Southwest Will Look at Buying Jets Other Than Boeing 737s After 48-Year Run
Skift Take
Southwest Airlines always is hesitant to mess with its secret sauce. But it's a gigantic airline, and it might benefit from operating more than one aircraft type.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the late Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher, who conceived the carrier's all-Boeing 737 strategy, would have never considered adding another aircraft type. But Kelleher, one of America's most shrewd airline executives, never issued such an edict.
"[People] ask, 'What would Herb do?'" current CEO Gary Kelly said Thursday on the airline's third-quarter earnings call. "I know what Herb did do, because we did this. We looked at it very carefully."
Southwest has flown the Boeing 737 for its entire 48-year-history, save for a brief experiment with Boeing 727s, allowing it to save costs on pilot training and maintenance. But the airline has never pledged it would only fly the 737 in perpetuity, and it's not doing so now, Kelly told analysts.
"As late as 2011, when we agreed to launch the Max, we gave a very serious look to an alternative," Kelly said. "There are people who do have this question, 'Is it time for us to look at the question? Yes.
