PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Southwest Airlines, encouraged by the resurgence in passenger traffic, is to begin adding small numbers of 737-700s to its fleet, bucking the trend set by other major US carriers, which are drastically cutting back capacity and deferring deliveries of new aircraft in the wake of 11 September.
The carrier has now decided to take delivery of two more aircraft from early February to bolster services out of Baltimore and Islip, New York.
The aircraft are among 19 new 737s that Southwest has deferred since September, some of which were already completed and then parked in the desert.
This will boost the number of new 737-700s the carrier plans to add this year to 11, out of the 27 that were originally on order for 2002 delivery.
Southwest, however, confirms that it is seeking to push back delivery of 113 aircraft over the next seven years. It has a fleet of 358 aircraft, which has remained static since September, and 436 on order up to 2012.
The airline's growth in available seat kilometres for the full 12 months of 2001 was around 5% compared to 13% in 2000, with an historic growth average of between 8% and 10% .
Traffic figures for November showed a load factor of 65.3% compared to 70.7% in 2000, but unlike most other US carriers the airline has not rushed to shed capacity and lay off staff.
But the carrier admits that the pick-up in traffic has come at the expense of seat yields, which have, however, recovered slightly from being as much as 25% down in mid-October.
Meanwhile, American Airlines plans to further reduce the size of its fleet by 24 aircraft to 688 by the end of 2002, with the retirement of 33 727s and the delivery of only three 777s and six 757s. The combined American/TWA fleet will also contract to 854 aircraft by the end of 2002, from the current 881.
American estimates traffic in the fourth quarter fell by over 21% compared to 2000, while capacity contracted 14%.
Source: Flight International
