30 300's for SWA

[swaforme]

Got this straight from a check airman a couple days ago.

The company has talked to US Air about the purchase of 30 -300's.

Could happen or not according to the Chief Pilot he talked with. But they were at least at the phone call stage of a negotiation.

 

[LearLove]

Yeah because rumors and other info from checkairman and training dept people are always true.

 

[RVSM]

Doubt it. Aren't all there 300 glass. We ain't OpSpec'ed for that kind of glass.

 

[KC-10 Driver]

US Airways' -300's & -400's are non-EFIS. They have the FMS's, but not the glass.

Never flew it, but jumped on it several times. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm quite sure I'm not.

 

[Dave737]

All Usairways 737's are round dials, no glass...

 

[Snoopy58]

Anything's possible, but I really doubt that this will happen. I don't doubt that SWA is exploring such an option, but they explore LOTS of things that are worth investigating without ultimately being worth doing. I doubt that this will be the one off the wall idea that gets accepted & makes the other 19 that get rejected worth investigating, for the following reasons:

1. The -700 is the "wave of the future" at SWA. Why expand the -300 fleet?

2. "If they're cheap enough..." it might be worth doing, but with USAir's need for $, I doubt that they're making any eye-watering cheap offers for their jets. Maybe, but I doubt it.

3. How much hardware conversion would be required? Swap out first class seats, galleys, bulkheads, install HUDs, remove ACARS printers & overwater gear, etc. Not a show-stopper, but it's all additional costs. Oh, along with repainting the outside.

4. I'm sure the jets would all be in pristine maintenance condition by the time SWA gets them.

5. SWA is not all that far from starting to retire some of the oldest -300's; how much life could the USAir airplanes have left on them?

None of this meant to suggest that the rumor is wrong, or that such a deal wouldn't be worth looking into. For the right price, all of the above could be managed & it could be an excellent deal for SWA, and maybe the used aircraft market is so oversaturated right now that a price that low really could be negotiated. But I tend to doubt it.

Of course, I didn't see Philly coming, so I could be wrong!

 

[SWA/FO]

Do they (USAirways) own the jets? Maybe they are just trying to get the leasing company off their a$$. Most of them must be parked already?? I have heard we (SWA) were looking all over (the World) for -700s and we would consider -300s "if the price was right"

TB

 

[Falconjet]

Interesting!

I wonder how many of these old -300/-400s are out there, because this sounds just like the rumors/talk going around at FedEx that WE were going to buy (or had already bought) a bunch of high cycle -300s from USAir. Just makes you wonder how and where these rumors start and whether or not there is any validity to them. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

FJ

 

[Heavy Set]

Doubt it. Why would SWA buy junky 737-300s and "help" USAirways when it could wait a few months for the liquidation and buy the 737-300s even cheaper? SWA's management is not that stupid. They have no intention on helping USAirways prolong its life when it could facilitate its death in PHL and then pick up the 737s cheaper later if it is so inclined...

Another lame rumor with zero logic attached to it... I'm sure that Check Airman is laughing his a$$ off now.

 

[SWA GUY]

We are not going to buy any 300's that don't have HUDs. Right now we have two B@stard 700's that don't have HUDs, the reason they don't have HUDs now is because it's cost prohibitive to install them and get them Cert'd.

That's what I've heard anyway.

 

[Swerpipe]

Mr Gary Kelly's Answer....

This question came up on the last quaterly report conference. Someone asked Mr Kelly if Southwest would be interested in purshasing US Airways' 737s and he said that the equipment was not compatible with the fleet. However, he said that if they really needed it and the number of aircraft was significant, about 25 or more, that they would consider the purshase. If you go to www.southwest.com and click on Investor Relations you can listen to it for yourself. This came up during the Q&A session.

 

[StopNTSing]

More -300s?

Well, if we do buy 'em, I hope they have been better maintained than those pieces of crap we picked up from Morris, AirCal, West Pac, etc.

 

[b747dogg]

SWA needs them for PHL. They can just tow them over to the new gates on May 9th!!! Enjoy.