HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY SOUTHWEST

[signals]

So I might be jumping the gun by a few months...sue me 🙄

The airline on steroids is 40 years old! What will LUV do in 2011 to blow my mind? Please don't make my head explode! B)

If expansion is on the table, please come to my dinky airport!!!

Happy milestone Birthday, LUV :wub:

Make it a WNing Year !

 

[xUT]

So I might be jumping the gun by a few months...sue me 🙄

The airline on steroids is 40 years old! What will LUV do in 2011 to blow my mind? Please don't make my head explode! B)

If expansion is on the table, please come to my dinky airport!!!

Happy milestone Birthday, LUV :wub:

Make it a WNing Year !

Not Quite:

Key Dates:
1967: Company is incorporated as Air Southwest Co.
1971: Airline launches first route, connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
1973: SWA posts first profit and begins RUSH cargo service.
1975: Southwest goes public on the American Stock Exchange.
1976: Company is renamed Southwest Airlines Co.
1977: Shares migrate to the New York Stock Exchange.
1978: Herb Kelleher becomes Southwest's outspoken new chairman.
1979: SWA flies outside Texas to New Orleans.
1981: Kelleher is named company president and CEO.
1982: SWA begins flights to West Coast.
1990: Revenues exceed $1 billion, making SWA a major airline.
1994: Morris Air and Arizona One are acquired.
1996: Online booking site is launched.
2000: SWABIZ corporate booking tool is introduced.
2005: SWA enters first ever codeshare arrangement, with ATA Airlines.

Courting the commuter, the company stressed "no-frills" convenience and, in reference to Love Field in Dallas, its home base, made "love" its promotional theme. Flight attendants were dressed in hot pants and go-go boots to serve "love potions" and "love bites" (also known as drinks and peanuts) to the company's clientele of mostly male business fliers. Southwest made much of its scantily clad women, whose pin-up-like images would eventually appear widely, including on the cover of Esquire magazine.

By the end of 1971, Southwest owned four aircraft, offered hourly flights between Dallas and Houston, and had inaugurated service between San Antonio and Houston, completing the last leg of a triangular route. In the following year, the company transferred its Houston service from Houston Intercontinental Airport to William P. Hobby Airport, located much closer to the city's downtown, in an effort to become more convenient to commuters. In 1973, Braniff Airlines began a fare war with Southwest over service from this airport to Dallas. Southwest resorted to giveaways of liquor, leather ice buckets, and 50 percent discounts on fares. The company also introduced cargo service between the airports it served and by the end of 1973 had notched its first profitable year, carrying over half a million passengers.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Southwest-Airlines-Co-Company-History.html
B)

 

[SharoninSAT]

So I might be jumping the gun by a few months...sue me 🙄

The airline on steroids is 40 years old! What will LUV do in 2011 to blow my mind? Please don't make my head explode! B)

If expansion is on the table, please come to my dinky airport!!!

Happy milestone Birthday, LUV :wub:

Make it a WNing Year !

Thanks for the good wishes signals and
Happy New Year to you too!!! 😀

 

[SharoninSAT]

Not Quite:

Quote

Key Dates:
1967: Company is incorporated as Air Southwest Co.
1971: Airline launches first route, connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
1973: SWA posts first profit and begins RUSH cargo service.
1975: Southwest goes public on the American Stock Exchange.
1976: Company is renamed Southwest Airlines Co.
1977: Shares migrate to the New York Stock Exchange.
1978: Herb Kelleher becomes Southwest's outspoken new chairman.
1979: SWA flies outside Texas to New Orleans.
1981: Kelleher is named company president and CEO.
1982: SWA begins flights to West Coast.
1990: Revenues exceed $1 billion, making SWA a major airline.
1994: Morris Air is acquired.
1996: Online booking site is launched.
2000: SWABIZ corporate booking tool is introduced.
2005: SWA enters first ever codeshare arrangement, with ATA Airlines.


Quote

Courting the commuter, the company stressed "no-frills" convenience and, in reference to Love Field in Dallas, its home base, made "love" its promotional theme. Flight attendants were dressed in hot pants and go-go boots to serve "love potions" and "love bites" (also known as drinks and peanuts) to the company's clientele of mostly male business fliers. Southwest made much of its scantily clad women, whose pin-up-like images would eventually appear widely, including on the cover of Esquire magazine.

By the end of 1971, Southwest owned four aircraft, offered hourly flights between Dallas and Houston, and had inaugurated service between San Antonio and Houston, completing the last leg of a triangular route. In the following year, the company transferred its Houston service from Houston Intercontinental Airport to William P. Hobby Airport, located much closer to the city's downtown, in an effort to become more convenient to commuters. In 1973, Braniff Airlines began a fare war with Southwest over service from this airport to Dallas. Southwest resorted to giveaways of liquor, leather ice buckets, and 50 percent discounts on fares. The company also introduced cargo service between the airports it served and by the end of 1973 had notched its first profitable year, carrying over half a million passengers.


http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Southwest-Airlines-Co-Company-History.html
B)

Thanks xUT for posting some of the SW history (what a ride 🙂)
and the very informative and interesting website link. 😀

Happy New Year... 🙂

 

[gizmo_sc]

Rumor has it that SWA is not finished with purchases. But we all know how the rumor mill runs. Many think Sun Country would be a good fit and give SWA 5% of the traffic in DL's back door at MSP. I would think at some point SWA would consider trans atlantic trips from various high density airports. I can see BOS and ATL with international travel in the near future. Probably BOS-LON, ATL-LON and ATL-PAR. Of course SWA would have to purchase widebodies and since they have been a Boeing customer for years one would assume it would be the 787, when and if that AC ever gets certified.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Happy birthday to Southwest, one of aviation's great success stories.....

but your dreams are a bit far fetched, Gizmo.

5% is not enough for WN to be able to take on DL at MSP. The reason why WN waited as long as they did to enter ATL is to wait for the opportunity to pick up a large enough share to be meaningful... and DL is still multiples larger than FL at ATL.... the relative size difference between SY and DL in MSP is even greater.

Also, ATL-Europe is a whole different animal than from the NE where you can use narrowbodies. There is no reason to think that WN will be flying from a major competitor's int'l gateway when they have multiple other options where they could fly narrowbodies from the NE.

Finally, the cost advantages between low fare carriers and network carriers falls off fairly quickly the longer the flight stretches. Given that the only way WN can neutralize the cost difference on int'l flights is to pack more seats on a plane, they have little advantage that other carriers cannot very readily match. Widebodies like the 333 and 764 are very cost efficient even with the premium cabins that mainline carriers operate on them; it is not at all difficult for a mainline carrier to increase the size of an aircraft on a competitive route without changing their product and still add hundreds of seats to a market.

Latin America and the Caribbean are far more operationally "doable," are closer connected in many ways to Southwest's existing customer base, and provide years and years of growth using very small modifications of WN's existing strategy.

Europe on WN, esp. from a large network carrier int'l gateway - esp. one outside of the NE -is well beyond the realm of possibility.

 

[signals]

Not Quite:





http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Southwest-Airlines-Co-Company-History.html
B)

Thanks for the history and the informative site. B)

As far as the hot pants and boots, I already talked about it elsewhere. If you search Southwest commercials circa 1972 on YouTube, you will see a LUV goddess(copyright by signals since everybody seemed to overlook this powerful term 😉 describing a SWA FA)walking, talking, and almost getting hit by a SW aircraft...pretty cool B)

 

[signals]

Thanks for the good wishes signals and
Happy New Year to you too!!! 😀

LUV YA! 😉

 

[signals]

Rumor has it that SWA is not finished with purchases. But we all know how the rumor mill runs. Many think Sun Country would be a good fit and give SWA 5% of the traffic in DL's back door at MSP. I would think at some point SWA would consider trans atlantic trips from various high density airports. I can see BOS and ATL with international travel in the near future. Probably BOS-LON, ATL-LON and ATL-PAR. Of course SWA would have to purchase widebodies and since they have been a Boeing customer for years one would assume it would be the 787, when and if that AC ever gets certified.

Why are we talking international when LUV's domestic obligations aren't yet fulfilled? 😱