Southwest has the largest exposure of all US airlines to Boeing's 737 Max
- Boeing's 737 Max aircraft on Sunday was involved in its second disaster in just five months.
- Southwest Airlines has the highest exposure of all US carriers to the aircraft.
- Southwest shares fell more than 1% Monday.
- Watch Southwest Airlines trade live.
Southwest Airlines was down over 1% Monday following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight, which marked the second accident involving the Boeing 737 Max aircraft in five months. Southwest is the US airline with the largest exposure to the 737 Max aircraft.
Nearly 10% of Southwest's available seat miles will come from the 737 Max in October 2019 according to research provided by Stifel Financial. Southwest added 18 737 Max aircraft to its fleet last year.
"We're very proud to have an all-Boeing 737 fleet with significant modernization opportunities with the MAX going forward," Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said at the JPMorgan Aviation conference earlier this month. "The real opportunity is more along the fleet modernization side, which clearly means let's bring in the MAX and retire NG's respectively." He noted that the MAX is 14% more fuel efficient and 40% quieter than predecessor aircraft.
Boeing stock fell nearly 7% in Monday morning trading amid concerns about the safety of the company's 737 Max aircraft program. Chinese and Indonesian authorities ordered the grounding of the aircraft in the wake of Sunday's crash. Boeing on Sunday announced it was pushing back the rollout of its latest airline program, the 777X, following the disaster.
Southwest reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.17 per share, or $654 million, as revenue jumped 8.2% year-over-year to $5.7 billion. The company's stock was up 11.4% this year through Friday.
