Boeing has warned Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) to expect a reduction in the number of B737 MAX deliveries in 2024, from a previous calculation of 79 down to 46, all of which will be the B737-8 variant.
In a market report released ahead of the JP Morgan Industrials Conference this week, Southwest announced that, based on the current certification status, it no longer expected to receive and introduce the B737-7 in 2024, of which it originally planned to have 21 to 27 aircraft delivered this year. Additionally, it said that Boeing had told it to expect forty-six -8s during 2024, down from an initial projection of 58.
“As a result of Boeing’s continued challenges, the company expects the delivery schedule to be fluid and, therefore, plans to reduce capacity and re-optimize schedules, primarily for the back half of 2024, which will likely result in at least a one-point reduction to the company’s full-year 2024 capacity plans on a year-over-year basis,” it said.
As of January 25, Southwest’s contractual order book included 307 B737-7s and 188 B737-8s as well as 199 options for either of the two models.
Earlier this month, The Air Current reported that Southwest Airlines was no longer expecting to take any B737-7s before late 2025 or perhaps even 2026. Similarly, Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) believes its deliveries of the B737-10 could slip to 2027. Neither variant has yet been certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Due to ongoing quality-control issues at Boeing, the FAA has opted not to approve the manufacturer’s requests for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the narrowbody family until all issues are resolved.
