on time and luggage will never get lost. Optimism is an airline’s best marketing campaign.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan might start looking over his shoulder more frequently, and not just because someone else wants the exit row. If Elliott gets its way, we might witness more than just a change in seating assignments. It just goes to show, sometimes you have to fasten your seatbelts even when you're not sure who’s flying the plane.

So, for now, let’s see if Elliott’s $1.9 billion investment can get Southwest’s operations off the ground or if it will languish on the runway of corporate inertia. And who knows? Perhaps soon, we'll finally be able to board in a way that doesn't remind us of a Black Friday rush for $10 flat screens.