A Southwest Airlines plane lands at Midway International Airport on January 28, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images)
Boeing and Southwest Airlines have been best friends for 50 years, but is Southwest looking for a new partner because it seems to be expanding its fleet?
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Southwest Airlines is Boeing’s largest customer. He has over 700,737 in the fleet and has always been a Boeing customer. Southwest was the airline launching for the 737-700 in 1997. It flies an all-737 fleet.
But since Boeing believes a new plane can fit more than 200 people, Southwest is looking for a plane that can fit only 150 passengers. It’s a perfect solution for the Max-7, but rival Boeing Airbus has its own small jet, the A-220, which could fit the bill.
Aviation log The air current suggests that Southwest could make the leap to Airbus, which would be a devastating blow to Boeing.
“The relationship has been strained over the years, with the MAX connection and a few other incidents before, which have been very costly, so not everything is going well in paradise,” Air Current founder Jon Ostrower told KIRO Nights. Mike Lewis.
At stake in this battle are 300 new planes.
“It looks like Southwest is seriously considering opening a head-to-head competition between MAX and the Airbus A-220,” Ostrower said.
Boeing and GE, which produce the engines for MAX, are in talks with Southwest right now to conclude this deal, which most believe Boeing still has to lose.
“If you get to this point, you get to a head-to-head competition, the southwest executive I spoke to for the story, and others said there’s a good chance Boeing will lose the overall competition,” Ostrower said.
Southwest is also considering whether it is still a good business model to have an aircraft supplier in its fleet. If that plane were grounded, the Southwest would have big problems. Southwest already has 200 MAX on order, and this order for 300 aircraft is in addition to that. Ostrower said the deal was key to Boeing.
“If Southwest bought another 300 737s today, Boeing would increase the total number of orders for the 737 by almost 10%,” he said.
For a little history, Boeing and Southwest had a similar dance in 2011, as MAX was developing. That negotiation ended with Boeing deciding to re-engine the 737 instead of building a new plane, and Southwest remained with the company.
Boeing hopes for loyalty and long relationships can help win the day.
Listen to the full interview with Ostrower below:
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