[bzax]

Not only does Southwest exclusively fly Boeing aircraft, they exclusively fly 737s, which enables their unusual routing style. Essentially every pilot and crew at Southwest can fly any aircraft the company has for them. Presumably this gives Boeing a strong incentive to keep making new 737s that push the engineering envelope, instead of making a new narrowbody aircraft.

[rainsford]

That strategy makes some sense in the short to medium term, but I always wonder what the end game is supposed to be. Convincing Boeing to just keep making 737 variants forever so Southwest can keep flying a single aircraft type seems like it will lock the two in a death spiral where they slowly become less and less competitive due to forced reliance on an increasingly aging airframe. The MAX is an obvious example of the types of compromises that need to be made to try to keep pace, but it sees unlikely it will be the last. At some point both Boeing and Southwest need a path to replace the 737 entirely.

[leoedin]

Other airlines have switched from exclusively Boeing to exclusively Airbus - eg Easyjet did in the early 2000s, and operated a mixed fleet for about a decade.

https://simpleflying.com/easyjet-boeing-to-airbus/

Obviously it's more of a challenge, but it's not insurmountable.

[rainsford]

You're right that switching airplane models certainly seems possible, even for airlines that operate one model exclusively. I wonder if Southwest being such a huge airline by fleet size (much larger than EasyJet for example) would make that harder or easier.

Either way I was thinking less about Southwest jumping ship to Airbus and more switching to an entirely new model from either manufacturer. I wouldn't see Southwest going through the trouble of switching to the A320 for example, but maybe to an A320 or 737 replacement. The A320 may be a newer platform than the 737, but it still dates to the 80s (admittedly better than dating to the 60s). I doubt Southwest would want to go through the hassle of changing models just to end up on a 40 year old airframe that they might have to transition away from again in the not-too-distant future.

[euroderf]

If Southwest will have to make One Big Decision on its next generation, Airbus could have a reasonable shot at it eh.

[rainsford]

I imagine Airbus does have a chance, although like I said in a sibling comment, I think they'll need a new plane to do it. The A320 might be newer than the 737, but it's not really that new. I don't see a company like Southwest planning a generational shift to an airframe that itself is nearly a generation old. Whichever company comes out with the next generation single aisle might end up with the business though.