Southwest made its intention to purchase the 737-800 official a few days ago and while no one is surprised, it is gratifying to hear it has been made official.  This will be a good choice for SWA going forward and it would appear that their first deliveries in 2012 will be 20+ of the -800.  Gary Kelly has said that that is too small a fleet and indicated that about 80 in the fleet would be about right.  These new aircraft will be replacements for SWA’s older 737-300 aircraft rather than in addition to them.  However, the greater size of the 737-800 means that there will be significant capacity growth in 2012.

Interestingly enough, SWA started advertising for an ETOPS manager several days ago and *lots* of people noticed that.  ETOPS will be necessary for SWA to serve Hawaii.  Just a month ago, I wrote about SWA and Hawaii HERE.  Apparently all of the deliveries in 2012 will be ETOPS equipped aircraft so I think that my thoughts on SWA starting a Hawaii route in 4 to 5 years from now is a touch off the mark.

Instead, I’d say we’ll probably be looking at SWA starting routes to Hawaii in at little as 3 years.  They still have to get the aircraft and they still have to learn how to maintain that ETOPS fleet and they also have to figure out how to do the flights and from what cities should they be flown. 

Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest, also made an interesting comment or two about the 737 and a new engine option and/or replacement for that aircraft.  Kelly rightly points out that Boeing is talking about having something for its customers in 10 years and comments that: “When you talk about something that’s 10 years from now, that’s not a solution, that’s an idea.” 

I couldn’t agree more. 

The Airbus A320NEO isn’t going to be a 737 killer by any stretch.  In that respect, Boeing doesn’t have much to worry about.  But Gary Kelly is right, Boeing hasn’t got anything on the table.  The next generation 737s started to roll out of the factory in 1996 and that isn’t all that long ago if we were talking about a new aircraft.  But the next generation 737 line weren’t “new” aircraft.  They were evolutions of the original designs. 

It’s true that engine technology is needed but nobody is really driving that technology all that much so far.  Both Airbus and Boeing continue to look at new engines as more an annoyance than a need.   The A320NEO isn’t a Boeing 737 killer but a new single aisle short to medium haul aircraft from Boeing is most definitely an A320NEO killer. 

It concerns me that all we’ve heard from Boeing is that their customers aren’t asking for new engines because it’s clear that airlines aren’t asking just for new engines but new airplanes.  And Boeing is behaving a bit too arrogant with respect to their customer base in my opinion.  I wasn’t much of a fan of the Bombardier CS300 so far but now I kind of hope it makes it and it’s a bit of a Boeing killer. 

If Southwest wants a new, efficient (as possible) airliner, it’s time to get to work.  Because of Southwest wants it, I guarantee you that every large operator of the 737 wants it too.  With fuel prices as high as they are and due to be higher in the future, even a 10 to 15 percent efficiency gain is something an airline can’t afford to ignore or defer.

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