How many flights do Southwest Airlines' Boeing 737s fly in 1 day?

Southwest Airlines is the world’s largest operator of Boeing 737 aircraft. According to Flightradar24, it is the world’s fourth-largest airline and has a fleet of 810 planes.

Because the airline operates a point-to-point model and many shorter flights, many of its aircraft can fly several legs per day, sometimes up to seven.

According to a story from the Daily Mail, one of Southwest's planes recently flew as much as 4,000 miles in 19 hours.

According to data from ch-aviation, Southwest has 810 planes in its fleet. These 810 are split into three variants: the Boeing 737-700, 737-800, and 737 MAX 8. An additional 474 aircraft are on order, including the 737 MAX 7, which has not yet been certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The breakdown of the fleet is below:

Southwest is still due to receive another 188 MAX 8s. When the MAX 7 is certified, the airline will receive 286 of the type.

In the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Southwest has taken delivery of a large number of aircraft. In 2021, the airline received 28 aircraft an increase of 21 planes over 2020. The following year, deliveries jumped up to 68, but in 2023 they climbed even higher.

Last year, Southwest received 86 planes from Boeing, more than four times the number of deliveries in 2024. This is because Boeing has faced a series of troubles, including production interruptions due to a seven-week strike.

The oldest 737-700 in Southwest’s fleet is 24 years old. N791SW was delivered to Southwest in December 2000 and is currently inactive. The oldest 737-800 is just 12.78 years old, and was delivered directly to Southwest in March 2012.

737-700

N791SW, the oldest 737-700 in Southwest’s fleet, was flown to Birmingham on November 19th, where it has been since then. On its last day in passenger service, the plane flew seven flights, the longest of which was two hours and 24 minutes. The shortest flight that day was 38 minutes. The full list of flights is below:

The plane started its day at 05:25 in Chicago and ended the day at 22:22 in Atlanta. Among its eight flights, the aircraft traveled through three different time zones.

Data shows that as of June 30th, this plane had a lifetime of 75,340 flight hours and 44,671 flight cycles. The statistic breaks down to an average of one hour, 41 minutes per flight, while its average daily utilization was eight hours and 45 minutes.

The youngest 737-700 in Southwest’s fleet also operates a significant number of flights every day. On November 23rd, N969WN, a 13-year-old plane, operated eight flights. It started its day in Memphis, Tennesee, and ended in Eugene, Oregon. The breakdown of its operations that day is as follows:

As of June 30th, N969WN had 40,346 flight hours, averaging one hour and 37 minutes per flight. Similar to N791SW, the aircraft is used on a daily average of eight hours and 47 minutes.

737-800

N8301J is the oldest 737-800 in Southwest’s fleet and operates four to seven flights per day. On November 18th, it operated six flights, starting in Orlando and ending in Dallas, where Southwest was founded and is currently headquartered. The breakdown of that day’s operations is as follows:

The first flight of the day was at 06:35, and the aircraft was shut down for the night at 22:10 before resuming operations early the next morning. As of June 30, N8301J had more than 40,000 flight hours. Its average flight is two hours and 11 minutes, and its average daily flying time is eight hours and 57 minutes.

The last 737-800 delivered to Southwest from the Boeing factory is just over six years old. Registered as N8583Z, the aircraft is remarkably younger than the first-ever 737 MAX 8, which was delivered to Malindo Air in May 2017. On most days, N8583Z operates between four to seven legs, but a few weeks ago, there was a day when it only operated two.

November 24th was a busy day for N8583Z. Southwest deployed the aircraft on six flights that day, with the first departure scheduled for 06:05 and the last arrival scheduled for 21:45. The full breakdown of the day’s operations is below:

As of June 30th, N8583Z had just over 19,000 flight hours, an average of one hour and 55 minutes per flight. This aircraft has the highest average daily utilization analyzed so far, at 9 hours and 10 minutes.

737 MAX 8

The oldest MAX 8 in Southwest’s fleet is older than the youngest 737-800. N8710M was delivered to Southwest on August 26, 2017, three months after Boeing’s first MAX delivery. Operations with the MAX have a larger contrast by number of flights, as Southwest utilizes them on routes to Hawai’i.

For example, on November 28th, N8710M only operated two flights. The first was from Sacramento to Honolulu, and the second was from Honolulu to Kona. The flight from Sacramento took five hours and 11 minutes, and the hop from Honolulu to Kona took 31 minutes.

The day before, N8710M operated five flights. The plane started its day in Miami and finished in Sacramento. The breakdown of the day’s operations is below:

On average, this MAX 8 flew longer flights than the other planes on this list, but it was also used for less time on a daily basis. Its average flight time is about two hours, and its average daily flying time is around six hours.