Southwest Air nears 36-plane deal to extract value from fleet

Southwest Airlines is nearing a sale-leaseback deal for 36 of its Boeing Co. planes sooner than expected, an early sign of progress in the carrier’s push to extract additional financial benefits from its aircraft. The planned transaction to turn those older 737-800 jets into cash was “way over subscribed” and could wrap up this month, Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan said in an interview Wednesday. The company last week said it anticipated the initial pact in a broader fleet monetization plan to conclude in next year’s first quarter. Closing a deal would mark the first step in Southwest’s effort to leverage additional value from its fleet of more than 800 Boeing 737 jets and the nearly 700 planes it has on order. It’s part of the sweeping changes taking shape at the Dallas-based carrier to improve investor returns that have lagged peers in recent years, such as by offering assigned seating and premium fares with more leg room. The fleet transactions aim to capitalize on aircraft demand and pricing that have soared as Boeing and Airbus SE faced production challenges that have limited the supply of new jetliners. “The aircraft are worth a lot because you can’t get aircraft, and we have access to an awful lot of them,” Jordan said. “The strategy is a really important one, an important part of our plan.” Sale-leaseback deals allow the carrier to sell some of its mid-life 737-800 jets to a lessor and then lease them back for a fixed time period. In Southwest’s case, the term would be three years, COO Andrew Watterson said. <br/>