The -200s are long gone. The -300s are done, too.
Fun fact, while SWA has been known as being a 737 operator, there have been exceptions to that rule:
They also got a bunch of DC-9s/MD-Whatevers when they bought Air Tran, but I have not heard that SWA ever painted any of those airplane in their livery. They apparently paid Delta to take them.
3 727 in the early years...the Muse Air aircraft were almost integrated into the fleet (MD-80's) but they unloaded them...the 717's, as you noted, went to Delta, where their pitiful climb rates plague us still.
ReplyDeleteAnother fun note, the last -200's were run on the KDAL-KHOU-KDAL route exclusively. It seems the reason was that a -200 could be backed off the jetway and taxing an easy 2-4 minutes faster than a -300, and were quicker to unload/load. With 12-15 less passengers, that shaved another couple of minutes off each flight, so the SWA crews told us the -200's could do one extra leg a day versus the -300 on that short route.
I learned this watching from the jump seat of a -300 that pushed back just before a neighboring -200 pushed back. He was taxing away before we had the second engine turning...those stovepipe turbojets were thirsty but fast to start.