http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/176973_leonard09.html =20 Following his motto of "keep it simple," AirTran Airways boss Joe Leonard has guided his Orlando, Fla.-based, low-fare carrier to sustained profitability during the airline industry's worst-ever downturn. And he's done it on the back of the 717, the orphan plane that Boeing inherited in its merger with McDonnell Douglas. The majority of the 130 717s that Boeing has delivered have gone to AirTran. But now, Leonard is about to bring a new plane into the AirTran fleet -- Boeing's 737-700. It has 50 on order with options for 50 more. "The common thread is that we do keep it simple," Leonard said yesterday in Seattle, where he will take delivery of the first AirTran 737 today. In a few months, Leonard might even be able to fly 737s home to Orlando from Boeing's delivery center. A pilot who rides a Harley-Davidson Road King as a hobby, Leonard is working on a 737 rating. The 737, with transcontinental range, will allow AirTran to expand into new routes not only across the country but possibly into Mexico and the Caribbean. In addition, the 737s can accommodate incremental growth on routes now served by its 717s. But it also means that Boeing may have seen the last 717 orders from its most important customer. AirTran has 76 of the planes now and will cap its fleet at 85 planes toward the end of next year. At current rates, Boeing only has two or three years' worth of 717 production left at its plant in Long Beach, Calif. The Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific is considering the 717 as a replacement for its DC-9s. It could order a dozen or more planes soon. But it is also looking at Airbus and Embraer's 175/195 regional jets. "It's a great airplane," Leonard said of the 717. "If Boeing gets more orders, it will have a lot of life." For AirTran's operations, the 717 has slightly higher plane-trip costs than would the smaller regional jets from Bombardier and Embraer, Leonard said. But the all-important seat-mile costs of the 717 are nearly half those of the regional jets, he said. The AirTran 737s will be configured to carry 137 passengers in a two-class configuration. Its 717s carry 117 passengers, of which a dozen seats are business class. Southwest, the low-fare carrier whose chairman, Herb Kelleher, has been a role model for Leonard, operates a fleet of nearly 400 737s. But the planes are configured for only economy class. AirTran ordered 737s last year, after a lengthy evaluation of the Boeing jet and the Airbus A320. "At the end of the day, we felt we could make more money with the Boeing package than with the Airbus package," Leonard explained. AirTran's long-partnership with Boeing also played a part in the selection of the 737 over the Airbus plane, Leonard said.=20 Boeing Chief Executive Harry Stonecipher will be among those on hand today when Leonard takes delivery of the first AirTran 737. The two men are good friends and have known each other since Stonecipher was CEO of Sundstrand at the same time that Leonard was president and CEO of the marketing and sales unit of AlliedSignal. Back then, they were fierce competitors. Stonecipher headed McDonnell Douglas when the company launched development of the 717 (it was then called the MD-95) with a 50-plane order from ValuJet. After the 1996 crash of a DC-9 in the Florida Everglades, ValuJet bought AirTran and took its name.=20 Leonard took over at AirTran in 1999. AirTran was almost out of cash. Today, the airline is flying high. Last year, AirTran retired the last of its DC-9s. The carrier, which now flies to some 45 cities, expects to double in size in five years. "What we are really good at is moving fast," said Leonard. "We don't have the muscle to push our way into markets," he said. "We know this. So a lot of what we do is react to what others do." Just five days after cash-strapped US Airways stopped its Metrojet service out of Baltimore after 9/11, AirTran announced it would begin service to that city. It now has 35 flights a day out of Baltimore -- every one of which is profitable, Leonard said. =20