Southwest Flies 803 Planes, Every One a Boeing 737. The MAX 7 It Signed Up For in 2013 Still Isn’t One of Them

Southwest Airlines has 803 planes. That is the count in its quarterly report to the SEC for September 30, 2026: 271 Boeing 737-700s, 189 737-800s and 343 737 MAX 8s.

Every one is a 737, and the number has barely moved in a year. What has changed is which 737s they are, and the smallest MAX, the one Southwest agreed to launch in 2013, is still not among them.

How Many Planes Does Southwest Have?

803, as of September 30, 2026. That is the whole airline: Southwest has no regional partners flying smaller jets under its name, so there is no second fleet to add on top.

Southwest owns 705 of the 803 and leases the other 98. The count leaves out the aircraft it has on order, which as of October 22, 2026 came to 441 firm orders still to be delivered, plus 130 options.

Southwest’s fleet, type by type

Southwest lists its fleet by type in every quarterly filing. This is the table it filed on October 22, 2026.

The 737 MAX 8 is now the biggest part of the fleet, at 343 jets. The 737-700, the type Southwest built most of its network on, is down to 271 and averages 20 years old.

The 737-800 sits in the middle with 189. It and the MAX 8 both carry 175 passengers, while Southwest took six seats out of every 737-700 to make room for extra-legroom rows, leaving it at 137.

The same number, a different fleet

Southwest had 802 aircraft on September 30, 2025 and 803 a year later. Over the same twelve months, more than 60 jets inside that total were swapped.

In that year the MAX 8 count rose from 281 to 343, and the 737-700 count fell from 319 to 271. The MAX 8 passed the 737-700 as Southwest’s largest type in the first quarter of 2026.

The third quarter shows how it works. Southwest took 20 new MAX 8s from Boeing and let 20 jets go, retiring 17 737-700s and selling three 737-800s, so the total did not move at all.

2025 ran the same way. Southwest took delivery of 55 MAX 8s and retired 55 older jets, 48 of them 737-700s, which its annual report calls its oldest and least fuel-efficient aircraft.

Why the numbers differ

Most sources agree on the total, because Southwest has reported between 800 and 803 aircraft at every quarter end since September 2025. Where they part ways is the split, the orders, and the history.

The total stands still, the split does not

Wikipedia’s Southwest fleet page gives 803 aircraft as of June 2026, split 288, 192 and 323. That was right on June 30, but since then 17 737-700s have gone and 20 MAX 8s have arrived.

Any type-by-type count older than a quarter is out of date even when its total is still correct.

Orders are not planes

Add the order book and the number looks far bigger. As of October 22, 2026, Southwest had firm orders for 487 MAX jets for 2026 through 2031, 240 MAX 7s and 247 MAX 8s, of which 46 MAX 8s had already arrived.

That leaves 441 firm orders still to come, plus 130 options that Southwest can take as either model. None of them are in the fleet until Boeing delivers them.

The MAX 7 that still isn’t here

Southwest signed up as launch customer for the 737 MAX 7 in May 2013. The smallest MAX is meant to replace the 737-700s, and Southwest holds 240 of them on firm order.

The FAA certified the MAX 7 on August 3, 2026, after a campaign that began in 2018 and was held up by a redesign of the engine anti-ice system. Southwest’s latest filing says it expects its first MAX 7 in late 2026 and its first passenger flights in 2027.

The delay shows up in the order book. Southwest’s 2026 plan includes 27 MAX 7s it was contractually due to receive in 2024, and this year it has switched 61 planned 2026 deliveries from MAX 7s to MAX 8s.

For the rest of 2026 the plan is modest. Southwest expects 67 MAX deliveries and about 60 retirements in the full year, which would leave the fleet only slightly above 803 at the end of December.

A bigger change may come later. Reuters reported in October 2026 that Southwest is leaning toward the Boeing 787 as its first widebody, although there is no order.

How Southwest compares with American, United and Delta

All four of the biggest US airlines have now reported their fleets for September 30, 2026. Southwest is the smallest of the four, and the only one with no regional jets.

On that date American had 1,624 aircraft, United 1,575, Delta 1,330 and Southwest 803. Count mainline jets only and the gap narrows: United 1,143, American 1,037, Delta 1,005, Southwest 803.

Our counts of how many planes American Airlines has, how many planes United has and how many planes Delta has break those fleets down type by type.

The year also split them. American’s fleet grew from 1,555 to 1,624 between September 2025 and September 2026, while Southwest’s went from 802 to 803.