Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines (IATA code: "WN") is an airline in the United States, founded in Dallas, Texas on June 18, 1971. It is currently the fourth largest U.S airline (in terms of domestic customers carried). It is known as a "discount airline" compared to its larger rivals and has been profitable every year since 1973.
Southwest is headquartered at Love Field Airport in Dallas. Southwest built its successful business on flying multiple short, quick trips into the secondary airports of major cities. For example, Southwest flies into Love Field in Dallas, Midway Airport in Chicago, and BWI Airport near Baltimore, Maryland rather than the more expensive DFW International, O'Hare International and Dulles International airports. Southwest does, however, fly to some larger airports in major cities, such as LAX.
Southwest is one of the few airlines to depart from the more tradtional "Hub-And-Spoke" flight routing system. It still has notably large operations in certain airports which serve as transfer points for passengers between different regions of the country: these include Albuquerque International Sunport, Chicago's Midway Airport, Houston's Hobby Airport, Kansas City International Airport, and Nashville International Airport. Southwest also has large operations at Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport, where it handles a large amount of tourist traffic to various cities throughout the eastern United States.
The experience of flying on Southwest is quite different from that of most other U.S. airlines. Tickets cannot be bought through common online venues such as Orbitz or Travelocity, but rather only through their own website. Customers are not assigned seats; rather, they are assigned to a "boarding group" depending on their check-in time (naturally, earlier check-ins get to board earlier), and are left to find their own seats on the plane. Meal service is less than on historically full service airlines, with shorter flights receiving just a single small snack and soft drink, and longer flights meriting a "Snack Pack" of prepackaged goods. In the post-911 era these meals in a bag typically exceed the food served on full-service airlines like United or American. Although there is no video entertainment, Southwest is known for colorful boarding announcements and crews that burst out in song.
For all the leanness in comforts, which helped it pass through the post-9/11 travel slump as the only profitable major airline, Southwest manages to maintain excellent customer satisfaction ratings. Its employees are generally well-known for their friendliness, which is often attributed to a unique "love-based" corporate atmosphere that has made Chairman/President/CEO/Founder Herb Kelleher a celebrity in the business world.
| Aircraft | Number | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-200 | 26 | Short haul / domestic |
| Boeing 737-300 | 194 | Short haul / domestic |
| Boeing 737-500 | 25 | Short haul / domestic |
| Boeing 737-700 | 136 | Short haul / domestic |
| List of Aircraft | Aircraft Manufacturers | Aircraft Engines | Aircraft Engine Manufacturers Airlines | Air Forces | Aircraft Weapons | Missiles | Years in Aviation |
Southwest Airlines is not to be confused with Southwest Air Lines, a former Japanese airline that is now known as Japan Transocean Air.