Originally Posted by e6bpilot (Post 2584613)

I had a company guy on the Jumpseat and he spoke about the older 700s getting the axe. At some point dispatch reliability and maintenance hits a break even and it is better to get a replacement aircraft. He said that we are primarily getting gently used 700s from foreign operators for that purpose since they are generally cheap and have lower cycles.
Next time you have a 700 with something not quite SWA about it (puttied over wiper switch, three position strobe switch) google it’s registration history. It’s usually pretty interesting.
I think those Maxes are mostly growth airframes, but that remains to be seen with public filings and fleet numbers.
After having training recently and seeing that new training center, I can’t help but wonder what the heck is going on around here. That place is very un-SWA.

Originally Posted by e6bpilot (Post 2584889)

It is huge and looks like a facility that a world class carrier would have. I was in awe when I first stepped in there.
It’s a big step up from our old training center. That’s all.
Best of luck.

Originally Posted by e6bpilot (Post 2584889)

It is huge and looks like a facility that a world class carrier would have. I was in awe when I first stepped in there.
It’s a big step up from our old training center. That’s all.
Best of luck.

Originally Posted by ZapBrannigan (Post 2585215)

Now that they opened the classroom levels did it ease the restroom issues they were having on the simulator level?

Originally Posted by Smooth at FL450 (Post 2584595)

Yes.

Likely a mix of both but initially mostly growth. Expanding the fleet in 2018 by 40+ tails back up to our pre-classic retirement numbers. Some of our -700s are getting pretty old and their retirements are not too far off. I'm not aware of specific replacement numbers tho.

Originally Posted by slimothy (Post 2585377)

We had the fleet planning guy brief our new hire class a few weeks ago, and I asked him if the 500 new airplanes included replacement and he said it did not. It was all fleet growth in addition to replacements. I know that nothing is real until it happens, but I felt like it was a pretty good source for where the company is trying to go.

Originally Posted by WHACKMASTER (Post 2585486)

500 more airplanes by when are they claiming?

Fwiw, recently in recurrent ground school one of the training center “big wigs” made mention that the company would like to target getting rid of new airplanes at the 10 year mark when they come up for D check because of the expense of the heavy check, expense of maintenance of an older airplane, and increased liability of flight safety.

He also made the comment that the options we’ve exercised on MAX jets are DIRECTLY the result of Trump’s tax break.

Putting two and two together, I think a ton of older -700s are gonna get cycled out and there will be a lot more orders for MAXes.