Southwest Airlines Community

DALLAS, Dec 28, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Southwest Airlines and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Airlines Division, representing the carrier's Stock Clerks announced today the two parties have reached a tentative agreement. The tentative agreement is for a new, five-year contract through August 16, 2013. The current contract became amendable on August 16, 2008. "I applaud the negotiation teams for recognizing the importance of this new tentative agreement, which delivers wage and benefit enhancements in exchange for work rule improvements and contract flexibility," said Mike Van de Ven, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "This agreement demonstrates IBT's commitment to maintain Southwest's unique Culture, competitive position, and financial strength during this challenging time in the airline industry." In the upcoming weeks, the IBT membership will be given the full details of the agreement and have the opportunity to vote on ratification. IBT represents more than 170 Southwest Airlines Employees. After more than 38 years of service, Southwest Airlines, the nation's leading low-fare carrier, continues to stand above other airlines--offering a reliable product with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the most productive airline in the sky and offers Customers a comfortable traveling experience with all premium leather seats and plenty of legroom. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded, currently serves 68 cities in 35 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest operates more than 3,100 flights a day and has nearly 35,000 Employees systemwide. www.southwest.com SOURCE Southwest Airlines     ... View more

This year marks my 58th Christmas (one of these days, I will decide on what I want to be when I grow up), and I have some favorite Christmas memories over the years.  My “Santa” years occurred as a young child in Amarillo, and when I think of that time, I have all of these random memories flash by.  I can remember visiting Santa in his “home” on the grounds of the Biven mansion, which was the public library at the time.  My Mom and Dad would make sure that Santa sent me a Western Union telegram from the North Pole (in Colorado) every year to acknowledge my letter to Santa.  Even back then, I was a rabid reader, and I loved to read collections of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts.  That was my favorite Christmas Eve reading because it took my mind off of the events around me.  Even today, I think he did his best work in the early 1960s, and this was the time when he wrote the panels that were the basis of the first Peanuts television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas.  One of the favorite things about that timeperiod was receiving the annual toy catalogs from Sears and, surprisingly, Western Auto.  Western Auto was heavy on model trains from American Flyer, and I used to salivate over the Tonka toy fire trucks and the modern toy garages in the Sears book.  Alas, I never did receive a fire truck. My grandmother (I called her “Mommy”) lived in Stamford, Texas (near Abilene in Central Texas), and she would drive to our house for Christmas.  Mommy was a regular Ford patron, and most of her cars had the window decal of a lasso rope around the words, “Made in Texas by Texans” which was applied to all the cars from Ford’s long-closed Dallas assembly plant.  As she was one of the best customers of the Ford dealer in Stamford, her Christmas gifts usually included a model of the star of Ford’s new car line for the year.  There was a downside to Mommy’s visits, however.  Depending upon my dad’s work schedule, we sometimes opened gifts on Christmas Eve (except for the big "Santa gift').  Mommy was a rabid fan of the Lawrence Welk show, and I can remember that one year, we had to wait to open gifts until the show was over. Those of you my age and over know that printed advertising was much different then.  It often consisted of illustrations with extensive copy that often told a story.  The big weekly magazines like Life, Look, and The Saturday Evening Post were regular outlets for advertisers.  My favorites were the advertisements for the railroads, especially during Christmastime as they opened my imagination to a world beyond Amarillo.  Airlines like TWA were also big magazine advertisers. When we moved to the Los Angeles area, my favorite gifts to receive were airplane models, airplane books, and Matchbox toys in my stocking—I still have all the Matchbox toys.  By the time my family moved to Dallas and I had become a teenager, my “want list” usually consisted of railroad books, which were too expensive for my meager budget.  Thanks to my parents, Santa usually came through, and this cemented my mental association of the great streamliners with holiday travel. Fortunately, as I moved into adulthood and married, the excitement of Christmas revolved around giving.  For the decade we lived in Oregon, we would give items unique to the Northwest, and I couldn’t wait to see my parents’ reaction.  Even though Dad has been gone awhile, I still get a thrill out of having my mom say, “you shouldn’t have.” ... View more

Our friends at the Boeing Company sent us this head's up for the 787's first flight. The Boeing Company is proud to announce the window for first flight is planned to open at 10 a.m. on Dec. 15 at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. This date is dependent upon final internal reviews, taxi test and receiving the final experimental ticket from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. We’d like to invite you to view this achievement via the World Wide Web. Our Web site will present a live broadcast of the takeoff, landing and post-flight press conference. You can access this site at www.boeing.com or www.newairplane.com.   When you access boeing.com or newairplane.com, look for a banner like the one contained in this e-mail. The banner will display more information on the timing for first flight. The Web site will go live 24 hours prior to takeoff. The site features information about the airplane and our customers, partners and employees. It also will share videos highlighting other historic first flights and offer a behind-the-scenes look at flight testing.  The Web presentation will begin as the airplane start to taxi to the runway. A Boeing host will set the stage for takeoff. After the airplane leaves the ground, the Web site will carry live updates on flight status. The flight may last as long as three to five hours, so you will probably want to check back often. As the airplane prepares to land, the Boeing host will return and the landing and press conference will be carried live.   Please note that first flights are dynamic in nature and issues such as poor weather may affect timing. Please check the Web site for updates. We hope that you and your colleagues will join us in celebrating the first flight of Boeing’s most advanced commercial airplane. ... View more

DALLAS, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As temperatures plummet, Southwest Airlines donates more than 150,000 blankets and more than 30,000 pillows to the Salvation Army. Today's donation of new, individually-packaged blankets and pillows comes at a time when the Salvation Army, and the people it serves, could use it the most. Southwest is donating the blankets and pillows locally to the national organization, which can distribute them to people in need across the country. "Southwest Airlines continues to partner with the Salvation Army in support of the communities we serve," said Debra Benton, Southwest Airlines Director of Community Relations and Charitable Giving. "With the winter months upon us, we know individuals need these blankets and pillows, and we're happy to be able to provide them." Southwest Airlines made a large donation to the Dallas/Fort Worth Command of the Salvation Army today with Southwest Employees helping unload and organize the supplies. In addition, Southwest Employees in markets across the U.S. will drop blankets and pillows at their local Salvation Army. As part of Southwest Airlines' Share the Spirit program, Employees are devoted to each and every community the airline serves. Throughout the year, Southwest Airlines Employees reach out to individuals, families, and entire communities providing help where it is needed. Southwest's Share the Spirit is ingrained in the Company's Culture, and the airline's nearly 35,000 Employees are often the lifeline for those in need. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), the nation's largest carrier in terms of domestic passengers enplaned, currently serves 68 cities in 35 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,100 flights a day. The Salvation Army's religious and social service activities serve millions of men, women and children in more than 100 nations around the world. Volunteers, contributors, and other supporters make the services possible in local communities across the country. For more information, go to www.salvationarmydfw.org. http://www.southwest.com/?src=PREMNASPRRL0000SA0912/11   SOURCE Southwest Airlines   ... View more

When I worked in the Executive Office, we would get the occasional complaint letter about the “vacation from hell.”  Thankfully, these were very occasional, but the writers took some kind of perverse delight in comparing their vacation to the Griswold family.  Just for the record:  to date, I’ve never been involved with carrying a deceased family member in a yard chair attached to the roof of a car, I've never visited the house of mud, and none of my cousins are named “Eddie” (although I did go to high school with a former wife of Randy Quaid).  More importantly, I’ve never taken a major amusement park hostage with a BB pistol.  However, I did recently complete a somewhat hellish vacation in one of the most Eden-like locations in North America, Oregon.  My wife, Tina, and I shared our Southwest flight from Dallas to Portland with my work colleague, Brad Hawkins.  After we went our separate ways in the Portland Airport, Brad would joke that he was the “last to see me undamaged.”  The day after arrival, we headed for two nights on the Oregon Coast at Rockaway Beach.  Dining on fresh crab, cheese from the nearby Tillamook Creamery, and fresh fish at Mo’s Restaurant, my last “undamaged” days were an idyllic interlude before fate took a sharp hand.  We even visited the Tillamook Air Museum which is sited on the old Tillamook Naval Air Station.  The museum is housed in the remaining wooden airship hangar (the second hangar burned down some years ago) which housed the blimps that patrolled the ocean off the Pacific Northwest during World War II. The day we left Rockaway Beach, we were headed for Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River.  We stopped en route at Fort Stevens which is now a state park.  The fort used to house gun turrets which protected the Columbia from attackers starting with the Civil War until the end of World War II, and walking through the grounds is like going back 80 or 90 years in time.  Our hotel in Astoria was right on the Columbia River, and a big cruise ship had stopped in town and was docked adjacent to the hotel.  We could see the ship was preparing to leave port, so we walked down to the dock and saw it off.  On the way back to the hotel, we were strolling across an empty field and I tripped on my right foot.  After two awkward stumbles, I did a nose dive into the ground right onto my left shoulder.  (My graceful actions could have secured a starring role on "America’s Funniest Whale Videos.")  In the hopes that my arm was just sprained, I gutted through the next couple of days assisted by ice packs and extra-strength over the counter pain relievers.  (Not to mention a few, blood-curdling yells, when Tina pulled the wrong way on my arm.) When I got home to Texas, I found out what I had damaged.  The humerus bone in my left arm was broken in three places.  I had surgery to place a metal plate over the broken part of the bone to get it to grow back together, and I have been sidelined for the past two months.  During my "hurtful" hiatas, I celebrated little successes, like being able to put on a T-shirt by myself, or the day when I could tie my own shoes.  One of the happiest days was when I could take off my sling, and recently, I have been able to lie on my side again.  Throughout it all, there have been plenty of heroes in my life.  Tina has waited on me, hand and foot, and I am so grateful for her love and concern.  My surgeon, Dr. Ward, has helped put the shattered bone back into working condition.  Years ago, Colleen Barrett put together the Internal Customer Care (ICC) Team to track and assist folks like me with medical conditions, and my thanks to her and to Gary Kelly for his continued support of ICC.  ICC Teammembers Cynthia and Linda kept in touch with me, and I received a lot of "we are thinking of you gifts."  Finally my thanks go to my Communications Coworkers for their support, funny notes, and care.  After some intensive therapy, Dr. Ward says my arm should be back to normal in a month, but the prognosis for my mental state remains "twisted."   ... View more

I had written this before breaking my arm on vacation.  Even though I am still recuperating, I would like to thank Marie and Tiffany while the visit is still somewhat fresh. --Broken Arm Blog Boy It seems like my life at Southwest Airlines primarily consists of this blog, but I do have other duties.  One of those duties is very close to my heart, and also very exciting, as I try to corral all of our archival materials.  When I uncover something rare--like the pictures of our one-year anniversary celebration--I like to share them with everyone else who is "Nuts About Southwest."  I admit that I am not a professional  archivist, but those who know me will say I do have a great grasp of, and respect for, our history and airline history in general. Since I am not an archivist, I ask questions of those who are.  You may remember the post from our Intern, Sarah Arriaga, who worked with me this past summer. I also love reading history posts on other blogs.  One of my favorite locations in the blogosphere is Delta's blog on Fridays.  That's  when their archivist, Marie  Force, shares a treasure from the  Delta archives on their blog.   (Here's where I have to add a disclaimer in that I worked for Delta for 18 1/2 years in what seems like a long time ago.)  Among those treasures have been posts about being a flight attendant on DC-3's and a recent post about the Delta's introduction of jets with the world's first scheduled DC-8 flight on September 18, 1959, which was also my seventh birthday. Marie was gracious enough to take time out of her busy schedule recently to meet with me in the Archive area of the Delta Museum in Atlanta, and to answer my many, many questions.  She showed me how they log and catalog new items, many of which are donations from current and former Delta folks--the archives and museum is an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.  The archives consist of five major collections, corporate records (inclcuding Delta Founder C.E. Woolman's letters), art (original art works, etc), print (company and industry publications), media (audio tapes, photos, etc) and objects (furniture, signs, and 2,000 uniform pieces).  These artificats reflect not only Delta but the airlines that make up today's Delta:  Chicago and Southern, Northeast, Western (and its component airlines), and Northwest (which includes Republic, which in turn included another Atlanta airline, Southern Airways). The photo below shows the area with new items yet to be worked. The breadth of the collection is amazing, and I'd give anything to have our Southwest archives as well orgranized and as centrailized as Marie's efforts, but I think we will get there eventually.  After lunch, Tiffany Meng, gave me a tour of the Museum itself, which is housed in Delta's two original Atlanta hangars.  The first hangar contains a full-size reproduction of Delta's original home in Monroe, Louisiana.  It also consists of three airplanes, a Stinson Travel Air (which was used during the airline's 75th anniversary to recreate Delta's first flight from Dallas to Birmingham), a Stinson Reliant which belonged originally to Northeast Airlines, and one of Delta's original DC-3s, which was returned from Puerto Rico and restored to flying condition by a team of volunteers.  Inside Hangar One is also part of the fuselage of the Lockheed TriStar prototype, which contains the museum store. When we turned the corner into the second hangar, there was "my history," and it was an emotional event for me...and one I hadn't expected.  Hangar Two houses Boeing 767-232 N102DA.  This was Delta's first 767 and the airplane that I, along with the other Delta employees, purchased and donated to the airline. It has been repainted into it's original The Spirit of Delta livery, and it looks spectacular.  I felt the same surge of pride that I had when the aircraft made its first trip to Portland.  Alone in the hangar with Spirit, I had an urge to start organizing the ramp for unloading and loading.  Moving inside the cabin, the galleys, some of the lavatories, the cockpit, first class cabin, and forward coach cabin have been left intact.  The aft cabin contains a conference room that is rented out to various groups for meetings, and the rest of the cabin contains exhibits about Delta's history and the history of the airplane. On my drive back to Birmingham from Atlanta, I had the time to reflect upon my visit, and I realize how much I use everything I learned at Delta in my daily job here at Southwest.  But seeing The Spirit of Delta reminded me most of the people with whom I worked at Delta.  This includes those who also made the switch to Southwest; those who left us far too early in life; those who taught me how to organize a gate, those who taught me how to bend the rules in favor of a Customer, and those who shared stories of a time when airplanes had props.  My Delta history is part of who I am, and I am proud of it.  I firmly believe that it has made me a better Southwest Employee.  A huge thank you goes to Marie and Tiffany for their hospitality and assistance, and I hope that I can repay the favor. ... View more

Knowing about a shortcut is like being on the "inside."  Kind of like, "I know a guy."  Well, I do know a guy with a tip--me.  Did you just read the news about our new fare sale, and you are wondering how to find the lowest fares?  Well, I had the same problem a couple of months ago.  Yes, one of our great perks for working here is free travel, but it comes with a catch—all travel is standby.  For longer trips, I’ve found our low fares, especially the sale fares, are great alternatives to standby travel.  With a confirmed ticket, you know you are on the flight, and you can check in online too. My wife and I decided we wanted to fly from Dallas to Portland on my vacation that happens to start tomorrow.  We were flexible with our travel dates, and the fare was more important than the schedule.  We could have just started looking at availability for each day in our “travel window,” but that’s a lot of work.   Instead, I used the Southwest Shortcut low fare calendar tool on southwest.com. Southwest Shortcut shows you a calendar with a month’s worth of days all at once, with the lowest fare available for each day shown on the calendar page.  You highlight the day you are interested in, click on “Continue,” and it will display a listing of flights for that day.  The cool thing about the Southwest Shortcut is that it allows you to easily select your “going” and “coming” date.  In my case, we wanted to spend six nights in Portland, so by looking at one screen, we could select the outbound and return flights with fares in mind. This current airfare sale is a great chance to put the Southwest Shortcut to good use, and it also gives you an opportunity to visit some popular destinations in the winter, when they aren’t so busy.  Click on over to our Travel Guide to find one of those spots.  Now an extreme example might be Niagara Falls at Buffalo, but there are also the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Professional Football Hall of Fame just south of there in Canton.  Washington, D.C. in winter gives you easy access to all of our important historical and cultural sights without all the tourists.  Use the Travel Guide to find your own winter “hot” spot because winter is a great time to move about the country.  ... View more

How many people in your office or classroom do you really know?  I mean beyond the normal work or classroom interaction?  I am lucky in that I get to work with a lot of creative, intelligent, and caring People, but to be honest, with most of them, I don’t know their personal disasters or triumphs.  I am sure they all have both some low moments and their sweet tastes of success, just as I do.  But, sometimes our personal stories remain locked inside of us. Like anyone my age, the Vietnam War was a seminal event for a generation, and our national scars and wounds are just now beginning to heal.  I remember those images of desperate refugees climbing up to the helicopter pad at the US Embassy in Saigon.  Equally haunting were the images of the “baby lift.”  At the time, I couldn’t imagine what those left behind must be thinking. Life has funny ways of intersecting when and where you least expect it.  When I moved into the Communications Department, I began working with Kim Delevett on several projects for the blog.  Some of those posts involve Kim’s story of returning to Viet Nam (along with a newspaper article by Kim's husband, Peter) as an adult to search for her family.  During the telling of those stories, I learned more of Kim’s life story and of the incredible love of her birth mother as Saigon was crumbling.  In spite of reading those stories, much remained unsaid until now. Early this year, Kim was asked to be part of a Vietnamese American oral history project for the Digital Clubhouse Network, and she worked with a college student to rpoduce the video; Kim’s story is now available on a YouTube video.  The good folks at the Digital Clubhouse Network provided the technical assistance for the video.  Warning, don’t watch this without keeping a box of tissues close at hand.  I think the factor that makes the video so moving is that you hear Kim's voice telling her story. Kim’s search for her past and her own history continues.  In the video, you will learn about Jim Smith, and thanks to the video, Kim is getting closer to being reunited with Jim. At a recent event, Kim met Sachi Koto, formerly of CNN.  She was so intrigued by Kim’s story, that she launched a search for Jim Smith in her online newsletter. Remaining hopeful that the newsletter and this post will bear fruit,  Kim tells me:  “Southwest will not only play a part in spreading the word, but when I do find Jim, I bet Southwest will fly us there!”  I have a big hunch that Kim will be successful. ... View more

My Fellow Aviation Geeks know that Southwest Airlines retired our last 737-200 on January 17, 2005.  I was one of the lucky Employees (wearing pajamas designed for the event, no less) to have been selected for the hour-long flight onboard N95SW.  Our flight path that day took us down to the Waco area where Captains Jim Rice and Jeff Kilponen turned the airplane around back to Dallas for the last Southwest 737-200 landing. As we flew across downtown Dallas and the Oaklawn area, those of us onboard were hoping for what happened next.  As we neared touchdown, the Captains pushed the throttles forward, and we did a high speed flyby down the length of Runway 31 Left past the crowd of Employees waiting for us at the Maintenance Base. Both Jim Rice and Jeff Kilponen had unique relationships with N95SW (aka Boeing serial number 23054). Jim was the Captain on the airplane’s delivery flight from Boeing to Dallas, and he served as Captain on its very last Southwest flight.  Jeff was the First Officer on N95SW’s first revenue trip and was its last First Officer.  With the last landing, and after the retirement ceremony, Southwest was finished with 737-200 flying. But…we weren’t completely finished with the 737-200.  For the next four or so years, passengers at Love Field would see another 737-200 in Southwest colors parked at the North Concourse.    But this was a “flight to nowhere.”  Back when Southwest began retiring some of our -200s in the late 1990s, it was decided to take one of the aircraft due for overhaul and make it a ground trainer for our Ground Operations Department.  That way, new Ramp Employees could learn loading and pushback procedures on the real thing.    The aircraft chosen for these new duties was N68SW, serial number 22357.  Because it was no longer airworthy, all it could do was watch aircraft taxi by every day.  Still, it served as a reminder of our early days when we began flying with only three of its siblings.  Without the 737-200, there may not have been a Southwest Airlines, at least one that survived.  So, we all owe a lot to the stubby little plane that could. Unfortunately (for the aircraft), N68SW’s home is about to be demolished to create a new modern concourse at Love Field, and this reminder of our early days had to take a final journey to one of the hangars.  Sadly, the power for the journey came from a push back tug instead of Pratt and Whitney JT-8Ds, and the rain  and the airplane's faded paint matched the somber occasion.    Somehow, I like the way N95SW ended its career better. ... View more

Since the beginning of aviation, the goal has been (until recently) to fly higher, farther, and faster.  Flying farther (on less fuel) is still a main goal, but since the retirement of Concorde a few years ago, we are flying lower and slower.  The sound barrier is still a barrier when it comes to commercial travel, and while the military goes faster and higher, most of us will never exceed 600 miles per hour. There is one place where civilians still gather to celebrate speed and that is the annual Reno Air Races.  No where else can you hear mighty radial and liquid-cooled engines being run at the red line for extended periods.  You may not know that air racing is an old sport which is responsible for many of the aviation breakthroughs we have today.  After all, Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 nonstop flight from New York to Paris was part of a race—with the Orteig Prize of $25,000 (in depression era money) going to the first nonstop between those two points.  In 1934, the MacRobertson Air Race was run between England and Australia, and a crowd of 60,000 spectators was in London for the race’s beginning.  A specially built racing plane from Geoffrey deHavilland won the race, but a Douglas DC-2 belonging to KLM Airlines finished second, and the DC-2 operated a regular airline schedule.  Another airliner, a Boeing-247D finished third.  The Schneider Trophy in Europe helped give rise to one of the most important (and beautiful!) Allied fighter planes of the war, the Supermarine Spitfire.  Back in the US, the Cleveland National Air Races saw such pilots as Jimmy Doolittle, Wiley Post, and Roscoe Turner (with his pet lion).  As a kid, I used to sit enthralled while my best friend’s father would tell us stories about attending the Cleveland events and such exotic aircraft as the Gee Bee racer.  After the war, the races resumed through the 1949 race when a P-51 racer crashed into a house.  From 1950 to 1963, there were no races, and in 1964, the event resumed in its current home, Reno.  Air racing also resumed in Europe with the Red Bull Air Races. In Reno, the unlimited class consists of World War II and Korean War piston-powered fighter airplanes like the P-51 Mustangs and Hawker SeaFuries.  Some are highly modified with extra streamlining installed, and others look similar to the military versions.  These growling, screaming monsters reach speeds of 400 miles per hour around the eight-mile laps, but some racers have topped 500 miles an hour, and all this is accomplished a few feet off the ground. The Cleveland and Reno races are where aviation’s elite comes to watch and fly, and our own Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Herb Kelleher, received an honor last evening.  Herb was named “Man of the Year,” and if there was ever a horsepower junkie, it is Herb.  A perfect honor! ... View more