When does SWA get the rest of the Planes

[OPIE01]

In an other thread some one mentioned that SWA is only getting 2 new planes the 1st half of this year and 9 during the second half of the year. I got this from Reuters news which matches the 11 new planes that were talked about.

SOUTHWEST TO ADD 11 AIRCRAFT
23 January 2003 Source: reuters
Southwest Airlines Chief Financial Officer Gary Kelly said the low-cost carrier plans to add 11 aircraft to its fleet this year, raising its capacity for 2003 by 4.2 per cent.
Kelly said Southwest did not plan to add any new cities to its schedule in 2003, but said the airline had orders and options for 413 planes with Boeing through 2012.

In Dec 02, Chase wrote this:

Southwest has 17 deliveries scheduled for 2003, with six planned -200 retirements.

When the Reuters artical taked about adding 11 aircraft were they talking about the 17 - 6 = 11, or were there only 11 new and not losing any?

My question is: By the end of May, the 140 new hires people have talked about should be complete. Does SWA hire and train the new pilots and then start getting the aircraft. Or do the newhires come about the same time as the planes or do the planes come 1st?

My next question is: Are there any new rumors yet about more fleet expansion this year or is the 11 new aircraft a hard number.

 

[Slug]

delivery schedule

This is what I was alluding to in another post. I finally found it on an internal SWA newletter dated 3/26/03.

Southwest added the first Boeing 737-700 jet to our fleet this year when N432WN was delivered on March 21. The Canyon Blue aircraft is one of two deliveries scheduled for the first four months of this year. One delivery is planned for May, and we are scheduled to add two aircraft to our fleet each month from June through December. Southwest now has 376 aircraft: 27 -200s (with six slated for retirement by yearend), 194 -300s, 25 -500s, and 130 -700s. Factoring in the -200 retirements, our expected fleet size by yearend is 386.

.

I was a little off, but close.


Slug

 

[SWA/FO]

Maybe something will be announced on Monday with the first quarter results.....?

 

[CaptainBrazilia]

I flew over the old George AFB (the one near Victorville/Apple Valley) here in CA the other day en-route from DEN to BUR and saw what I thought were four new SWA 737's sitting there in mothballs waiting to start flying. I remember thinking, "Man...those airplanes entering service could be the difference between SWA interviewing me and NOT interviewing me this year!"

Of course, I was descending through 30,000 feet at the time. Maybe the thin air of the 8,000 foot cabin was getting to me!