Southwest Airlines Co.

Southwest Airlines Co., American airline founded by Herbert Kelleher and Rollin King in 1966 and incorporated in 1967 as Air Southwest Company. The current name was adopted in 1971. The company features low-fare, no-frills air service with frequent flights of mostly short routes. Costs are kept down by the exclusive use of Boeing 737 aircraft, which allows for low maintenance costs and quicker turnaround times for flights, and by an emphasis on ticketless travel. Headquarters are in Dallas, Texas.

It was envisioned as a commuter air service between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Owing to several lengthy legal battles, however, it was unable to begin commercial flights until 1971. It began flying out of Love Field, located near downtown Dallas, and it adopted “love” as the theme for all of its promotions. In the 1970s flight attendants wore hot pants and go-go boots and referred to drinks as “love potions.” While hot pants were eliminated in 1981, flight attendants’ uniforms remained casual, and the company maintained its commitment to fun, offering lollipops to passengers when cigarettes were banned and singing carols on flights around Christmas. Expansion began in 1975 with new routes to cities throughout Texas. The airline expanded conservatively into new markets following the federal deregulation of the airline industry in 1978, at first stretching its operations only into neighbouring southwestern states. In the 1990s Southwest added service to California, the Midwest, and the East and Southeast.

In the early 21st century, because of increasing financial difficulties in a struggling airline industry, Southwest underwent a period of major restructuring. This included the appointment (2001) of a new president, Colleen Barrett, the first female to serve as president of a major airline; new initiatives such as self-service check-in kiosks (2002) and online boarding passes (2004); and cost-saving measures such as flight cuts and employee buyouts. The airline also participated in the television reality show Airline, which aired on the A&E Network from 2004 to 2005. In 2008 Barrett was replaced as president by Gary Kelly.