These should have been painted earlier this month, as well.
N212WN
N219WN
N499WN
N962WN
N202WN and N7719A are currently down for paint.
Expect the following to be done by the end of the year:
N206WN
N209WN
N221WN
N222WN
N227WN
N449WN
N968WN
That list obviously could change depending on unscheduled MX or whatnot, but those are the tails scheduled through the end of the year.
qfatwa wrote:Recently reported in the Southwest thread that painting has been ongoing, mainly one line.
Added to those painted are N496WN and N957WN. Any further updates over the past 6 months?
About 20 of the N77xx group are going to United - the first was an old lvery aircraft N7714B and one other old livery, N7703A will also leave.
Yes, they've been going on all year. It's unclear whether they were only running one line due to the MAX groundings or just due to the vendor having a full schedule. During the same time period that we weren't painting at VCV, Alaska was hurrying the rest of their Airbus fleet through VCV for repaints.
Not sure if there's actually 20 lease returns happening, however. I heard something like 12. Admittedly, I could be wrong on that number.
Veigar wrote:Huh... is WN downsizing their fleet? Seems like an extremely weird time to do that.
Some are lease returns. The majority that are retiring, however, were just coming up on D checks that they had too many hours/cycles to justify. Some are being resold (not sure to who) and the rest are headed to the scrapper.
Unfortunate timing due to the groundings. But these decisions were made long before the grounding happened, I'm sure. Fleet transactions typically are.
All opinions and views expressed are my own and not representative of those of Southwest Airlines Co., its subsidiaries, or affiliates.
