Vintage Southwest aircraft back on MAX 8

It was in March 2022 that Southwest announced in a company memo that the special, Herb Kelleher-liveried B737-700 would be retired. This is what the company had to say in the correspondence:

"Going forward, our desert gold livery will be a special feature of the Herbert D. Kelleher B737 as we will be retiring the classic dedication special livery. There will be a brief period when you won't see the desert gold livery around the system after the retirement of N711HK (msn 27845) and N714CB (27848, initials of President-emeritus Colleen Barrett).

N711HK was officially withdrawn from service on 11 March 2022 and subsequently stored at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport (AL). Less than two months later, in May 2022, the aircraft was broken up.

An early look at MAX8 N871HK (67775) shows that it retains the golden finish verses the more original brown paint that over 300 aircraft once wore. It does not look like the passenger windows will have a white outline like the original classic scheme but will instead mirror the previous special livery on the Boeing B737-700s where the white outline was deleted.

There is no word yet whether this jet will feature any special nose art dedicated to Herb Kelleher. Also, it will be interesting to see if Southwest includes the heart decal that was so prominent on their jets back in the late 1990s.

Southwest will also introduce another Boeing B737MAX 8 in the ‘Canyon Blue’ scheme, dedicated to Colleen Barrett at a later date.

N871HK was first seen at Flightradar24 on 9 October.

Photo: Brandon Farris