Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Tammy Romo says the Texan LCC has restructured its B737 order book with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) with eight Next Gen and sixty-seven MAX firm orders affected in total.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Romo told an investors presentation conference in New York last week that the move would allow Southwest to balance its fleet growth and maintain capital flexibility. Though the carrier will defer USD1.9 billion in planned capital spending beyond 2020, it will not affect the company’s overall target of expanding its fleet by 2% per year through 2018, she added.
As such, Southwest has:
- Added two pre-owned B737-700 aircraft to 2016;
- Moved delivery of six B737-800 aircraft from 2018 to 2017;
- Deferred delivery of ten B737 MAX 8 aircraft from 2019 to 2023;
- Deferred delivery of twenty-two B737 MAX 8 aircraft from 2020 to 2024 and 2025;
- Deferred delivery of twenty B737 MAX 8 aircraft from 2021 to 2024 and 2025;
- Deferred delivery of fifteen B737 MAX 8 aircraft from 2022 to 2025;
- Added five MAX options to 2019, accelerated from 2027 options;
- Added eight MAX options to 2020, accelerated from 2027 options.
The LCC also expects its maiden B737 MAX 8 to enter commercial service in October 2017. Who will operate the type is still open to speculation given the Southwest pilots corps' unwillingness to do so. In May, the SWAPA pilots union took management to court claiming they had attempted to use "unlawful tactics" to force the LCC's pilots to operate B737 MAX aircraft. SWAPA insists the MAX is not covered under the terms of the carrier's current Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) and will only operate it once the issue has been resolved.
