WDBRR From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 604 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 2597 times:
Just came off my first Southwest flight,
noticed the 737 had one lavatory in the rear
just beyond where the galley is, it's in the
curve of the back of the plane.
I have never seen this on an aircraft before.
I assume this was carved out there to squeeze
in more seats in the cabin since normally the
lavatories are just forward of the rear galley.
The seats on this plane go almost up to
the rear exit doors. was this a special request?
Is this design unique to Southwest?
does any other airline have this set up?
SXDFC From United States of America, joined Dec 2007, 2013 posts, RR: 19 Reply 1, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 2539 times:
Southwest 737s have 1 LAV in the front and back. There are currently 3 aircaft in our fleet that have 3 Lavs, those are a/c 552, 553, and 554 since they came from Virgin Blue and still are sporting the Virgin Blue bulkheads, rugs,etc.
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
longhauler From Canada, joined Mar 2004, 4281 posts, RR: 36 Reply 2, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 2522 times:
That was the original design of the B737. If there was one lav, it was against the rear pressure dome on one side, with a galley on the other side. Some airlines had two lavs in the rear aft of the aft doors against the rear pressure dome. The rear galley was ahead of the doors on one, or sometimes two sides of the cabin.
With newer versions of the B737, a "B757" style set up was offered. That is the rear galley was aft of the rear doors across the entire cabin, against the rear pressure dome. This was during the days of a very strange phenomenon ... that is hot meals on trays for Economy passengers. Lavs were placed ahead of the rear doors on either side of the cabin.
As Southwest never offered an elaborate cabin service, that setup was and still is not required, so they use the old "original" galley lav setup. That is a lav on one side, and galley on the other side, aft of the rear doors, against the rear pressure dome.
Never gonna grow up, never gonna slow down .... Barefoot Blue Jean Night
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3651 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 2481 times:
Quoting longhauler (Reply 2): Some airlines had two lavs in the rear aft of the aft doors against the rear pressure dome. The rear galley was ahead of the doors on one, or sometimes two sides of the cabin.
I was on a US-East 734 Saturday with this configuration (flying as US1675 -- CLT-MIA)
TSS From United States of America, joined Dec 2006, 2870 posts, RR: 5 Reply 4, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2331 times:
A quick perusal of select airlines on Seatguru.com revealed no other airlines that have only one lav in the rear of their 737-700s except WN, although my search was by no means comprehensive.
I did notice that the "standard" configuration on 737-700s seems to be one lav on each side just forward of the rear exit doors with the space aft of the exit doors being taken up by a single large galley. WN deviates from this standard by having small galleys where the lavs normally are and a lav and another small galley where the large galley usually is. FL also deviates from the norm on their 737-700s by having two lavs where the large galley normally is and having no aft galley at all. There was a thread a while back mainly about WN's purchase of 737-800s that also included some additional discussion of prospective lav number and layout on the new and existing WN aircraft-
Quoting longhauler (Reply 2): That was the original design of the B737. If there was one lav, it was against the rear pressure dome on one side, with a galley on the other side. Some airlines had two lavs in the rear aft of the aft doors against the rear pressure dome. The rear galley was ahead of the doors on one, or sometimes two sides of the cabin.
With newer versions of the B737, a "B757" style set up was offered. That is the rear galley was aft of the rear doors across the entire cabin, against the rear pressure dome.
I was not aware of that. Thank you for the clarification/737 history lesson.
[Edited 2011-10-16 23:55:19]
Able to kill active threads stone dead with a single post!
CRJ900 From Norway, joined Jun 2004, 2080 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2212 times:
Norwegian carrier Braathens SAFE had one aft lav like this on their B737-200Adv with a duty-free storage galley on the right-hand side. The B732 was retired in 1994 and Braathens became part of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in 2002 or so.
SAS has this rear lav and small galley in their B737-600 (all 28 of them, I think). Also, the B737-700 that SAS bought new have two lavs at the back wall and one galley unit between the cabin and R2 door. The B73G inherited from Braathens have the conventional set-up with full rear-wall galley and two lavs between the doors and cabin.
AA737-823 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 5341 posts, RR: 11 Reply 6, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2165 times:
Quoting CRJ900 (Reply 5): Norwegian carrier Braathens SAFE had one aft lav like this on their B737-200Adv with a duty-free storage galley on the right-hand side. The B732 was retired in 1994
Indeed; two of those aircraft are still in service, and I can tell you that they're still set up that way...
Quoting WDBRR (Thread starter): Is this design unique to Southwest?
does any other airline have this set up?
Most of the Low-Co's have similar setups; AirTran's birds have lavatories snug up against the aft pressure bulkhead, although there are two of them. And Ryanair has NO lavatories, just a relief tube routed THROUGH the aft pressure bulkhead, for which they charge two Euro.
type-rated From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 4355 posts, RR: 20 Reply 7, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2154 times:
I imagine on some longer flights WN should probably tell their passengers to hit the restroom before boarding. I imagine not too long after take off the line forms and probably stays there most of the flight. Only 2 lavs on a 737, that's not enough.
Fly North Central Airlines..The route of the Northliners!
N1120A From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 25852 posts, RR: 79 Reply 8, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 2119 times:
Quoting type-rated (Reply 7):
I imagine on some longer flights WN should probably tell their passengers to hit the restroom before boarding. I imagine not too long after take off the line forms and probably stays there most of the flight. Only 2 lavs on a 737, that's not enough.
Well, its easier for WN to manage, as PAX are allowed to use both lavs. At carriers with 2 cabin aircraft, the front lav is usually off-limits to Y pax.
Mangeons les French fries, mais surtout pratiquons avec fierte le French kiss
7673mech From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 632 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1757 times:
Quoting SXDFC (Reply 1): Southwest 737s have 1 LAV in the front and back. There are currently 3 aircaft in our fleet that have 3 Lavs, those are a/c 552, 553, and 554 since they came from Virgin Blue and still are sporting the Virgin Blue bulkheads, rugs,etc.
Yes, and if I am not mistaken - one 552? is at PAE getting converted and the others to follow.
It is an interesting modification.
Obviously the aft end is gutted and then 4 of the aft floor beams and surround structure are modified.
I was at PAE awhile back when an Air Tran new delivery - in Southwest paint was getting a mod done - no quit as extensive as the lavs were already mounted in the back - but one was removed - floor structure modified and then galleys added.
sw733 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6072 posts, RR: 10 Reply 10, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1720 times:
Quoting type-rated (Reply 7): I imagine on some longer flights WN should probably tell their passengers to hit the restroom before boarding.
I've never seen a problem...well, not any more of a problem than other 737 flights (on other airlines). On anything from MCI-OKC (40 minutes in air) to BWI-LAS (5 hours in air), it hasn't really been an issue. Plus, on the really long flights, there is more time to spread out the bathroom breaks.
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3651 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1661 times:
Quoting sw733 (Reply 10): BWI-LAS (5 hours in air), it hasn't really been an issue. Plus, on the really long flights, there is more time to spread out the bathroom breaks.
It's totally unpredictable.
I've done SAN-BWI (five hours) and LAX-ELP ( 2 hours, but drink receipts exceed airfares collected ) and there has never been a line that I could see.
But on SFO-SAN no one seems to be able to hold on. -- always a line.
n126dl From United States of America, joined May 2010, 100 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 1 hour ago) and read 1600 times:
WNCrew From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 1317 posts, RR: 9 Reply 13, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 1 hour ago) and read 1587 times:
WNCrew From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 1317 posts, RR: 9 Reply 14, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 3 days 1 hour ago) and read 1569 times:
Quoting WDBRR (Thread starter): I assume this was carved out there to squeeze
in more seats in the cabin since normally the
lavatories are just forward of the rear galley.
Haha! No, if WN wanted to they could seat up to 149 in the aircraft, but they have fairly decent pitch so they elect to only have 137 seats. There's room onboard the aircraft for a convention setup of a full G4b galley and then a cabin-side lav, but WN hasn't ever deviated from the original layout as on the Classic 737.
It's really not a very good setup. Those 1/2 galleys with high pax traffic to the single aft lav can be very frustrating for service. Since WN doesn't utilize carts (yet) we need repeated access to the galley and aisle and since the lav is next to G4 complex there's always people back there leaving very little room for service setup and delivery. Also, the G3 complex on the cabin-side sits further out into the aisle than a convention cabin-side lavatory complex so there's less "waiting room" than with a conventional setup.
It worked when WN was strictly short haul but it's atrocious on long flights! Add to that, we do a full service on ALL flights (weather permitting) and this sends people to the lav so we're essentially encouraging lav use. It's really a poor setup.
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
SZDC10 From United States of America, joined Jul 2011, 26 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 1436 times:
Once our 738s are delivered, I'm going to hunt those down in the bid packet like a hound on a fox chase. LOL 2 lavs aft, full galley, and carts. It's going to change the way we do our job at Southwest in astronomical ways.
Currently, as WNCrew stated, it's not easy to work aft positions really on any length of flight due to our hand-delivery type of service, and because of that, I fly A position (up front) 99% of the time. Much more space, pax are not allowed to stand up front waiting for the lav, etc. Snack set up aft is completely improvised, sometimes on the floor, sometimes on the jumpseat, sometimes on an empty row in the back, and almost always weaving in between passengers standing in the back waiting for the lavatory. B and C FAs are squished together in G4 in the back corner of the 37, with a revolving door'ed lavatory 36 inches away. It's very antiquated and not FA friendly in the slightest, but we've all gotten use to it I suppose over the years, and with a fleet of 500+ 737s, I don't see any change to those coming anytime soon. Enter the 738s.
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3651 posts, RR: 1 Reply 16, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 1340 times:
Quoting SZDC10 (Reply 15): it's not easy to work aft positions really on any length of flight due to our hand-delivery type of service, and because of that
Yes, that may be true, but I've always thought it was sort of classy having my CC and ginger -- with a little red heart-shaped stirring rod -- brought to my row by hand with a napkin and peanuts.
It's a little thing -- I know -- but keeps me coming back.
Cubsrule From United States of America, joined May 2004, 21245 posts, RR: 19 Reply 17, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 1290 times:
Quoting WNCrew (Reply 14): It worked when WN was strictly short haul but it's atrocious on long flights!
One thing that seems to work well on longer flights (when it happens) is that sometimes the service is done before the seat belt sign goes off. It seems that folks will go to the lav with the seat belt sign on but congregating in the aft galley is usually too much for them.
Not a picture, but I believe this video shows the aft lav on Southwest Airlines being discussed in this thread. Looks like the rear wall of the lav is shaped to fit against the pressure bulkhead:
SXDFC From United States of America, joined Dec 2007, 2013 posts, RR: 19 Reply 19, posted (1 year 7 months 1 week 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 1101 times:
N554WN
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
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LOL 2 lavs aft, full galley, and carts. It's going to change the way we do our job at Southwest in astronomical ways. 
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