andreb1775

Is it because the glossy blue fades with time or is it that the glossy blue is the new way to paint southwest 737???

RUNINTLKT

Paint on Jets, adds thousands of pounds that need to be lifted..along with the cargo, passangers, crew..etc..I think it likely has to do with the weight/composition of the paint. Which means the more the plane weighs, the more fuel it burns.To stay profitable, airlines need to maximize fuel efficiency.

walt5546740

They changed paint schemes and they just wait until the A/C goes in for Heavy Maintenance for the painting. Not too many airlines can afford to pull a machine out of flying schedule just for painting

JohnN9028

They test paint some planes trying differnt paints, but god any blue on a southwest jet is a relief to what they used to have just the gold and red.. But they flew those 737,s all around the state of texas,, for a long time they could not fly out of the state,,,

DT3238

You can have them painted any way you want them.

calnickel

It is probably faded paint. No airline I know of uses flat paint.Remember, these planes are outside almost all the time and the UVs at altitude are much stronger (take a look at the fabric on the seats and bulkheads next to the windows and chances are they will be faded too).

ericbryce2

The shiny blue is probably on newer aircraft that came from the factory that way whereas the older aircraft in the fleet that had the older dried mustard and redbrick color was refinished and repainted several times over the years. Southwest has been slowly changing it's whole fleet with the blue color. I'm not sure it's much of an improvement because Southwest's color scheme and overall look is more than likely the most unattractive of all within the entire airline industry..

MarkH

Probably they ran out of paint in the middle of the livery job.