Southwest Airlines Community

That’s Ontario, California as opposed to the Canadian province of Ontario, and it’s amazing the number of people that confuse the two.  No matter, Southwest Airlines has been a part of the Ontario Airport and the Inland Empire Community for a quarter-century, and I thought this would be a good time to look back at the history of this important Southern California airport. Unlike the two other SoCal airports we have examined in Flashback Fridays (LAX and Burbank), Ontario has a relatively short history when it comes to commercial airline service, even though the field has been around since 1923.  During World War II, the airport served as a major training base for the Army Air Force, and after the war, Lockheed, Douglas, and Northrup all had facilities at the airport.  Although commercial service began in 1949, it was primarily shuttle service to Los Angeles and a few other points within the state.  Probably the biggest claim to fame for Ontario in the 1960s was as the fog-free alternate for LAX.  My dad managed the LAX Ticket Counter for Continental from 1963 through 1967, and I can remember him talking about ONT operations.  Evidently the airlines kept enough ground equipment based there so that they could operate their flights during the times that fog socked in LAX.  (Remember that landing visibility requirements were a lot higher then because aircraft and airports lacked the sophisticated instrument landing systems we have today.) photo courtesy S.M. Reeves The Ontario terminal building was a nondescript facility, similar to many small town terminals from that era.  S. M. Reeves kindly allowed us to use his photo above from 1970 of a Western 737 parked at the building.  Airline geeks like me will notice that the 737 is wearing the “Indian Head” livery, which was phased out early in the 737’s career at Western.  The photographer tells me that he grabbed the shot while he was walking from his Hughes Airwest DC-9 to the flightline fence at the terminal.  Incidentally, the front of the terminal “played” the role of Miami International in the Steven Spielberg's 2002 film, Catch Me If You Can, that starred Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. Southwest began service to Ontario on May 15, 1985 with five daily flights to Phoenix, and we offered a $9.00 fare for nine days. As we see above, our ticket counter was dressed up for the big event.The photo below shows our first arrival. Inside, a Dixieland band played for departing Customers, and what airport opening wouldn't be complete without kids and beautiful women? (Thanks to the PR Team at LA World Airports for the four photos above.) In 1971, the airport handled one million passengers, and in 1978 it handled two million annual users.  In 1986, the annual volume was four million passengers, and by 1992, Ontario had six million annual passengers.  The old terminal was literally bursting at the seams, and in the photo below, you can see that our operation utilized pre-fab gates and Operations offices.  Not much had changed (below) since the photo of the Western 737 above.  Ontario was one of our last airports to do away with outside boarding and that occurred on September 27, 1998, when the new terminal opened for business. Ontario now has a modern facility that will serve its community for many years to come.  Congratulations to our Ontario Employees for a quarter century of service to our Southern California Customers.   ... View more

Southwest Airlines Announces Innovative Advertising Airline Splashes Bags Fly Free Messages on its Aircraft and Equipment DALLAS, May 19, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --Southwest Airlines is taking its Bags Fly Free advertising one step further. Over the next six weeks, the airline will decal more than 50 aircraft with the slogan, "Free Bags Fly Here" and an arrow pointing to its Cargo bin. The airline will also tag approximately 1,000 luggage carts across the system with banners that say "I Carry Free Bags." Using its most visible assets--airplanes and ground support equipment--is just another way Southwest is reinforcing its commitment not to charge for Customers' first two checked bags! To see images of the decaled aircraft and luggage carts, click here. To support the new extension of its messaging, Southwest Airlines today brought some of its Employees made famous from the airline's recent television ad campaign to its Headquarters for a photo shoot with the aircraft and airport equipment. The "Rampers" from the spot entitled "Battle Cry," featuring Ramp Agents "revealing" Southwest's Bags Fly Free policy, hammed it up for the cameras in Dallas and talked about how life has changed since the commercials have aired. The Rampers even played an important role at the Company's Annual Shareholder Meeting today. At the meeting, Chairman, President, and CEO Gary Kelly asked the 11 Rampers to help him reiterate Southwest's stance on its baggage policy! See photos here. To view behind-the-scenes video from today's Shareholder meeting and photo shoot, please visit the video gallery at www.swamedia.com. After nearly 39 years of service, Southwest Airlines continues to differentiate itself from other low fare carriers--offering a reliable product with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded, currently serving 68, soon to be 69 cities with the addition of Panama City Beach on May 23, 2010, in 35 states. Southwest also is one of the most honored airlines in the world known for its commitment to the triple bottom line of Performance, People, and Planet. To read more about how Southwest is doing its part to be a good citizen, visit http://www.southwest.com/cares/?src=PREMNASBFFDECALS0100521 to read the One Report. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,300 flights a day and has nearly 35,000 Employees systemwide. www.southwest.com SOURCE Southwest Airlines ... View more

Southwest Airlines Declares 135th Consecutive Quarterly Dividend DALLAS, May 19, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --Southwest Airlines' (NYSE: LUV) Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $.0045 per share to Shareholders of record at the close of business on June 9, 2010 on all shares then issued and outstanding. The 135th consecutive dividend will be paid on June 23, 2010. SOURCE Southwest Airlines ... View more

It’s pretty much a given that we do things differently here at Southwest Airlines.  We like to have FUN, while we work hard, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that our Shareholders Meetings are not the typical button-down affairs that most companies offer. At today’s annual meeting, our CEO, President, and Chairman, Gary Kelley opened the floor for questions.  Immediately, one attendee (okay, it was my colleague, Paul Flaningan—but he is a Shareholder) raised his hand.Paul asked Gary if we planned to keep our Bags Fly Free Program. At that point, the original Rampers (also Shareholders) from our commercial arose from their seats and began racing toward the front of the room, much as they did toward “Brand X’s” airplane in the commercial. While chanting “Bags Fly Free,’ they lifted their shirts to reveal their painted bellies with various varieties of “six packs,” and together they spelled “BAGS FLY FREE.” As you can see from the photo below, the audience loved it. Oh yeah, bags will still fly free on Southwest. ... View more

This week we swing the Flashback Friday compass needle to an area of the country we haven’t explored yet as we flashback to an airport that is one of my very favorites, Portland International (PDX).  Southwest Airlines began service to Portland on June 6, 1994, but as Oregon’s largest airport, PDX has a long and rich history.  I was a small part of that history having helped Delta open their operation there in May 1980, and being a part of the Delta/Western merger and the introduction of flights to Asia in 1987. PDX’s terminal, like Seattle-Tacoma and El Paso, is a building that incorporates earlier buildings.  But before we talk about that, we need to mention the terminals that preceded the current one.  Portland’s first commercial airport was located on Swan Island in North Portland.  If you can find a copy of a short “B-film” from the thirties called Without Orders, you will see lots of views of this terminal.  The film company used a United Boeing 247-B as the centerpiece of a melodrama that concerns a flight from Salt Lake City to Portland.  I highly recommend the film because it has lots of actual airport and airplane views from a lost era of commercial aviation. In 1940, the airport moved to the current site along the Columbia River, but the terminal was situated on the northwest side of the field along Marine Drive.  Working with Delta, I would have to drive over to that area to retrieve the weather packets for Japan at the Weather Bureau, and although the original terminal building was long since demolished, the building foundations and original ramp were still intact. Being a big history geek, I began to hunt for traces of the old terminal as soon as I arrived on the scene.  These postcards from my collection will help us do that.  The current facility opened in 1958, and if you think that, in its original state, it resembles Love Field here in Dallas, they both opened the same year.  The picture below shows a lonely United DC-6 or DC-7 and a West Coast DC-3.  Note that the concourses are a single level.  By the time I arrived in 1980, an upper level with jetbridges had been built on top of the original concourses.  Delta’s original gate was on the far side of the concourse where the DC-3 is parked in the picture, and to get to our Operations Office, you had to walk down the original stairs that led to the lower boarding level.  Our Ops Office was in what had been a gate hold room.  Walking down that hallway felt very much like walking down the North Concourse’s lower level at Love Field. Sometime between 1958 and my arrival in 1980, the main terminal building had been remodeled and enlarged around the original core, but it still looked pretty much like it did in the postcard below.  The livery on the Western DC-6B that is just beyond the United DC-8’s nose would date this no later than about 1962 or 1963.  One peculiarity was that the service elevator behind Northwest's ticket counter was an artifact in the original building core.  The aerial view below shows the magnificent view that is visible from the airport and the city.  Unfortunately, a new parking garage in the front of the building has obliterated the view of Mount Hood from the front of the terminal.  This view in this postcard is later than the previous ones, and the United and Western gates have been double-decked, along with the closest gates on the southern concourse.  Note the increased air traffic. In 1989, the first of the rebuilt concourses opened, and now, the terminal sits as the middle of an “H” formed by all new concourses.  The ticketing wing has spread its own wings beyond the building's original footprint.  Like its contemporary at Love Field, silver siding replaces PDX’s original façade, and a new tower has opened.  The airport is now connected to downtown Portland via light rail, and it is a much busier place than when these postcards were printed.It's pretty hard to find the old terminal in the midst of so many new modern features, but it is there if you know where to look. (The view below of the airport today is courtesty of the Port of Portland.)   ... View more

Where on the Southwest Airlines system do our aircraft take off with the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, and an Egyptian pyramid and Sphinx in the background?  Well, we do fly to New York La Guardia, but not to Paris or Cairo, so the answer is Las Vegas.   That’s right, Flashback Fridays takes a look at Vegas, baby!  Since the big Southwest companywide Spirit Party is being held in downtown Las Vegas at the Fremont Street Experience on May 12, I thought this might be a good time to look back at the history of McCarran International Airport. Las Vegas is one of those places where history is measured in minutes, not years.  To discover that, all you need to do is drive down the strip.  When I first visited Vegas in 1983, there were still open spaces along the strip, and longtime iconic hotels like the Landmark, the Sands, and the Thunderbird were still thriving.  We stayed at the Flamingo Hilton which still had its original garden rooms around the pool and the lush garden.  The story of Las Vegas’ airport, McCarran International, is much the same.  Southwest began flying to Las Vegas on January 31, 1982, about the time of my first trip to “Sin City.”  But let’s turn the clock back to a time before Southwest “gambled” on Vegas, and take a look at McCarran.  The original terminal building was located off of Las Vegas Boulevard, “The Strip.”  Clark County bought the airport in 1948, and named it McCarran field after Pat McCarran, the state’s longtime US Senator.  McCarran had authored the Civil Aeronautics Act.  In 1963, the airport opened a new terminal off of Paradise Road, and the building was inspired by the TWA terminal at Kennedy International in New York.  Thanks to Lynn Zook, with her “Classic Las Vegas” history blog and the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, I can bring you these stunning photographs of that terminal.  In the view below, operations have yet to begin, but the soaring design of the terminal is evident.  Even in 1963, these ticket counters soon would be jammed with passengers, once the terminal opened.  I can make out three of the airline names, Pacific, TWA, and Western—all of which are also history.  (I think the fourth carrier name is Bonanza Air Lines, so that would make it four for four.)  So many terminals of this era have similar mezzanines with offices above the ticket counters. The bar really looks like it belongs in Vegas, and you half expect the Rat Pack to be sitting over in one of the corners.  And wouldn’t you think that a Las Vegas airport would be well-lit at night?    This terminal was replaced by the current structure beginning in 1985, and it has been expanded ever since.  The photo below was taken during Southwest’s tenth anniversary celebration in 1992.  The ticket counter reflects Southwest’s “nautical” period, when SWA was spelled out by flags of the International Marine Alphabet. Even 18 years ago, the Vegas Ramp was a busy place.  Today, Las Vegas is our busiest city in terms of flight departures, and we employ almost 2,700 Employees at McCarran.  Incidentally, did you know that, according to Wikipedia, the airport currently has 1,234 slot machines throughout the facility?  So, you might say that, for Southwest, Las Vegas is a sure thing. ... View more

Looking to book a flight using frequent-flier miles? Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards program is the best option, with 99.3 percent of seats available for reward point bookings, according to a new survey. Shorewood airline consulting firm IdeaWorks and ezRez Software Inc., a San Francisco-based travel software provider, teamed to make 6,160 booking queries at the websites of 22 frequent-flier programs during February and March. Travel dates spanned June through October. Read more: The Business Journal of Milwaukee: Southwest soars in frequent flier survey ... View more

The Brands That Travel web site recently spoke with Teresa Laraba, our Senior Vice President of Customer Service, about the following topics:   ·How the Southwest corporate culture has changed over time (2:27) ·The unique way Southwest manages its culture across 68 locations (6:40) ·The reality series "Airline," and the outcome of Southwest's participation (11:01) ·Her opinion on the new DOT 3-hour tarmac regulation (12:39) ·The role social media and real-time communication plays in customer service (14:10) ·Her experiment with assigned seating and the customer reaction (18:17) ·The Traveling Five (20:30) Click on the link above to listen. ... View more

Check out the link above.  The folks at Good Housekeeping Magazine compare the true cost of air travel when all the extras that the other airlines charge are added onto the tab. ... View more

Check out the link above to read what Joe Harris, our Vice President Labor & Employee Relations, has to say about the relationship between Customer Service and Employees. ... View more

This edition of Flashback Fridays is a bit different in that for the most part, the photos were taken just a few days ago, but the story is literally as old as Southwest Airlines.  Take a look at the photo below because, chances are, the scene it depicts is now gone forever.  Oh what a scene it represents though.  In a physical sense, this is Gate 23 on the North Concourse of Love Field, and this was our first gate.  Turn the clock back to June 17, 1971, the day before we began service.  Herb Kelleher had been in court all day trying to stop last minute legal efforts to keep us grounded.   He phoned Lamar Muse, our President, to tell him operations were a go for June 18.  Lamar asked Herb what he should do if the sheriff showed up at 7:00 a.m. to stop the flight.  Herb replied, “You roll right over him!  Leave our tire tracks on his uniform if necessary.”  Well, if that had happened, it would have happened here at Gate 23.    The gate also has a deeper meaning for both Southwest Employees and airline passengers.  Southwest’s Warrior Spirit was born here through the ten-minute turn and all of the Original Employees who began their work days not knowing if that would be their last day of employment.  The low-fare revolution began right here.  The success of Southwest Airlines helped spawn airline deregulation in 1978, and this is the birthplace of that movement.  Airlines like Muse Air, MorrisAir, WestJet, jetBlue, Ryanair, EasyJet, SkyBus, National (the one in Las Vegas), Gol, Virgin America, and many more, plus the airlines within an airline, Delta’s Song, Continental’s Lite, United’s Ted, and US Airways’ MetroJet, owe their rise to what happened at this gate.  We also operated out of Gate 25 (below), which was just next door.  Both gates were acquired from Delta, which had built the second story addition to the concourse just a year or so previously, after Braniff had moved to its new concourse.  The second floor addition was intended to be a stop-gap measure to see Delta through until it moved to the new Dallas Fort/Worth (DFW) Airport.  When all the airlines moved to DFW in 1974, Southwest moved to the West Concourse, the former American facility, where we remain.   Photos of Southwest operations on the North Concourse are hard to find.  The view below is from a 1971 edition of our original onboard Southwest Airlines Magazine, and it shows an Original Employee, Billy Lee Wooley, servicing the water on a flight parked at Gate 23.  From 1974 to 1996 these two gates sat empty until the gates were renovated for our University for People. Now, Love Field is in the middle of a massive modernization program which will result in a brand new concourse.  One of the first steps in the process is the demolition of the North Concourse and the far end of the wing is already being placed into dumpsters. As part of the demolition process, the gate signs were removed from the buildings, and here the workers are detaching the Gate 23 sign. And, lowering it to the ground for safekeeping. The original observation deck over the concourse will soon be history too During the demolition and construction process, the airport will remain in operation.  Out of all this mess will rise a beautiful and comfortable new facility that will help Love Field to compete in the post-Wright Amendment world. for information on this ambitious project, please click here. ... View more

Our folks in Florida sent some photos back of today's unveiling of Southwest Airline's newest specialty airplane, Florida One: ... View more

DALLAS - April 16, 2010 - Southwest Airlines notified WestJet today of its intent to terminate the agreement to offer connecting service between the United States and Canada with WestJet.  Recently, WestJet requested significant changes to the agreement that the two airlines have had in place since 2008, and WestJet has since reaffirmed and clarified its request.  Southwest cannot agree with the modifications to the confidential agreement.                “We prefer the existing terms of our agreement with WestJet.  Upon reviewing the number of changes that WestJet has requested, we have decided that it is in the best interest of both parties to move forward independently,” said Southwest’s Executive Vice President of Strategy and Planning Bob Jordan.  “We remain interested in exploring the possibility of one day offering service to Canada if it makes sense for Southwest and for our Customers.  That would not rule out future codeshare relationships with Canadian carriers, or flying north of the border ourselves.”     Based in Dallas, Southwest (NYSE: LUV) currently operates more than 3,200 flights a day and has nearly 35,000 Employees systemwide and is the largest carrier in the United States based on domestic passengers carried.      www.southwest.com   ... View more