Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) is in talks with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) about the possible amendment of its B737-700 order book Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven told Bloomberg news in an interview recently. The airline's 700-strong fleet is currently dominated by the -700 of which it currently operates 458.
According to Van de Ven, Southwest is considering converting some or all of its fifty-six outstanding -700 order slots to the larger B737-800. The latter has proven particularly successful in handling growth at Southwest's gate-restricted Dallas Love Field home base and on its blossoming international route network.
“It’s a very economical airplane for us,” he said. “It’s larger. There’s a nice revenue increase on the airplane and it’s minimal in terms of additional costs. If we think we have market opportunities that will fill up that demand, that’s when we would pick an -800.”
The carrier's latest SEC filings show it is still active in the -700 market with a total of seventeen pre-owned airframes due to arrive during the course of this year. Southwest's Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly says the -700s are being used to replace the carrier's outgoing fleet of B737-300s.
However, industry analysts speculate that should the remaining -700s be switched out to -800s, then a possible change in Southwest's B737 MAX 7 order, for which it is the launch customer with 30 airframes, could follow. The MAX 7 is an upgraded version of the -700, which it will replace.
