Southwest Airlines is preparing to acquire Boeing 787 widebodies or something similar for long haul flying primarily to Europe.
- That would mean no longer being an exclusive 737 airline.
- It would mean offering a premium cabin, because they can’t make the economics work with all coach.
- A big part of why is to fly their own customers to places they’re already traveling on other airlines, and giving them reasons to spend on a Southwest credit card.
- But they’re going to face challenges filling a used widebody with cheap seats to Europe in winter (and could wind up needing to send them to Hawaii).
Reportedly dozens of 787s have been contemplated, with leased or used aircraft a way to start more quickly. But that’s still going to take years of preparation, and other planes remain in the mix with Airbus pitching the A321XLR medium-haul narrowbody and the A330neo (and the smaller A220 for other flying).
Norse Atlantic 787s Have Been On The Table
Enilria points back to its July 2025 reporting about potential Southwest ties with Norse Atlantic, including for its Boeing 787s.
One of his commenters claims Southwest has signed for six Norse 787-9s and others name Las Vegas, Austin and Nashville as bases and suggest a Media Day announcement. (I’m attending Media Day next Thursday.)
Notably Norse announced two of its 787-9s going to Pakistan International Airlines as wet leases with crews, maintenance and insurance.
Render of a Southwest Airlines 787
This Requires A New Pilot Agreement
In August 2025, a union memo revealed Southwest seeking a side letter for limited additional international flying with its existing 737 MAX fleet, beyond the allowable ‘near-international’ category. That was about flying its existing narrowbodies, for instance, from the Northeast to Iceland and Western Europe.
Enilria reports that the pilots considered management’s requests too broad for a simple side letter and wanted a full reopening of their contract. It also discusses a revenue-based pilot pay proposal and speculates about codeshare concessions.
In April, Southwest pilots held a long haul scheduling discussion with American and Delta pilot representatives. The union has discussed widebody and long haul narrowbody operations with the airline.
This all involves higher pay, additional pilots on longer flights, rest facilities, overseas layovers, training, aircraft assignments and protection against outsourcing. Pilots want widebodies, while the airline wants more flexibility in partnerships.
Baltimore And Nashville Make The Most Sense To Start
I’ve been covering this progression from the early Iceland idea – Southwest now partners with Icelandair and could fly 737 MAXs to Reykjavik with passengers connecting onward – to CEO Bob Jordan discussing a new aircraft and a premium cabin. In May, he identified Baltimore as a natural gateway and suggested 8 to 12 long haul destinations could cover much of what their customers want. Here’s how I’d rank the gateways:
- Baltimore and Nashville. Baltimore combines Southwest connecting traffic, the local DC market, and shorter trips. Nashville has perhaps the best Southwest customer base and connections without a competing legacy airline hub in the same market. Jordan has specifically talked about Nashville customers wanting Europe while Baltimore would compete with the international flying primarily out of Dulles.
- Austin. Southwest has customers to retain, as Delta launches long haul and even prepares a business class Delta One lounge. There’s a plausible market for premium leisure and business travel, and a rich credit card market.
- Las Vegas. This is a good market for bringing passengers to rather than a local outbound market, and Europe – Vegas might be tough to rely on. Southwest would have to sell effectively in Europe rather than to their existing customers. It’s also longer flying. They have strong connections out across the West Coast but this one seems harder.
- Denver. They have a good connecting network, but have to deal with United and they don’t have the corporate contracts.
- Orlando. This falls into the same bucket as Vegas, focused on inbound visitors and helps in the winter but this doesn’t get at the desire to serve Southwest’s existing customers or bolster their credit card.
Phoenix, St. Louis and San Diego are possible candidates further down the list. So is Los Angeles, which has strong international demand and intense competition (Southwest is stronger in the broader LA basin than at LAX specifically). Houston Hobby offers feed for a possible counterseasonal South America operation, although I haven’t scoped out airport constraints on 787 flying.
They can’t operate long haul from Dallas Love Field under federal law. Southwest’s first four announced lounges are Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville.
London, Paris And Rome Would Be Top Destinations
For a 787 operation, they’d likely focus on launching London and Paris first, followed by Rome. Heathrow would support the strongest premium proposition, but obtaining slots is costly. Dublin, Barcelona and Amsterdam would be the next group followed by Lisbon, Madrid and perhaps Edinburgh.
Reykjavik is still plausible with existing aircraft and Icelandair connections. Buying 787s would let Southwest reach major European destinations bypassing these connections.
An A321XLR would mean fewer seats to sell and lower total cost per departure on thinner Atlantic routes, but higher cost per seat and therefore more of a need for premium passengers and product. A 787 provides greater range, is higher cost but lower cost per seat – great if you can sell out the plane – and also a new challenge for Southwest selling long haul cargo.
Where Do They Send These Planes In Winter?
It’s not hard to fill planes across the Pond in summer, but that on its own is a money-losing proposition. Demand dries up in winter.
- Smaller year-round Europe. London and Paris can still work to some degree in the off-season, especially if they’re operating smaller 787-8s and with fewer frequencies. They can also move Europe flying away from Baltimore and down to Orlando, but that hasn’t been enough for others trying to replicate the model.
- Use some capacity for Hawaii. Longer mainland routes could put existing Southwest customers on widebodies during the winter Atlantic slowdown.
- Consider southern South America. Buenos Aires, Santiago and Rio offer destinations with demand during the U.S. winter.
- Australia and New Zealand eventually? Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland fit the credit card narrative and are counterseasonal to Europe. Brisbane already has too much capacity relative to size and Auckland is far thinner than Sydney.
- Send the planes to the Cancun hub! Some Mexico and Caribbean routes could support a larger aircraft in winter. That won’t help with dozens of widebodies but it could help place a few, with a few going out of service for maintenance while prepping for the busy summer season.
Southwest is finally able to sell tickets in local currencies albeit at high cost through partners and through Hahnair. But they don’t have brand awareness and on the ground distribution on other continents.
Render of Southwest Airlines 787
Southwest Would Need To Build A Long Haul Product
The short haul product doesn’t just extend to Europe. There’s a reason Norse is getting rid of its planes, and why it didn’t work previously for Norwegian or most other long haul low cost carriers.
The savings from a quick turn become less significant when the airplane spends most of the day flying. 10 fewer minutes on the ground is less material on a 10-hour flight. Fuel and aircraft ownership costs are a greater percentage of the operation than with short haul narrowbody flying.
Southwest would start with domestic customers which is an advantage over new long haul low cost carriers. They have connecting flights and a large loyalty frequent flyer program. But an economy-heavy cabin across the Atlantic is still a challenge.
They’re going to have to introduce lie-flat business class and probably premium economy. That means retrofitting planes if they were to pick up used Norse aircraft, which is itself expensive. And Southwest starts at a disadvantage for connecting business if they sell long haul lie flat products and those connect to the airline’s short haul coach. Southwest is already late to the party offering a domestic first class product – even JetBlue, Frontier and Allegiant now have this in the pipeline.
And I wonder how much of the credit card benefit could be gained just by building out points earning and redemption with a(n interline) partner list that now includes ANA, Singapore Airlines, TAP, Condor and Icelandair and others. They wouldn’t get this done with all of these partners for a variety of reasons, but it would be far less expensive and risky than launching their own long haul network to offer sexy destinations that attract aspirational spending.
Render Of Southwest Airlines 787 Business Class Cabin
Would Smaller Aircraft Help?
I’ve argued that Southwest’s all-737 fleet limits growth in small markets and long haul ones. The airline was considering smaller Embraer aircraft before the pandemic.
Smaller planes could let Southwest serve more cities, offer more useful frequencies and fill seats throughout its current network. And that would help Europe, too, because it would feed those flights with passengers from markets Southwest doesn’t currently reach. This could be either:
- Small mainline aircraft. An A220 or E195-E2 could serve thinner routes without creating a separate regional airline. These aren’t the same proposition as a 76-seat feeder jet, and Southwest’s labor costs would follow them onto the smaller aircraft.
- A regional carrier flying for Southwest. Like SkyWest or Republic, which would require a pilots agreement allowing this, not just setting pay rates with existing pilots. Currently Southwest is allowed zero regionals in its pilot contract. They should surely get authority for this in a deal that gives their pilots widebody flying.
Each decision Southwest has made to become more like legacy carriers has implied even more. Publishing schedules on Expedia and Google Flights meant needing fares to look competitive, unbundling with basic economy and checked bag fees. Selling extra legroom seats meant seat assignments. A more premium product means lounges and ultimately first class, because otherwise they’re ‘just like everyone else but less than’. And operating a similar, complex and high cost structure to competitors without international is highly limiting.
