Southwest places firm order for MAX

Southwest Airlines became the first customer to place a firm order for 737 MAX. The press release is here. First delivery is 2017.

Southwest had been urging Boeing to proceed with the re-engine for two years, only to watch American Airlines become the first company to commit to the MAX last July.

Southwest has ordered more 737s than any other customer. It was the launch customer (and operator) of the 737-300/500/700.

AirInsight reports Southwest likely received a discount of around 48%.

Southwest’s delivery schedule for the MAX is here.

11 Comments on “Southwest places firm order for MAX

  1. Finally, Good news, expected.

    Congratulations Boeing for getting this MAX rolling.

    SW ordering Airbus NEO’s was never a sensible / feasible option.

    This order probably means the MAX configuration is ~ frozen.

  2. Yes good news in the line of what was expected. It is obvious that many other firm orders should follow, particularly when Boeing will ‘firm’ the specs.
    I am happy to read the confirmation that this is really the the first customer to place a firm order for 737 MAX.

    According to many other sources that was not the case…

  3. Wow, WN ordered 150 B-737MAX (don’t know which version yet, but it might be a mix of the -7MAX and -8MAX), and another 58 B-737NGs, 208 airplanes total.

    This pushes the B-737MAX order book to something like 950 airplanes, both firm orders and committments, in less than 4 months since the MAX was launched.

    WN has agreed to become the launch customer for the MAX version(s) they ordered. JT is the launch customer for the B-737-9MAX.

    • Yeah! Right!

      KC has come up with a new piece of documentation for Boeing’s tracking. We now have the “firm” order book with a commitments appendix.

      150 orders and 800 commitments (or were Southwest’s commitments in that previous tally?).
      They still have a way to go, but at least they got the big ball rolling.

  4. Scott, your link to the AirInsight story on the WN discount did not work for me.

  5. Aero Ninja :Yeah! Right!
    KC has come up with a new piece of documentation for Boeing’s tracking. We now have the “firm” order book with a commitments appendix.
    150 orders and 800 commitments (or were Southwest’s commitments in that previous tally?).They still have a way to go, but at least they got the big ball rolling.

    No the WN order today is a firm order. Prior to today WN had not committed to buying either the MAX or the NEO. So this brings the MAX order book to 948 aircraft, plus another 150 options, or about 1100 total aircraft.

    BTW, has the AA committments for the MAX and NEOs been firmed up as orders, yet?

    • I am so sorry TopBoom. I somehow missed the announcements for all of these other 798 orders for the Max. I only heard about the Southwest order.

      Could you tell me when all of these commitments were changed to orders?

  6. Time to stop “nitpicking” about the advantage/differences between the NEO
    and the MAX!
    This market is hugh and with the fuel prices expected to continue to climb,
    together with the commonality benefits for each airline to stick to whatever
    airplane type they have in their fleet, like SW, it is now certain that 737s will
    continue to be in service for another 3-4 decades, approaching 100 years!

    To think that Boeing Management at one time in the early 70’s, decide to
    cancel the program, because it was expected to have NO FUTURE, after
    UA decided to cancel their order for 75 units because it had a three-man
    cockpit v.v. a two-man cockpit for the DC-9, is worth repeating at this time!

    Full credit for this change in attitude at the Boeing top, goes to VP Sales &
    Eng’g Jack Steiner, who convinced the FAA that “if an airplane has been
    designed to fly with a two-man crew, as the 737 and the DC-9 had been and
    is than flown with a three-man crew, as the Pilot’s Federation had insisted
    upon for safety reasons, than cockpit discipline and safety are adversely
    affected, because of the confusion the third crew member can cause during
    an emergency!”
    Jack confirmed that the “safety” claim by the Pilots Federation had more to do
    with ” job security,” rather than safety, by taking a 737 loaded with cameras
    all over the cockpit and members of the of the pilots federation, the FAA,
    safety/medical experts etc. onboard and flew the airplane on the extremely
    busy air-corridors in the US Northeast, without top Boeing Management even
    knowing what he was doing, until after the FAA cleared the 737 for “two-man”
    operations and United agreed to keep their 737s!

    It was the Boeing Board of Directors, which than overruled the Chairman and
    “revived’ the 737 program, to already make it world’s most successful com-
    mercial airplane ever built and having been revived again, with 737-MAX!

  7. Rudy Hillinga :
    Jack confirmed that the “safety” claim by the Pilots Federation had more to do
    with ” job security,” rather than safety, by taking a 737 loaded with cameras
    all over the cockpit and members of the pilots federation, the FAA,
    safety/medical experts etc. onboard and flew the airplane on the extremely
    busy air-corridors in the US Northeast, without top Boeing Management even
    knowing what he was doing, until after the FAA cleared the 737 for “two-man”
    operations and United agreed to keep their 737s!

    Again, this story should be part of another chapter of your forthcoming book. Considering the historical importance of Boeing as a corporation, I believe all the information of this kind, and to which you were sometime privy, should be published for posterity.

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