In recent years, we’ve seen just about everything at Southwest Airlines change. The airline has introduced assigned and extra legroom seating, has started charging for checked bags, and has even announced plans to open lounges.
For quite some time now, there have been rumors of Southwest launching long haul flights, and that appears to now be closer to becoming a reality, as the airline is reportedly weighing a Boeing 787 order.
Southwest may order dozens of wide body planes
Reuters is reporting that Southwest is leaning toward the Boeing 787 for its first wide body aircraft order, with a possible deal for up to dozens of these jets being under consideration. The airline is reportedly studying how quickly these planes could be obtained, including through lessors or the secondary market.
On the surface, the Dreamliner is sold out through the end of the decade, so it remains to be seen if Boeing could open up some earlier slots for Southwest (given what a good Boeing customer the airline is), or if finding other ways to acquire the planes could make sense.
Southwest is weighing launching long haul, international flights. The people familiar with the carrier’s fleet planning of course cautioned that no final decision has been made. Southwest’s board ultimately has the final say here, and formed a Fleet Oversight Committee in 2025, to manage the company’s aircraft fleet acquisition strategy.
What would Southwest’s long haul strategy be?
Southwest executives of course haven’t been secretive about the fact that they’re considering long haul flying. Their goal is to give Southwest customers fewer reasons to book with competitors, and to make the Rapid Rewards program more appealing, and they feel both of these things would be strengthened by launching long haul flying.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan has made it clear that the goal isn’t to have a long haul network comparable to that of the “big three” US carriers, but instead, to launch service to up to a dozen long haul destinations, which would take Southwest customers most of the places they want to go. As I see it, there are three general challenges with Southwest’s potential long haul strategy, none of which couldn’t be overcome.
First, I imagine that a lot of the demand for Southwest long haul flights would be seasonal, so I wonder how well the airline can manage this on a year-round basis. An annual summer trip to Europe has become a rite of passage for so many Americans, so I imagine flights to Athens, London, Paris, Rome, etc., would be the priority, and would do fine financially.
But what about winter? Of course there’s counter seasonal flying to South America, the South Pacific, etc., but the demand there isn’t quite as robust, especially among Southwest’s customer base.
Second, long haul demand in general is centered so much around the “big three” joint ventures, where each of American, Delta, and United, are teamed up with collection of international airlines to coordinate fares and schedules. Operating outside of those arrangements isn’t easy.
Lastly, this is by no means a deal breaker, but it’s also interesting how some of Southwest’s biggest hubs, like Dallas Love Field (DAL) and Chicago Midway (MDW) aren’t exactly built for long haul flying. I’d assume that Baltimore (BWI) would be the most logical hub for Europe flying — Denver (DEN) and Las Vegas (LAS) are just too far west to capture most Europe demand, if an airline is only going to serve a city out of one airport.
Bottom line
We’ve known that Southwest Airlines is considering wide body flying, and it sounds like this is closer to becoming a reality. The airline is reportedly considering acquiring Boeing 787s, though it remains to be seen if this would be a new order, or if the airline would acquire the planes through a lessor or secondhand, in order to get them as soon as possible.
Southwest’s goal is to maybe serve up to a dozen long haul destinations, both to take Southwest flyers where they want to go, and to make Rapid Rewards more compelling.
It’s fascinating to see Southwest’s transformation, and how the airline basically changing everything that has made it unique, to instead just copy the other guys, has been a winning strategy. If the day comes where I’m in a lie flat seat on a transatlantic Southwest flight, I’m going to be seriously confused…
What do you make of Southwest’s potential Dreamliner order?
Obviously their first long haul destination will be Singapore as a way of growing their recent weird nonsensical partnership with SQ.