[horyzen]

In fact, Southwest had very little choice purchasing new planes: their entire fleet are 737s (of various versions) so that they can lower personnel training & maintaining costs, which is part of the reason their prices are typically lower. So if they were to expand their fleet while still trying to minimize the cost they had basically no choice but to keep buying new 737s.

I don't blame Southwest though, after all the FAA and Boeing gave the green light for these jets. It would be interesting to see where Southwest is going if 737 Max is discontinued after this.

[gsnedders]

Note there are two sides to both coins: Southwest won't have such a good negotiating position with Boeing when it comes to ordering new aircraft, as they're much less likely to go to Airbus and buy A320 family aircraft (and even if Airbus offered a good deal, the logistical costs of moving to a more varied fleet add costs on top of that, and Boeing only needs to compete with the sum of the two).