Dallas based Southwest Airlines introduced nine new Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes into service today, with the inaugural flight leaving Dallas Love Field and landing in Houston. That was one of the carrier's original markets first flown in 1971.
The MAX 8 planes feature a single-class cabin with 175 seats. There's also new LED lighting that changes colors for each phase of the flight. Music will also be infused into the cabin that will feature different play-list for boarding and deplaning.
The MAX 8 is powered by LEAP-1B engines, which are designed to be more fuel efficient and produce less noise.
Southwest expects to have 14 of the new planes in it's daily rotation by the end of the year. So far the company has 200 firm orders of a combination of MAX 7 and MAX 8 planes.
To make way for the new planes, Southwest retired 30 "classic" planes on Friday. The "classics" were Boeing 737-300s that has been a part of the fleet for 33 years, according to our partners at the Dallas Morning News.
Southwest told the Morning News that the old planes were flown to the Southern California Logistics Airport and parked. The company plans to keep the planes intact and sell them, possibly in other countries. That move prevents other domestic rivals the possibility to buy the planes and expand their service.
