What Happened to Southwest Airlines Boeing 727s?

Southwest Airlines is considered by many to be the true pioneer of the low-cost airline model.

Founded in 1967 by the enigmatic business leaders Herb Kelleher and Rollin King, it began flying under the current name in 1971 linking Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in Texas with regular, cheap ticket flights.

Soon the airline was able to spread its wings across the country thanks to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, and today it is one of the world’s largest airlines, with a fleet of over 800 aircraft flying to 121 destinations.

And today, the airline is widely known for its Boeing 737 fleet, which has been a significant part of Southwest’s identity and success. It was this focus on a single type that allowed the airline to reduce costs and simplify its operation.

However, for a brief period, Southwest Airlines operated a fleet of Boeing 727 aircraft.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 Fleet History

Southwest Airlines began operations using the Boeing 737-200, with many new examples acquired despite the startup nature of the airline.

However, from 1978 to 1985 Southwest also flew a fleet of seven larger Boeing 727-200 aircraft.

At the time, the airline saw the opportunity to fill its planes with more passengers (the 727 held 189 seats, compared to 130 on the 737-200) on its most popular routes.

Initially Southwest leased an aircraft from Braniff International and employed this airline to provide training.

This occurred because of a lawsuit which Braniff filed against Southwest and lost; part of the payout was the lease of a 727 to the airline.

Southwest then went on to lease five more aircraft from different airlines and owners, including People Express.

The aircraft all wore the full Southwest Airlines livery, which at the time was the classic gold scheme.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 Fleet

• N406BN (cn 19991/521) Boeing 727-291
• N551PE (cn 20772/982) Boeing 727-227
• N561PE (cn 21043/1113) Boeing 727-227
• N563PE (cn 21045/1133) Boeing 727-227
• N564PE (cn 21118/1167) Boeing 727-227
• N566PE (cn 21242/1196) Boeing 727-227
• N569PE (cn 21245/1202) Boeing 727-227

What Happened to Southwest’s Boeing 727s

By 1985, Southwest was further establishing itself and its network, and looking for ways to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and therefore pass on these savings to passengers by offering some of the cheapest fares around.

In order to achieve this, the Boeing 727 was seen as something of an anomaly, with the airline acquiring more new Boeing 737-200s, and also ordering the new 737-300.

By focusing on a single type, it would save the airline millions in parts, maintenance, insurance and pilot training, and the 737 was perfectly suited to Southwest’s network and high utilisation.

The aircraft were returned to their lessors in 1985 (apart from the Braniff example which had returned earlier), and went on to serve out their careers with a variety of airlines, often as freighters.

Interestingly, three of the fleet still survive, although none are now flying:

N406BN, the original aircraft, is stored engineless at San Antonio, TX having most recently been flown as a freighter by Paranount Jet.

N563PE has been stored at Melbourne Airport in Florida since its last flight in 2021. It is owned by Antares Aviation.

N566PE, now PT-JUB, has been preserved as part of a hotel complex near Campinas Viracopos in Brazil. It had ended its flying career as a freighter with Fly Linhas Aereas until being retired in 2002.

Do you remember seeing Southwest Airlines Boeing 727s? Did you ever fly on one? Leave a comment below!

Title image: Jon Proctor (GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html> or GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html>), via Wikimedia Commons