Southwest CEO says eyeing Boeing 737 MAX ‘white tails’ but not taking extra planes

(Reuters) – Southwest Airlines is eyeing Boeing 737 MAX jets which have lost their original buyers, the so-called “white tails,” Chief Executive Gary Kelly said on Monday, but has no plans to increase the size of its fleet.

“No one should think Southwest is gonna get 50 more airplanes than what they were planning on in terms of incrementing the fleet,” Kelly said on an aviation webinar. “That’d be crazy. We’re not thinking about that at all.”

He said the airline does want to make a decision soon on an aircraft to replace its Boeing 737-700 jets with 143-seats and is debating between the 737 MAX-7, which has yet to be certified, and European planemaker Airbus’s A220s.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski, Editing by Franklin Paul)