On June 8, 2021, Southwest Airlines (LUV) announced that it would order 34 additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
“Based on improving revenue trends and ongoing fleet modernization plans, the Company recently entered into a Supplemental Agreement with Boeing to increase its 2022 firm orders by 34 Boeing 737 MAX 7 aircraft (consisting of two 2022 options exercised and 32 options accelerated and exercised from later years), resulting in 234 firm orders for MAX 7 aircraft,” read the airline’s statement.
Currently, Southwest Airlines (LUV) has a total of 737 aircraft in its fleet, as per planespotters.net data. The largest part of the airline’s fleet consists of Boeing 737 family aircraft: 462 Boeing 737-700s, 207 Boeing 737-800s, 68 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
In a statement, Southwest Airlines (LUV) indicated that the operating revenues performed in line with the airline’s expectations and “represented sequential increase compared with April 2021, driven primarily by improvements in leisure passenger traffic and fares”.
Additionally, the largest American low-cost air carrier said it expected the operating revenues to improve even further in June 2021 based on current bookings.