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Commitments and Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2025
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Commitments The Company's contractual order book with The Boeing Company ("Boeing") for 737-7 ("-7") and -8 aircraft (together, the "MAX aircraft"), which extends to 2031, was designed to support the Company's growth and fleet modernization plans, while also providing significant flexibility and optionality to manage its fleet gauge and size, including opportunities to accelerate fleet modernization efforts if growth opportunities do not materialize. The Company received eight -8 aircraft deliveries from Boeing in third quarter 2025 and retired 16 aircraft (15 -700 and the sale of one -800). In addition, during third quarter 2025, the Company exercised four -7 options for delivery in 2026. Boeing continues to experience delays in fulfilling its commitments with regards to delivery of MAX aircraft to the Company, primarily as a result of manufacturing challenges and delays in achieving Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") certification of one of its new aircraft types, the -7, for which Southwest expects to be the launch customer. As a result of Boeing's delivery delays, the Company has previously replanned its capacity and delivery expectations multiple times and will continue to closely monitor the ongoing aircraft delivery delays with Boeing and further adjust expectations as needed. Year-to-date through September 30, 2025, the Company converted 42 2025 deliveries from -7 to -8 firm orders. As of September 30, 2025, the Company had the following firm orders and options for future periods:
|  |  | The Boeing Company |  |  |  |  |
|  |  | -7 Firm Orders |  | -8 Firm Orders |  |  | -7 or -8 Options |  |  |  | Total |
2025 |  |  | 28 |  |  | 108 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  |  | 136 |  | (c)
2026 |  |  | 86 |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  |  | 86 |  |
2027 |  |  | 19 |  |  | 46 |  |  |  | 25 |  |  |  |  | 90 |  |
2028 |  |  | 15 |  |  | 50 |  |  |  | 25 |  |  |  |  | 90 |  |
2029 |  |  | 38 |  |  | 34 |  |  |  | 18 |  |  |  |  | 90 |  |
2030 |  |  | 45 |  |  | — |  |  |  | 45 |  |  |  |  | 90 |  |
2031 |  |  | 45 |  |  | — |  |  |  | 45 |  |  |  |  | 90 |  |
|  |  | 276 | (a) | 238 |  | (b) | 158 |  |  |  | 672 |
(a) The delivery timing for the -7 is dependent on the FAA issuing required certifications and approvals to Boeing and the Company. The FAA will ultimately determine the timing of the -7 certification and entry into service, and the Company therefore offers no assurances that current estimations and timelines are correct. (b) The Company has flexibility to designate firm orders or options as -7s or -8s, upon written advance notification as stated in the contract. (c) Includes 36 -8 deliveries received year-to-date through September 30, 2025. In addition, the Company has included 63 of its 2024 contractual but undelivered aircraft (27 -7s and 36 -8s) within its 2025 contractual commitments. The 2025 contractual detail is as follows:
| The Boeing Company |  |  |  |  |
| -7 Firm Orders |  | -8 Firm Orders |  |  |  |  |  | Total |
2024 Contractual Deliveries | 27 |  |  | 36 |  |  |  |  |  |  | 63 |  |
2025 Contractual Deliveries | 1 |  |  | 72 |  |  |  |  |  |  | 73 |  |
2025 Combined Contractual Total | 28 |  |  | 108 |  |  |  |  |  |  | 136 |  |
Based on the Company's current agreement with Boeing, capital commitments associated with firm orders as of September 30, 2025, were:
(in billions) | Remainder of 2025 |  | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 and thereafter | Total
Payments for capital commitments | $ | 2.7 |  | (a) | $ | 2.4 |  | $ | 2.5 |  | $ | 2.8 |  | $ | 2.5 |  | $ | 2.7 |  | $ | 15.6 |
(a) Capital commitments associated with the Company's firm orders in 2025 of $2.7 billion include approximately $1.4 billion primarily related to the existing remaining scheduled 73 MAX aircraft to be delivered in 2025 and $1.3 billion related to 63 MAX aircraft (27 -7s and 36 -8s) that were contractually committed for 2024, but were not received. Subsequent to September 30, 2025, and through October 23, 2025, the Company exercised two -7 options for delivery in 2027, converted one 2025 -7 firm order into a 2025 -8 firm order, and converted five 2026 -7 firm orders into 2026 -8 firm orders, resulting in the Company's 2026 and 2027 capital commitments increasing to $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. Contingencies The Company is from time to time subject to various legal proceedings and claims arising in the ordinary course of business and records a liability for such claims when it is probable that a loss will be incurred and the amount is reasonably estimable. The Company is a defendant in class action litigation asserting it has not provided paid short-term military leave to certain employees, in violation of the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”). The United States District Court for the Northern District of California previously issued an order to effectively stay the action, pending an appeal from an order by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington granting summary judgment in favor of an airline in a separate case involving substantially the same claims at issue in this action. On February 1, 2023, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment and remanded the separate airline case to the District Court. The Ninth Circuit’s decision may adversely affect the Company’s defenses in the USERRA proceeding and may give rise to additional litigation in this or other areas. On October 29, 2024, the Company filed a motion to decertify the class, which was then fully briefed and set for hearing. On February 13, 2025, the parties filed a notice of settlement advising the Court that they reached a settlement in principle, and the parties made a stipulated request for the Court to vacate the case schedule, including the hearing on the Company's decertification motion, and to set a deadline of June 19, 2025, for the filing of either a motion for preliminary approval of the class settlement or a status update about the timing of the remaining steps in the settlement process. The Court granted the stipulation on February 14, 2025. On June 20, 2025, the Court granted the parties’ stipulated request to continue the deadline for filing a motion for preliminary approval of the class settlement. On September 25, 2025, plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement class. The settlement includes an $18.5 million settlement fund and prospective relief that includes a differential pay benefit for up to ten days of military leave per year, which will remain in place for at least five years once initiated. The proposed settlement is fully accrued as of September 30, 2025. On December 27, 2019, a former customer service agent at Oakland International Airport, filed a putative class action complaint in the Superior Court of California, for the County of Santa Clara, against the Company alleging the following seven claims under the California Labor Code and Business & Professions Code: (1) failure to provide meal periods; (2) failure to provide rest periods; (3) failure to pay hourly wages; (4) failure to provide accurate wage statements; (5) failure to timely pay all final wages; (6) unfair competition; and (7) civil penalties for the foregoing. Plaintiff filed a First Amended Complaint on October 15, 2021, that asserted the same causes of action and added a named plaintiff. The First Amended Complaint primarily seeks unpaid wages, interest thereon, and associated civil and statutory penalties, along with attorneys’ fees and costs. On February 26, 2025, the Court granted class certification as to the first cause of action for failure to provide meal periods, denied certification on the second through fourth causes of action, and granted certification on the fifth and sixth causes of action only insofar as they are predicated on the first cause of action. The certified class consists of all of the Company’s non-exempt ground employees in California who worked a shift in excess of five hours for the time period between October 24, 2014, forward. On April 17, 2025, the Company filed a summary judgment motion arguing that Plaintiffs’ first cause of action, and all causes of action predicated thereon, failed as a matter of law. The motion was granted on July 25, 2025. Judgment was entered in favor of the Company on September 2, 2025, and Plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal on September 4, 2025. The Company is currently not able to estimate a range of possible loss with regards to the litigation to which it is a defendant.

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