Southwest 727??

[waka]

When and how long did SWA fly 727's?

 

[Pantherjon]

Didn't think they ever did..They only fly 737's IIRC..Used to fly SWA a lot back in the late '70s early '80s and they were always 737's

 

[Superpilot92]

they had 727 for a short period of time.

 

[waka]

Didn't think they ever did..They only fly 737's IIRC..Used to fly SWA a lot back in the late '70s early '80s and they were always 737's

I don't think that the photo is doctored.

 

[Pantherjon]

I don't think that the photo is doctored.

Link wouldnt bring the pic up for me..Showed a logo for Tripod and remoteimage.jpg came up..

EDIT: Got link to work by copy/pasting it..Hmmm, first time seeing a SWA 727, yeah I dont think it is doctored either

 

[waka]

Link wouldnt bring the pic up for me..Showed a logo for Tripod and remoteimage.jpg came up..

i just did a search on airliners.net

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?...FP&photo_nr=2&prev_id=0805643&next_id=0682325

it looks like the range of photos are from 1983 to 86

 

[Superpilot92]

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0435466/M/

you beat me to it

 

[LAZYB]

As I recall the story - SWA ordered a bunch of the 737-300s and Boeing gave them some kind of deal on some 727's to bridge their lift until the delivery of the 300s.

A jerk I was flying a Lear with was hot to get on with SWA. Took the wind out of his sails when his little brother got hired. The brother had a FE rating for the 727. SWA typed his brother when they phased out the 727s.

 

[vv100]

It's called "GOOGLE".. you may have heard of it

Southwest 727s

By Alain Mengus - April 2002
As surprising as it may sound, Southwest Airlines (WN) known around the world as being the reference of low-cost carriers, has not always used the Boeing 737 as its single workhorse. On two occasions the Texas-based carrier has seized the opportunity to use 727s.
To cope with the important demand on the routes from Houston (HOU) to Dallas (DAL) and to New Orleans (MSY), Southwest leased a Boeing 727-200 from Braniff (BN) effective 01 March 1979, bringing it in service on 5 March. The aircraft configured with 155 seats was providing a 38% capacity increase over the 112-seat 737-200s the airline was operating. Howard Putnam explained that the lease was the occasion to evaluate the Boeing 727 with its high-frequency operational pattern. The lease of the airplane ended on 14 January 1980, about a year ahead of the planned term, at Braniff's request. Apparently, the economics of the 727 were not appealing enough to justify the presence of a second type in the fleet.
In the early 1980s, Southwest launched an expansion strategy to the West coast, adding San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), San Diego (SAN), Las Vegas (LAS) and Phoenix (PHX) among other destinations to its network. The 737-300s on SWA's backlog would however not be delivered prior to 1984, forcing the airline to look around for readily available aircraft. Thus, as a temporary measure, SWA leased two 727-200s from PEOPLExpress (PE) effective August, alongside three 737-200s. Another four aircraft was leased to PE from 1984.
The 727s were flown on routes from LAX to El Paso (ELP) and SAN to LAX, to SFO and to San Antonio (SAT). The last three-holer was returned in 1985, after SWA took delivery of their first Boeing 737-300s (N300SW "Spirit of Kitty Hawk") on 30 November 1984.
​

 

[Fearless Tower]

Used to see SWA 727's all the time at KPHX back in the 80's......what an ugly paint job for such a beautiful bird.