Southwest Airlines goes live with IFS maintenance management for entire Boeing 737 fleet

Chicago, US, April 25, 2022 – IFS, the global cloud enterprise applications company, announces that Southwest Airlines has deployed IFS as its enterprise maintenance management standard to optimize operational performance by safeguarding aircraft reliability and availability. IFS is now live across the airline’s total fleet of almost 730 aircraft including the Boeing 737-700, 737-800 and 737 MAX 8.

Southwest, the U.S.’ largest domestic carrier by enplanements, servicing over 100 destinations, has undertaken an initiative to replace multiple legacy maintenance and compliance systems to harmonize mission critical processes into a single solution. This solution allows Southwest to stay true and focused on its principles of quality and compliance while further modernizing its already industry-leading processes. 

Now live, the IFS solution provides Southwest maintenance personnel the information they need to streamline configuration control and compliance management processes. The additional insights delivered by IFS are helping drive efficiencies through the transformation and automation of processes enabled with a mobile user experience. As part of its MRO digital transformation, Southwest conducted an end-to-end review and refinement of its processes to identify a greater optimization of its technical operations as well as promote a more digital way of working and moving away from paper. The digitization of processes is also positively impacting compliance by providing real-time validation at the point of maintenance.

Southwest becomes the latest airline to deploy IFS, alongside other industry leaders that include Air France-KLM Group, China Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Qantas, and more.

“Effectively operating and delivering a fleet of safe and reliable aircraft is our utmost priority and this starts with maintenance. IFS gives us the peace of mind and control we need to not only maximize the airtime of our fleet but deliver what is important to our customers – on-time flights and a great travel experience,” said Landon Nitschke, Southwest Airlines Senior Vice President, Technical Operations. “The value of IFS does not stop at aircraft maintenance – the solution’s open architecture means we have embedded it and made it an integral component of our enterprise-wide IT ecosystem. With careful planning and preparation, we are proud to have successfully undertaken the largest single MRO system migration in the history of our industry.” 

Scott Helmer, IFS President, Aerospace and Defense, added, “Southwest is an innovator among the world’s airlines, and this milestone achievement speaks to the company’s ambition and commitment to excellence. Throughout this project, IFS demonstrated an ability to handle the scale and volumetrics of the world’s largest airlines and was subjected to load testing that simulated a fleet of 1,000 aircraft. I am delighted that again IFS commitment to this industry is acknowledged with Southwest’s choice; it is now well positioned to continue its industry leadership in delivering world-class moments of services for its customers.”

In deploying IFS for aviation maintenance, Southwest has implemented comprehensive and built-for-purpose airline maintenance functionality built into IFS Cloud. To learn more about how IFS supports airline operators visit www.ifs.com/aviation.

About Southwest Airline

Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the world’s most admired and awarded airlines, offering its one-of-a-kind value and Hospitality at 121 airports across eleven countries. Celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2021, Southwest took flight in 1971 to democratize the sky through friendly, reliable, low-cost air travel and now carries more air travelers flying nonstop within the United States than any other airline1. Based in Dallas and famous for an Employee-first corporate Culture, Southwest maintains an unprecedented record of no involuntary furloughs or layoffs in its history. By empowering its nearly 54,0002 People to deliver unparalleled Hospitality, the maverick airline cherishes a passionate loyalty among as many as 130 million Customers carried a year. That formula for success has brought industry-leading prosperity and 47 consecutive years3 of profitability for Southwest Shareholders (NYSE: LUV). Southwest continues to develop tangible steps toward an environmental sustainability goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Learn more at Southwest.com/citizenship about how Southwest Airlines leverages a unique legacy and mission to serve communities around the world.

1) U.S. Dept. of Transportation most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded
2) fulltime-equivalent active Employees 
3) 1972-2019 annual profitability

Media contacts: 

Visit the Southwest Newsroom swamedia.com for multimedia assets and other Company news.  
Media Relations Team: 214-792-4847, option 1

About IFS 

IFS develops and delivers enterprise software for companies around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, build and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. Within our single platform, our industry specific products are innately connected to a single data model and use embedded digital innovation so that our customers can be their best when it really matters to their customers—at the Moment of Service. The industry expertise of our people and of our growing ecosystem, together with a commitment to deliver value at every single step, has made IFS a recognized leader and the most recommended supplier in our sector. Our team of 4,000 employees every day live our values of agility, trustworthiness and collaboration in how we support our 10,000+ customers. Learn more about how our enterprise software solutions can help your business today at ifs.com.

IFS Press Contact:

Patryk Fournier
Marketing Communications Manager, Aerospace & Defense, IFS 
Email: press@ifs.com
Phone: +1 613 576 2480