Southwest Airlines Community

Normally, we rely upon the great folks on our Investor Relations Team to bring you current news about our stock.  But for this week’s Flashback, I found some "really ancient" stock events that may have happened before some on that Team were even born.   The first time I really heard about Southwest stock was when I transferred back to the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Airport for Delta back in 1990.  One of my coworkers there was bragging about the Southwest stock he bought back in 1971.  In the early 1970s, if Southwest had any airline “friends,” it was Delta.  Delta had provided two of their gates on the old North Concourse at Love Field for Southwest to use, and the original Southwest ticket counter was carved out of the Delta counter.  In fact, Delta had set aside two of their gates in what is now Terminal E at DFW for Southwest’s use.  Of course, Southwest never moved to DFW.  Anyway, my Delta associates in 1990 would talk about Southwest Employees coming into their breakroom in 1971 trying to sell shares of Southwest stock.  In going through our files, I found a photo copy of the prospectus for that original offering of over-the-counter stocks (above).  At the top of the page, it carries a warning:  “These securities involve a high degree of risk.”  That probably was an understatement for a brand new airline with three planes taking on big established names on one hand and fighting for its life in the courts on the other.  The par value of the stock is shown at $1.00 and the public sale price was $11.00.  June 8, 1971 (ten days before we began flying), is the date of the prospectus, and the initial public offering was for 650,000 shares.  I’m sure the original documents are filed somewhere here at Headquarters, but seeing a photo of one of the key documents of our founding gave me goose bumps. On October 25, 1975, our stock was listed on the American Stock Exchange, and the word “LUV” was born as the symbol of our stock.  Then on June 27, 1977, our stock moved over to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the image above is a photo of the document certifying that listing.  With that move, Southwest stock was for sale where companies like General Electric, Ford, and other household company names listed their stocks. That was a very big event in our history, and President Lamar Muse was on the floor of the exchange with NYSE Chairman William Batten (left) and a representative from a brokerage company on the right.  Almost six years to the day after we first began to operate, we had graduated to the “big league” of financial markets.  More than that, these photos represent another progression of how Southwest began to change and mature during the 1970s. ... View more

An icon of Southwest’s early days is our Flight Attendants with their hot pants.  Our original uniform featured brightly colored hot pants and tops, white boots, and a white belt.  A mini skirt was a slightly later uniform option.  In 1974, a new variation on the hot pants theme was issued with rust colored hot pants and tops and an orange blouse featuring white polka dots.    We were sad to learn that the designer of the 1974 polka dot uniform, Emanuel L. “Randy” Randazzo Jr., passed away here in Dallas recently.  Besides his early association with Southwest, Mr Randazzo had a long and distinguished design career, and our thoughts are with his family.  ... View more

This week, we take a break from our series on the history of the Boeing 737 because I recently found more (and somewhat bizarre) photos of early Southwest promotions.  Don’t worry; we will resume the 737 series next Friday with a look at the 737-300, -400, and -500. Ask most people what first comes to their mind about Southwest’s early days, and they will probably mention Flight Attendants in hot pants.  However, if you go by the photographic record, giant stuffed animals should be a close second.  Many of you will remember our look at the stuffed characters from the ill-fated Houston children’s superstore, Kid’s Kounty.  On October 14, 1973, these “kharacters” from the store took over our operation at Houston Hobby.  Our records show that calm was quickly restored, and no “kreature” lost any stuffing in the process. In our early days, we also carried nationally known characters like these two guys from the cast of the children’s television show, “H. R. Pufnstuf.”  The show went off the air in September 1971, but this photo could have been taken after that date because the characters lived on after the show ended.  The younger boy in the photo looks like he can’t decide whether to laugh or cry.  Robots have a charm (and a lot of hyphens) all their own, whether it is R2-D2, C-3PO, or the Class M-3, Model B9 robot from the television show, “Lost in Space.”  The show had been off the air for three years when Southwest took to the air in June 1971, but a local Houston television station made their own robot, which was a Space City homage to the Robinson family’s steel servant.  The television station’s robot wears number 13, which is KTRK’s channel.  The Houston station had a children’s show named, “Cadet Don,” and it appears that one of our original Flight Attendants made a visit to the show with a Southwest airplane model (featuring our original titling). From the look on her face, it would appear that Channel 13’s Robot had a certain metallic charm.   While one of our original Flight Attendants was the center of a robot’s infatuation, another was being carried away by a gorilla.  I have no idea what was behind this photograph, or why a big ape was allowed around the aircraft.  (Note the original lettering style on the tail of the airplane.)  Hopefully the final line from “King Kong” doesn’t apply here:  “It was beauty that killed the beast.”   In probably the most surreal photo of the bunch (and considering the photos in this group, that is quite an accomplishment), we have a stuffed cat with an appetite for whiskey.  I can only guess that this is a promotion with Early Times for a “Tom Cat” cocktail.    In 1973, we had live “entertainment” on our flights, so I guess airborne concerts have been a Southwest tradition for almost 40 years.  This suave crooner has a slight resemblance to Robert Goulet, but does he have the same panache as Mr. Goulet?  Maybe the answer to that lies in the woman’s expression.  She looks enamored, amused, and trapped, with trapped being her primary concern.  Upon first seeing this photo, I was reminded of Bill Murray’s old lounge singer skit on Saturday Night Live.  Aviation geeks may want to take note of the Southwest birthday sign in the background.  The woman is wearing a “Save Love, Beat Braniff” button. The fight for Southwest to stay at Love Field was very hot at this time. With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, we close with this early St. Patty’s Day promotion.  Our Flight Attendant wears a shamrock on her uniform, as she offers a tasty Southwest shamrock mug of Irish Mist.  Don’t forget, we pick up the 737 story in the next edition. ... View more

I hope you are looking forward to these packets of photos from our friends at Boeing as much as I am.  Aside from the larger cabin and revised galleys, the most anticipated difference between the 737-800 and our existing airplanes might be the Sky Interior that was first developed for the 787.    If you’ve ever wondered what the backside of those wall panels in a cabin look like, here’s your chance.  In the view above, we are looking forward, and the panels for the right side of the cabin are laid out in order.   Workers bring the panels for the left side into the cabin and place them along the wall.  The overhead bins are already in place, and with the Sky Interior, the bins make up a large part of the ceiling.  They are of a new design that will accommodate more carryon bags.  (I think the overhead bins look like an upper berth in a Pullman sleeping car.)  Keep in mind that all of this assembly is going on while the entire airplane inches down the assembly line at the rate of two inches per minute.   Once all the sidewall panels are onboard, workers begin to install them up and down the cabin.  A temporary work light has been attached to the long ventilation panel that runs down the length of the cabin.  This view, like the previous ones, is toward the front of the aircraft, and while it may be hard to see, the forward jumpseat position and the forward galley have been installed.   Above is a view of the sidewall around the emergency window exits.  A good spotting feature of the 737-800 is the second window emergency exit due to its greater capacity.  The insulation and soundproofing have yet to be installed in the wall between the exit windows, and it is possible to see the back of the outer skin. In this view looking aft, most of the sidewalls have been installed.  We get a good look at the work stools that the installers sit on, which are at the proper height and allow mobility around the cabin.  The wiring and oxygen masks for the overhead PSUs (passenger service units) are located in the area between the top of the wall panels and the bottom of the overheads.  These pictures show that assembling a multi-million dollar jetliner is a carefully choreographed procedure.  Stay tuned for the next installment.    ... View more

Normally, I write about the past, but this post is about history in the making.  As a certified “av geek,” one of the things that fascinates me about airplane construction is how a bunch of metal comes together to form an airliner.  Dara Schmidt, our Boeing Representative, has been supplying us “av geek caviar” with a series of photos showing our first 737-800 under construction.   The 737 fuselages are assembled at Spirit Aerospace in Wichita (a future Southwest city).  In the manufacturing process, down is sometimes up, and above is the aft cargo bin in the lower fuselage.    Up is really up in the photo above.  This is Section 44 with the overwing exit openings.  Unlike the -700, the -800 has two overwing exits.  We can also see the openings for the massive wing spars.   Another fuselage section is the section at the very back of the airplane.  We get a good idea of what an aircraft’s framework looks like under the skin.  Modern airplanes are built with both lightness and strength in mind.   Like a model airplane, all these sub assemblies are then attached to each other to make the fuselage.  This view shows the fuselage with the aft module attached.   From the front, we see the units that are used to fasten the sections together.  The fuselage is essentially an empty shell at this point.   On January 18, the entire unit was placed on a railcar.  The BNSF Railway will then take the completed fuselage shell to Boeing’s assembly plant at Renton, Washington.  There, the wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, engines, and landing gear will be attached, and the wiring, electronics, and cabin items installed.  Stay tuned for more updates on the birth of our first 737-800. ... View more

Three may just be the most important number in our society.  We see it everywhere.  Each side of the ancient pyramids forms a triangle.  It’s in our fairy tales with the three little pigs, the three bears, and Aladdin’s three wishes.  How many jokes have you heard that start with a variation of a "blonde, a brunette, and a redhead,” an "Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman, or some other disparate trio?”  Baseball has three strikes, three outs, and nine innings (3x3).  The Holy Trinity, three wise men, and the three men on crosses are foundations of Christianity.  Three also has been very important to Southwest Airlines.  We started with three airplanes flying to three cities.  The original “Texas Triangle” is part of the foundation of our Culture, part of our corporate “theology” if you will.  After all, Cofounders Herb Kelleher and Rollin King sketched out the triangle over drinks at San Antonio’s St. Anthony Club as they decided to begin Southwest.   We didn’t close the bottom leg of that Texas Triangle until November 14, 1971, five months after our first flight.  Incidentally, that is the same date we moved some of our Houston flights from Intercontinental to a reopened Houston Hobby.  Eva and Dave Olian sent us this photo of that first San Antonio to Houston flight back in 1971.  They had won their tickets on the inaugural flight through a contest.  If, like me, you survived the 1970s, you will recognize the fashions Eva and Dave are wearing—check out those collars.  The photo represents our first expansion step. (Airplane geeks will appreciate the close up of the mechanism of the air stairs.)   Some folks think the idea of Southwest’s original triangle is revisionist public relations spin at work to make our history seem more heroic, or that it is part of a myth-building exercise to glorify our early days.  While we don’t have THE napkin upon which Herb and Rollin sketched the first triangle, we do have the the photo above that shows Harold Reilly (left) conferring with Don Ogden, our First Vice President of Flight Operations.  Behind them is a very early and very literal framed representation of the Texas Triangle over a roadmap of Texas.  (It’s also a clear reminder that our primary competition was the automobile.)   The close-up above of the triangle shows San Antonio, with the leg running north to Dallas, and the leg east to Houston.  These two photos were taken at the old Headquarters building between 1972 and early 1974. They offer proof that clearly shows the concept of the triangle has been with us for a very long time.   The idea of three plays an important role throughout Southwest’s history.  Last week, we looked at some color photos of our late-1970s ticket counters.  This view of the counter at Houston Hobby mirrors the décor of our other ticket counters at the time, and it  features three stylized hearts and airplanes that are representative of our original cities and three original aircraft.   Later, our longtime logo featured a three-bar design, and about 1982 or 1983, it replaced the stylized hearts at Love Field (above) and our other facilities like the Skycap podium at the very top.  Even though today we have a lot more than three airplanes and three cities, Southwest’s Culture still comes in threes.  We live the Southwest Way with a Warrior Spirit, a Fun-LUVing Attitude, and a Servant’s Heart. And, we have kept three of our aircraft painted in our original colors (below at Chicago Midway, courtesy of Paul Thompson).  The power of three is what connects us with those wild and wooly early days.     ... View more

In last Friday's Flashback post, I shared a photo of Rollin King that was taken in the cockpit during a flight of Boeing’s 737 demonstrator, N737Q.  I shared my post with the good folks at Boeing, and their Corporate Historian, Michael Lombardi, did some digging through their files.  He found the original Boeing negative and sent this cleaned up digital version that clearly shows the registration placard.  The information he sent along with the photo is quite simply amazing:  “I was able to find the original negative for that photo in one of the batches from the 737s domestic tour in 1968.  The photo was taken while the prototype 737 visited Dallas and San Antonio on June 17, 1968.”   The photo was taken three years and one day before our official flight and about 15 months after Air Southwest was incorporated.  Although it was more of a blind date than a longterm commitment at that point, it still means that our relationship with Boeing began 43½ years ago almost at the birth of the 737 program.  (The first 737-100 wasn’t delivered to Lufthansa until December 1967.)  I know it may sound like a small discovery, but I find it exciting and wanted to share with you all. ... View more

The most exciting part about my job is opening a drawer or a file and finding gems like the ones I am sharing today.  Over the Holiday break, I found some interesting photos of our early years, and many of them go back to a time before we had even flown our first flight.    We start with what could be a potentially important historic photo.  Rollin King, who along with Herb Kelleher founded Southwest, used to fly as one of our Pilots.  I have seen this photo a few times before, and I always thought it shows Rollin in one of our cockpits—in spite of the fact he was wearing a business suit.  However, once we scanned the photo and I looked at it with a high degree of enlargement, it may, in fact, show the birth of Southwest’s relationship with Boeing.    When I enlarged the photo, I discovered that this isn’t a Southwest airplane.  I could just make out the registration placard on the control panel (above), and this is N737Q, a 737-222, which means it was built to United’s standards.  (A later 737 temporarily wore the same registration in 1976.)  However, United never operated it; instead, it served as a Boeing demonstrator from 1968 to 1974.  Even narrowing down the date more, my research sources show that Boeing reregistered the aircraft from N737Q to N1359B in July 1970.  That would mean the photo was taken before July 1970.  Is this the flight (or one of a series of flights) in which Southwest decided to try and buy the 737 for its initial operations?  If it is, this is a landmark photo defining the beginning of the relationship between Southwest and Boeing.   This glorious color photograph appears to have been shot in the days before June 18, 1971, because our entire fleet is at the old hangar on the north side of Love Field.  The “Hostesses” in their hot pants (and one mini skirt) are obviously the “stars” of this photo, but if you look beyond them (which might be difficult to do), there is much to see.  Look at the sky.  You can almost feel that steamy June humidity.  Here are our first three aircraft, and they carry the original livery with the word “AIRLINES” on the tail.  (For those of you keeping score, N20SW, is the closest.)  These titles began to disappear with the September 1971 delivery of our fourth aircraft, N23SW, which arrived, sans the two-word title.  Speaking of the livery, anyone who has been around a 737-200 will know that the back part of the fuselage gets soiled quickly by the thrust reversers, and this paint is pristine and not too many days removed from the paint shop.   The next picture is less glamorous, but it comes from the same period and the same location—only this time, we have just one airplane at the hangar.  Rollin King (center) is standing with our first President, Lamar Muse, on the right.  I’m not sure of the identity of the man in the double-breasted sports coat.  Our files have several similar photos from this timeframe with various Employees posing with other people around our aircraft.  During the weeks before the first flight, training flights were conducted around Texas.  In fact, on June 16, 1971, one of those training flights diverted to Austin to drop Herb Kelleher off so he could appear before the Texas Supreme Court in order to fight a last-minute restraining order that Braniff and Texas International had achieved.  Herb was successful in getting the order lifted the next day, which allowed Southwest to begin service on June 18, 1971.   And finally, we have this evocative photo that appears to be taken just after sunrise, most likely in San Antonio.  The date is between late 1971 (because the “AIRLINES” title has been removed from N21SW) and September 24, 1974 (when the Flight Attendant uniforms changed).  The DC-3 behind the 737 is probably an ex-Texas International aircraft because it has the wheel-well doors that were added to the Texas International airplanes.  I think these “slice of life” photos from this period just might be my favorites.  The last thing on the minds of the five Crewmembers is that they are engaged in a heroic effort building an airline legend.  They are just going off to work like millions of other Americans do every day.  The First Officer (on the right) carries a cup with his morning coffee.  The Captain and the Flight Attendant on the left chat as they head out to the aircraft.  It was probably a cool morning, because one of the Flight Attendants (who I think is C.J. Bostic, who wore a similar hair style in other photos) is wearing a coat or a sweater.  To me, this photo shows us that Southwest’s survival and ultimate success weren’t secured by Employees performing epic deeds (although that did happen often); It was made possible by coming to work with a smile, a sense of humor,  and working hard on a daily basis. ... View more

Thanks to a research project, I have finally gotten around to a task which I had kept putting aside.  I haven’t procrastinated because of dread, but time constraints were the culprit.  My task is reading all the back issues of our Employee magazine, LUVLines, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  One thing has struck me quite clearly:  The issues and challenges that Southwest faced 30 and 20 years ago are very similar to the ones we face today, and in fact many are the same challenge.  To meet those needs, Southwest has been making fundamental changes to the way we do things since day one.   Some changes involve Culture—yes, it has changed over the years.  When we started, many of our slogans, logos, and the way we interacted with our Customers were based on not so subtle inferences to the name of our home airport, Dallas Love Field.  We were the “Love Airline,” the “someone up there who loves you,” and “the airline that Love built,” just to name a few.  A “Love Machine” dispensed tickets, and Customers sipped “Love Potions.”  When we listed our stock, first on the American Exchange in 1975 and then later on the New York Stock Exchange, we used the ticker symbol LUV.  Over the years, we gradually shifted from Love to LUV in our communications.  While Love spoke of romance and innuendo, LUV was platonic.  Besides the ticker symbol, the first big example of the change to LUV was when LUVLines debuted in 1976.   Even so, it took over ten years to complete the switch to LUV.  The reference above from the January 1983 issue of LUVLines appears to be the first instance of LUV being applied to Employee interaction.  From this point forward, LUV would gradually replace Love—except in the name of our airport in Dallas.   Early next year, we will introduce the larger 737-800, and it will require more Crew Members and a different inflight service routine than our current aircraft.  This won’t be the first time for a major change like this because we have done this before with six leased 727s during the early 1980s.  (The 727 had a third Cockpit Crew Member—the Flight Engineer, where the 737-800 will have an additional Flight Attendant.)  Herb Kelleher wrote an open letter in the August 1983 issue explaining the need for these changes, and I have picked out a couple of his points from above that contain similarities (but not exact matches) to today’s competitive market:  3. Our 737-300s do not begin arriving until the end of 1984, and the 727 is a much more marketable longhaul aircraft than the 737-200.  4. With the cessation of the FAA's slot control program (after the PATCO strike), if we do not serve some of the more attractive, longer haul routes within our present system, our competitors will do it for us. Later in the same letter, Herb explains our new boarding procedures that were going into effect.  Instead of just opening the door to the jetbridge so everyone could board at once as we had done since 1971, we would now assign boarding pass numbers.  Herb outlines the reasons for this major change affecting Employees and Customers alike:  The reason we decided to try this new boarding procedure is really quite simple.  Even though we continually hear grumbling about our not having assigned seating, our research into this area and our Customer surveys have shown us very clearly that people are not really objecting to the fact that we do not have assigned seating, but are, rather, objecting to the “mad rush” at the jetbridge entrance when our boarding announcements are made—the pushing and shoving to secure early passage onto the aircraft—the so-called “cattle car” image that our competitors have labeled us with. When we initiated our current boarding process four years ago, there was resistance to this major change.  That resistance was similar to what was expressed in 1983, and Herb's letter addresses the need for (and reluctance to) change:  We feel that this procedure, once known by our regular Customers, will induce Passengers to check in a little earlier than they have been in the past (lowest numbers on boarding passes board first)—which, in turn, will help bring about a smoother check-in procedure for our gate agents.  Nobody ever likes change … but sometimes change is necessary.   Not all of our challenges come from within.  The cover of the March/April 1991 LUVLines outlines the economic turmoil arising from the first Gulf War that ravaged the airline industry.  Any current Employee recognizes these same issues today.  The square at the upper left carries a word of warning for all of us, “Only the Strong Survive.”   And finally, I wish the cover above from the next issue of the magazine that year represented a topic that wasn't still current.  It lists the Southwest Employees who served in Desert Storm.  The list of our Employees who have been on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan is much larger and numbers in the hundreds.  While we are extremely grateful for their service and that of their comrades in arms, it would be nice for this not to be a recurring theme.   There are a lot of platitudes about history like “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  As true in most clichés, there is a basis of truth in that warning.  We can’t always control what challenges events will throw at us, but we can use our history as a guide on how to meet those challenges.  The biggest lesson of our history as written in the pages of LUVLines is that you have to meet these challenges head on to survive.  If our Employees of 1971, or 1981, or 1991 had taken the easy way out, Southwest would have been on the someone else’s magazine cover as a warning. ... 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