In October 2020, Southwest Airlines, an all-Boeing carrier since establishment and the world's largest operator of the 737 family, announced that it was considering the A220 to replace its 737-700 fleet from 2025. The A220 competes with the yet-to-be-certified 737 MAX 7, which only had 28 orders from Southwest and 25 from WestJet at the time. In December 2020, in other direction, Air France's CEO, Ben Smith, said that a stretched A220 would be ideal to replace its larger narrow-bodies, the A320 and A321, but that if it is not developed on time, the company might consider the 737 MAX. In March 2021, speculation that Southwest might order the A220 ended when the airline announced an order for 100 MAX 7 jets and said that negotiations with Airbus were never initiated.