Southwest upset but backs Boeing

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines executives acknowledge they are upset with Boeing over the grounding of its 737 Max jetliner, a move that has caused the airline to cancel thousands of flights.

But they are still standing by the aircraft maker and deny interest in buying planes from its rival, Airbus.

Southwest has 34 Max jets — more than any other carrier — and has run up extra costs and lost revenue since the jets were grounded last month after two deadly crashes. It is not clear when the planes will fly again.

“We are not happy with this situation. Who would be?” said Gary Kelly, Southwest chairman and chief executive.

The airline’s president, Tom Nealon, said he expects some customers will avoid buying tickets on Max flights, at least for a time.

Nealon predicted that the airline will find other passengers for those flights.

“We will fill them up, just like we always do,” he said.

The executives spoke to analysts and reporters after Southwest released quarterly results showing that higher costs partly because of the Max grounding are more than offsetting rising ticket sales. Its first-quarter profit fell 16% to $387 million.

Southwest said that it canceled more than 10,000 flights in the quarter because of the Max, as well as a labor dispute with its mechanics and winter storms.

The Max currently accounts for fewer than 5% of Southwest flights, but that would roughly double if, as planned, it takes delivery of 41 more of them later this year.

Southwest is checking its customer surveys and consulting outside experts as it crafts a marketing plan to make customers feel comfortable getting on the jets. Executives said it was too early to give details about their thinking, but they are confident in their approach.

“It’s a great airplane, Boeing is a great company, we’re looking forward to obviously working with the [Federal Aviation Administration] to get it ungrounded,” Kelly said.