Southwest Airlines took delivery of the airline’s first Boeing 737 MAX 8 this week.
Southwest is the first airline in the United States to receive the 737 MAX, and the carrier expects to take delivery of eight more MAX aircraft in the coming weeks. It plans to start using the nine MAX aircraft in revenue service throughout its network on October 1.
Southwest’s 737 MAX 8 aircraft have a number of new features in its single-class cabin:
- configuration with 175 seats, offering 32″ pitch
- modern Boeing Sky Interior
- an LED lighting sequence for each step of the Customers’ journey
- music-infused passenger experience onboard all MAX flights with playlists that will run during boarding and deplaning
Southwest 737 fleet
Southwest operates only Boeing 737 aircraft and is the world’s biggest 737 operator with over 700 of the aircraft in operation.
The airline currently has over 40 Boeing 737-300, about 505 Boeing 737-700 and 160+ Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
It has orders for 200 737 Max aircraft, comprising 170 Max 8s and 30 Max 7s.
The 737-300s will finish service with airline on 29 September 2017.
Southwest will start using nine 737 Max 8s on 1 October, and add a tenth about a week later. It will end 2017 with 14 of the type.
N.B. Image credit: Southwest
