It’s funny, some people think Southwest showed some LUV for the Airtran 717 fleet when the merger was announced between the two companies.  In fact, Gary Kelly simply said that, at that moment, the 717 was intriguing to SWA and certainly not a harmful aircraft to Southwest’s fleet plans overall.

After the merger, Gary Kelly started talking about how they don’t fit and they don’t want them.

The 717 is a good aircraft and it would fit some of Southwest’s flying quite nicely but . . . it would complicate scheduling and I think that’s what Mr. Kelly doesn’t want.  If Southwest has a 737-700 go technical at an airport, it’s not a problem to drag another 737-500/700/800 up to the gate and hand it over to the pilots and flight crew to use for their needs.  You can’t drag a 717 up to the gate and hand it over to the same pilots.

I think the 717 is leaving and I think it will be gone in 2 to 2 1/2 years.  Holly Hegeman of Plane Business says they are going to Delta and its a done deal.  I say they’re leaving and they’ll find homes somewhere.  Boeing Capital if nowhere else.  Delta probably could and would be interested in them as they are cheap and fit a seat count that Delta had and no longer has in its mainline fleet.  (DC-9-30/40/50 aircraft are leaving the fleet)

The real shame, in my opinion, is that the 717-200 wasn’t expanded into a longer range 717-300/300ER aircraft.  I think that would have breathed real life into that airframe and I think it wouldn’t have hurt the 737 line at all.  But it became an orphan and, as such, it became unattractive to most airlines.  That said, it will remain in the world for at least another decade if not more and it’s got some highly efficient engines that justify its purchase when combined with the used market price for a 717.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax