Southwest Airlines has announced that the inaugural flights for its first 737MAX aircraft will take off on October 1. The inaugural routes have been settled, but the carrier has yet to announce what permanent routes the new aircraft will be flying.
If you are interested in jumping on one of the first Southwest 737MAX flights, you’ll have to get yourself to the Lone Star State. The inaugural routes are Dallas to Houston, Houston to San Antonio, and San Antonio back to Dallas. Inaugural flights like these are typically not without celebration, so they can be exciting occasions for travelers.
Expect to see the revamped version of the 737 put to use on Southwest’s longer haul flights. The 737MAX is both more fuel efficient and has greater range than its predecessor. Check out this video of the 737MAX test plane if you haven’t already.
What’s so special about Southwest and the 737?
If you’re unaware of this trivia tidbit, Southwest only flies Boeing 737 jets. The decision to only fly one type of plane is both interesting and unique. Having only one type of aircraft results in some serious streamlining to operations. Southwest only needs to train pilots and maintenance crews on one type of aircraft, and they only need to order one line of parts. Swapping out aircraft is also a breeze, as is changing gates. All the planes are the same size.
Southwest has a ton of 737MAX orders in with Boeing. The carrier reportedly has orders in for about 200 of the new jets. They are the “launch customer” for the aircraft, although Norwegian gets the honor of taking the plane for its inaugural spin. Southwest should be receive at least 10 of its 737MAX jets by the end of the year.
Featured image courtesy of user ‘Aka the Beav’ via Wikimedia Commons under CC 2.0 license.Â
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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