Southwest Airlines fleet
[1] Since its inception, Southwest Airlines has largely operated Boeing 737 aircraft, serving as the launch customer of the 737-300, 737-500, and 737-700.
[12] These were also the airline's first 737-200 Advanced series aircraft, with aerodynamic enhancements and greater range than the original 737-200.
[11] In early 2004, Southwest restored and donated the nose section of a retired 737-200, aircraft registration number N102SW, to the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field.
[13] Southwest retired its last active 737-200 from revenue service on January 17, 2005, however, one 737-200 was retained at Love Field until 2009 as a ground crew training aid.
In September 1983, Southwest leased two other 727-200 jets from People Express, adding two similar aircraft from the same airline in February 1984.
[citation needed] Southwest was the first airline to operate the Boeing 737-300, which Boeing designed to meet the needs of the airline, as the 737-200 proved to have inadequate range and load-carrying capacity to fly new Southwest routes between Texas and the western United States.
[14] The new aircraft had a longer range and seated more passengers than the 737-200, 137 versus 122, and was substantially quieter inside, particularly behind the wing.
[16] The first 737-300 to enter service, registration N300SW and manufacturer's serial number (msn) 22940, named "The Spirit of Kitty Hawk", first flew with Southwest on December 17, 1984.
It has been restored and preserved at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, where it houses a historical exhibit.
[14] Introduced in 1990, the airliner seated 122 passengers — the same as the older 737-200 — but had increased fuel capacity and range.
However, Southwest elected not to integrate them into its fleet and currently leases them to Delta Air Lines.
The airline was also the first in North America to operate the aircraft on a scheduled revenue passenger flight on October 1, 2017.
[25] In March 2019, countries around the world grounded the Boeing 737 MAX and banned it from flying in their airspace, due to safety concerns following the fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 five months prior.
[citation needed] In March 2020, in response to the sharp drop in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Southwest indefinitely stored 50 737-700 aircraft at Southern California Logistics Airport.
[29] However, in March 2021, Southwest announced an order for 100 MAX 7 jets with deliveries from 2022 and said that negotiations with Airbus were never initiated.
The airline's Boeing 727-200s, operated briefly in the late 1970s and early 1980s, featured other variations on the livery; one was painted in a shade of ochre instead of gold with stylized titles on the forward fuselage and an "S" logo on the tail, while others bore the standard livery (albeit in metallic gold) with the word "Southwest" moved from the tail to the forward fuselage.
The pinstripe along the aircraft was drawn in a more curved pattern instead of the straight horizontal line separating the colors in the original.
[35] A new livery, named "Heart" and developed with firms GSD&M, Lippincott, VML, Razorfish, and Camelot Communications, was unveiled on September 8, 2014.
All special liveries painted prior to Spirit One originally wore the standard Desert Gold, red and orange colors on the vertical stabilizer and rudder.
Missouri One was the first special livery to feature a modified version of the "Heart" tail design, with the red and yellow ribbons shrunk in order to fit the Southwest wordmark as it cannot fit on the fuselage like on the other aircraft.
Previous special livery aircraft are currently being repainted with the new "Heart" tail design.
N906WN (current) Southwest was the only major airline to be profitable during the fourth quarter of that year, and one of the few that didn't have to lay off employees.
A special commemorative placard is placed on the top of the entry door frame of this aircraft.
[44] N8619F (current) The eight central visual elements on this aircraft hold significance in both the state of Hawaii and Southwest Airlines.
N417WN (current) N629SW was eventually repainted into the standard "Canyon Blue" livery due to the dull appearance of the silver paint.
Southwest Airlines felt that the Silver One livery did not fit the company's bright and cheerful personality.
N409WN (previous) N8681M (current) This aircraft has been painted in the "Heart" livery since 2018, but the "Warrior One" decal wasn't reapplied on the nose of N8301J until 2022.
This aircraft, in addition to the special livery, featured Disney's logo and its characters inside the cabin on the window shades and overhead bins.
On October 11, 2010, Southwest Airlines and the NBA ended their partnership, and N224WN was repainted back into the "Canyon Blue" livery.
[60] As of 2018, the decal that reads The Spirit of Kitty Hawk is no longer implemented on the nose of N448WN, as it has been repainted into the standard "Heart" livery.
