Southwest CEO Bob Jordan hinted at a “different aircraft” amid ongoing delivery woes at Boeing. The airline is still awaiting delivery of the long-delayed 737 MAX 7, which is pending Federal Aviation Administration approval.
At a J.P. Morgan investors conference on Tuesday, Jordan said he sees progress at Boeing. The Dallas-based carrier has over 100 MAX 7 jets on order.
“I see [Boeing] looking at the right questions. On the MAX 7, that’s a certification question with the FAA, so I really can’t opine on the timing,” he added.
Despite these delays, Southwest leadership still expressed interest in the MAX 7.
“We certainly need the MAX 7 in certain markets, short airfield, places like Chicago Midway, maybe underlying Hawaii,” he continued. “So there is a need for that gauge aircraft. And so if you’re thinking about, [if] there is a chance that we don’t need the MAX 7, I see a need for that smaller aircraft.”
Also during the conference, Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson added: “The MAX 7, as you mentioned, does have very high performance. So certain long, thin routes [are] where we’d like it. Part of the original desire was to have an aircraft suitable for high-frequency business markets, which is less a market now than it was pre-pandemic. So the percentage of our fleet that would be Max 7 is less today than it would have been, when we first ordered it, but it’s not zero.”
Fleet Diversification
Southwest has been an all-Boeing 737 operator throughout its nearly 60-year history. But with radical changes happening at the airline – including assigned seating and a pivot to paid checked bags – that could change.
“But as we look to serve everything that our customers want in places that we really dominate, the Nashvilles and the Austins and Kansas City, etc., we need to be able to serve more and more of what a customer wants. That can mean more out of the network, more destinations. That could mean more about the product,” Jordan added.
Some of these markets, he said, could require “different aircraft,” though he noted that the company is “not anywhere close to ready to talk about that.”
“But just know that beyond what you saw today, this is a bill to the next thing that we will be talking to you about in the future,” Jordan concluded.
