Originally Posted by
Indelaware
I will take a final stab at it and suggest Lubbock (LBB) Rio and Grande Valley (HRL). Each of these cities had non stops to both DAL and HOU.
Correct! Boeing 727-200 flights operated by Southwest were few and far in between back in 1979, including:
Three roundtrips a day DAL-HOU
One roundtrip a day DAL-ELP
One roundtrip on Sundays only DAL-LBB
One roundtrip a day HOU-HRL (operated DAL-HOU-HRL r/t daily except on Sundays)
One roundtrip a day HOU-MSY
The "Our History" section of the Southwest website has these interesting statements concerning the Boeing 727-200 as well:
August 3, 1978 -
"Southwest Airlines and Braniff International jointly announce that the two companies have settled all of their long-standing differences and have signed agreements under which Braniff with lease a 727-200 aircraft to Southwest for a period of two years (effective March 1979), and also provide training and maintenance services in connection therewith."
However, it appears this BN 72S did not even last one year in the WN fleet.....
January 10, 1980 -
"Southwest returns the Boeing 727-200 that was under lease from Braniff International."
Then the 72S apparently came back into favor at Southwest......
September 8, 1983 -
"Southwest leases two Boeing 727-200 aircraft for one year."
February 24, 1984 -
"Southwest announces the acquisition of two additional 727-200s that were on lease from People Express."
And it also appears a fifth 72S was added to the WN fleet at some point....
September 10, 1985 -
"Southwest announces the return of five 727-200 aircraft operated from HOU by the end of 1985 and will replace them with quieter Stage III Boeing 737-300 aircraft."
So that makes six Boeing 727-200 aircraft formerly operated by WN. The lone Braniff airplane is the one I saw at HOU and MSY back in 1979 while the other one I saw later on at LAX apparently came from People Express.