We receive tons of requests and suggestions each year for ”specialty” aircraft, which is what we call any aircraft not painted in our traditional Canyon Blue livery. In fact, just last week, my friend Dave Cynkin suggested we wrap an aircraft with the faces of bloggers and fly it to Las Vegas for this year's BlogWorld Expo. I praised his creativity - I love people who think big - but let him know it was an unlikely proposition.
In addition to the time and effort required, each of the ”specialty” aircraft in our fleet is carefully designed to honor a long-standing and significant relationship with the state, organization, or...er...whale...it represents. And, today, our CEO, Gary Kelly, and founder, Herb Kelleher, were at Chicago Midway Airport to honor just such a relationship. Say hello to the newest member of our fleet... Illinois One.
This brand new Boeing 737-700 unveiled today at Chicago Midway Airport features a rendering of the Illinois state flag and required 26 people at the Boeing Company working three shifts over the course of six days to paint. More than 93 gallons of paint and 10 different colors make up Illinois One. Check out the aircraft being built and painted in this video.
Illinois One joins twelve other ”specialty” aircraft in our fleet that carry unique paint schemes: Arizona One, California One, Lone Star One (Texas), Nevada One, New Mexico One, Maryland One, three Shamu aircraft (SeaWorld), Silver One (celebrating Southwest's 25th anniversary), Triple Crown One (recognizing Southwest's top rankings for ontime performance, baggage handling, and Customer satisfaction), and Slam Dunk One (tribute to our NBA partnership). That count actually comes to thirteen if you include the ”Classic” paint scheme which will remain on three of our aircraft - N711HK, N714CB, and N792SW.
Illinois One honors a relationship built over 23 years. Since we launched service in 1985, Chicago has grown to become one of our largest operations with 227 daily nonstop departures to 47 cities. In addition to our airport operations at Midway, we have a Pilot Base, an Inflight Base, a District Marketing Office, a Maintenance Facility, a Provisioning Base, a Reservations Center, and a People Department Office there. More than 3,700 of our Employees now call Chicago home.
The Eagle has landed at Chicago Midway. I hope you have the chance to see it landing at an airport near you. Welcome to the family, Illinois One!
Comments
Wow! Illinois one looks fantastic! In addition to being a State flag, it looks pretty darn patriotic if you ask me.
And your customers in Illinois are proud, too. You have made flying fun and affordable.
I tend to evangelize about SWA to my friends and professional colleagues. I have even taught a few about the "The Zen of SWA Boarding."
I have logged many miles on SWA (in fact, I head to FLL tomorrow evening)
I even traveled with a client who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 during the campaign. SWA was the sound fiscal choice.
I look forward to flying Illinois One - I wonder how long it will take.
Thanks for taking such good care of me.
Have fun,
Kevin
What's the registration number for Illinois One N9??WN?
Oooo...good question, Scott. It's N918WN.
What a great addition. I love to see the specialty plane fly in and out. People have no idea what they are. Needless to say I inform them. I have flown SWA since they started service out of PHL. I have been lucky enough to fly on Maryland one, and have pictures of 4 more. I always have my camera ready for pics. My goal is to fly on all of them some time in my life, esp the one decorated with the kids art work.
I just LUV SWA, they have given me,more opportunities then I could have dreamed of. Thank you SWA
Looks much better in the daylight!
Someone erased the night shots that were online for awhile.
Oh no here comes the suits again! I have to go now.
The Blogmaster is in Mdw for this event. :-)
Joe!
She's certainly an American Beauty!!! Congratulations!
That's neat! Yea! Perhaps you could paint an Oklahoma One. :)
Thought for the day: Why are they called Sun Chips when they don't look like the sun?
SWA LUV! :)
Congratulations on the amazing new craft. But, here's my idea... allow passengers to customize their own jet. Much like capitalone card builder.
The plane is beautiful. Is Southwest updating the insides of your planes as well. Are you planning to give each seat a TV screen anytime soon. I couldn't find anyplace on your site that describes the plane interiors. I just think travelers are interested in this today. I've flown SWA for years and years. Have always enjoyed it. I hope you stay on the front lines of the industry so you will be flying many more years!
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