Southwest Airlines Community

Southwest Airlines is the official launch customer for the Boeing 737-800 MAX. We've come a long way with the 737.  Resident Historian Brian Lusk goes wayback to show us the history of Southwest and the Boeing 737.   ... View more

  Boeing's 737 has allowed Southwest Airlines to fly to greatness, and conversely, Southwest’s longtime support has played a major role in the continued success of the most prolific jetliner in aviation history.  Today’s announcement about Southwest assuming the role of launch customer for the new 737 MAX further reinforces that relationship.   Look back to a steamy June morning 40 years ago.  Who could have guessed how this relationship would prosper?  Southwest began operation with a tiny fleet of three brand-new 737-200s that had been refused by longtime 737 operators PSA and Aloha.  The upstart airline was able to finance their purchase thanks to Boeing, and to the best of my memory, this was the first time since the legacy carriers began service in the 1920s and 1930s that a domestic airline had begun service utilizing new, factory-delivered aircraft.  The post-war local service airlines and the California intrastate carriers, PSA and Air California, had relied on war surplus and hand-me-downs from the larger airlines.  Southwest’s first batch of standard 737-200s were supplanted by 737-200 Advanced aircraft (shown above) with more powerful (and cleaner) powerplants.   Deregulation in 1978 allowed Southwest to expand beyond the borders of Texas, but it needed an aircraft that would allow it to compete on longer routes from San Antonio and Houston to the West Coast.  The larger 737-300, with its more powerful engines, greater range, and greater performance was the perfect airplane.  Southwest and US Airways were the launch Customers.  Ironically, none of the other airlines showed initial interest as they were happy with the 737-200 for shorter flights and had 727s serving the same markets that would be flown by the 737-300.  Without the launch customers’ support, the 737 line might well have ended with the -200.  (As an interim measure, Southwest leased six 727-200s from PeopleExpress to serve flights to the West Coast.)  The brand new 737-300 made its worldwide airline debut on December 17, 1984.  Because this was the anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight, the aircraft, N300SW, was named The Spirit of Kitty Hawk (above Chuck Yeager with Herb Kelleher).  It is now on permanent display at the Frontiers of Flight museum in Dallas.    The 737-300 was the forerunner of the “Classic 737” family that includes the larger 737-400 and the smaller 737-500 (above, courtesy Jon Proctor).  Southwest was also the launch airline for the 737-500, with the first aircraft entering worldwide airline service on March 5, 1990.  Soon airlines all over the world began flocking to the 737-300 and its kin as they discovered its reliability and economy.    Southwest continued to grow and became a coast-to-coast airline serving all of America in the 1990s.  Once again, Southwest stepped forward to take the lead on an aircraft that would take the airline into the new millennium—the Boeing 737-700.  This 737 flies higher, farther, and faster than the earlier versions with fewer emissions.  Like the -300, the 737-700 is the forerunner of a new range of aircraft that also include the 737-600, 737-800, and 737-900.  These aircraft comprise the 737 Next Generation or 737NG.  On January 18, 1998, Southwest introduced the 737-700, the first NG aircraft,  with service from Dallas to Harlingen, via Houston Hobby (above).  N700GS was the landmark aircraft.  While most of Southwest’s NG previous orders have been for the -700, the larger 737-800 will enter Southwest service early next year.   Today’s announcement that Southwest will be the launch airline for the new 737 MAX series is another milepost on the 737 road.  When it enters service in 2017, this brand new aircraft will offer reduced fuel usage, along with significantly reduced emission levels, and will provide the lowest operating costs among single-aisle aircraft.  Not only that, this will be the fourth Boeing aircraft that Southwest has taken a lead role in introducing.  .  ... 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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I think many folks, including a lot of our Employees, have no idea of what airline regulation used to be like.  The airline world into which Southwest Airlines was born in 1971 was very much different than the industry today.  Our success has been a result of deregulation, but it could be argued that our birth as an intrastate airline was because of the economic regulations enforced by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).  Southwest is a bridge between the CAB legacy carriers and the post-deregulation airlines like AirTran, JetBlue, and America West (now part of US Airways).  Quite simply, if Southwest wanted to fly, it had to remain within Texas because the CAB didn’t authorize any new airlines between the late 1940s and deregulation’s onset in 1978.  What little new service that came about was awarded to airlines based on what the CAB perceived to be need (and politics), not competitive reasons.  The CAB also set price and service levels.  To get around the glacial speed of CAB decision making, airlines came up with a creative way to stretch their reach:  interchange service.   Take a look at this route map from American’s June 1958 timetable.  There is no single-airline service between San Antonio, Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, or Florida and the West Coast.  Those thin double lines on the map stretching from El Paso to San Antonio and Houston, and from Dallas to New Orleans, Miami, and Atlanta represent interchange service, the answer to the gaps on airline maps.   Interchanges are relatives of today’s code shares, but they were different in many ways.  Interchanges were connecting service over a common city—not one flight operating under multiple airline codes like most code shares.  The airlines sold interchange service using interline through fares with flight coupons for both airlines, as if the passenger was changing airplanes and airlines.  However, interchanges used one aircraft to fly the length of the route, so at the connecting (or interchange) point, passengers didn’t have to change airplanes, even though they were changing airlines.  On their individual legs of the route, the member airlines operated flights under their own names with their own flight crews.  (It seems to have been universal practice to assign flight numbers in the 900s to interchanges.)  Passengers got the convenience of not having to change airplanes, and the airlines got a market presence in offline cities where they hoped the CAB would eventually let them serve.  The Continental route map above from a 1956 timetable shows their interchange service with American between Houston and San Antonio over El Paso to San Diego, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco by using a thick route line underscored with a thinner line.  (We will talk about the Seattle route on the map in a minute.)   Another major interchange service saw Delta and National teaming up with American over Dallas.  Take a look at the timetable page from a Delta 1958 timetable above.  National’s Florida to New Orleans service combined with Delta’s New Orleans to Dallas service to interchange with American to California.    Above, we also see that Delta interchanged from Atlanta and Birmingham to California, via Dallas and American.  Based in large part on the success of these interchanges, the CAB awarded Continental, Delta, and National their own service to California along these routes in the late 1950s.  Interchange partner American was left without any of the new routes.   Another area lacking direct service was the Pacific Northwest.  To fill this void, Braniff and Continental interchanged with United over Denver.  Continental flew the Tulsa to Denver leg via Wichita, and Braniff the Dallas to Denver leg.  There, United took over the airplanes for the continuation to Portland and Seattle (with stops at Salt Lake City or Boise added in or removed over the years).  As the “world’s biggest” airline at the time, the Interchanges with Braniff and Continental were relatively small potatoes, and United pushed them onto the cargo page of their April 1959 timetable.  The CAB awarded direct service on these routes at the dawn of the 70s, with Braniff and Continental shutting out United.  The interesting part of interchanges for airline geeks is that the airlines shared each other’s aircraft.  You might see a Delta DC-7 in Los Angeles or an American DC-7 in Atlanta.  Continental used three DC-6Bs on their interchange with American, and they had their aircraft built to American’s specifications so there were no crew issues with operating another airline’s airplane.  A single Continental DC-6B built to United specs operated the Seattle interchange, and it shared duties with a United DC-6B.   TWA and Eastern (see top image) also participated in interchanges to a lesser extent.  Still other interchange services involved international routes.  From the early 1960s through the mid 1970s, Braniff operated an interchange with Pan American from Dallas to London via Chicago using a Pan Am 707.  During the same period, Delta and Pan American interchanged from Atlanta to London over Washington Dulles, first with Pan Am DC-8-33s, and then later, alternating 747s.  Braniff and Delta eventually got nonstop authority to London.  The last round of interchanges came about thanks to the North Shore oil find in the 1970s; this time Alaska was the destination and Seattle the interchange point for flights from Denver, Houston, and Dallas.  Braniff interchanged with Alaska and Continental with Western.  These interchanges lasted past deregulation, with American taking over and operating the interchange with Alaska into the early 1990s.   There is one more unique interchange of note:  In 1979, Braniff and British Airways began a Concorde interchange from Dallas/Fort Worth to London Heathrow via Washington Dulles.  At the same time, Braniff and Air France began a Concorde interchange.  The domestic portion operated with Braniff crews at Mach.95, just under the speed of sound.  Three flights a week operated to London and two a week to Paris.  The service lasted a little over a year.   The interchange era illustrates the convoluted means by which airlines operated under the CAB.  Fortunately, Texas and California with were big enough to have attractive intrastate routes, and Southwest, along with PSA and Air California, served as laboratories for a new way to operate. ... 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Amarillo's old airport terminal.  John Hughes’s movie starring Steve Martin and John Candy is a favorite of airline employees because most of us have had similar situations when trying to get home for a holiday.  Because we fly standby, the possibilities for delay and creative reroutings at the holidays are magnified.  My Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Thanksgiving happened when I was an airline brat back in 1964.  I was age 12 at the time (about the age of Kevin in Home Alone), and my father was in charge of Continental’s Los Angeles Ticket Counter.  I ask your indulgence for this personal holiday story—although it does involve a lot of aviation history.   The outbound portion of the trip went smoothly because we actually flew on Thanksgiving Day.  We flew a Continental Boeing 720B from Los Angeles (the photo above is from Jon Proctor) to El Paso and connected there with a Viscount 812 to our previous home, Amarillo, via Midland-Odessa and Lubbock.  Once in Amarillo, we rented a car and drove four hours to Stamford, Texas, for Thanksgiving with my grandmother, arriving late in the day.  We could have flown Continental to Abilene, about 30 miles from Stamford, but I think Dad got a better car rate in Amarillo. And, he was looking at how to get home after the visit.   On the drive back to Amarillo late Saturday, it was a raw and brisk day.  As we climbed up the caprock near Clarendon, we passed Train #8, the Fort Worth and Denver (FW&D) Railway’s secondary train on the Amarillo to Denver run.  I thought the heavyweight diner-lounge on the rear of the train looked warm, cozy, and a lot more inviting than our rental car.  To this day, the memory of that little train is one of my best holiday transportation memories.  The old FW&D line is now part of the BN&SF and is freight only, but it is busier than ever.  The shot above is a recent photo taken close to the same spot where I saw Train #8.   Once we got to Amarillo, we spent the night at the Herring Hotel.  As a boy growing up in Amarillo, the Herring was an off-limits island of luxury.  It was just a block or so away from the Santa Fe, FW&D, and Rock Island stations, and on the road to the airport.  Because of its location, it was a favorite of business travelers, and most airline crews overnighted there.  I had only been up to the door (but never entered) a couple of times previously, but now we were going to spend the night.  The hotel had the Old Tascosa Room nightclub with western frescoes (unfortunately, later water damage destroyed all but one fresco), but all I remember are the dark, quiet hallways and the ice water taps in the hotel room.  During the 1970s, the Herring served as an office building for the federal government, but it has been empty since.  Above is what the building looks like today, and I’ve read rumors recently that it may still be redeveloped.   The next morning, on the busiest travel day of the year, we went to the airport for a short Viscount flight to Lubbock.  This was the last time I boarded a flight from Amarillo’s old English Field Terminal.  The building had become a good friend before we moved to California, and I had spent many an hour watching planes come and go sitting on a bag tug on the ramp side of the building while my dad was at work.  The terminal was still intact earlier this year, and when I looked inside the ticket counter wing (above), I could see that the old ticket counters with their blond color looked the same as on that day in 1964.  Through a broken window, even the smell was just as I remembered, except for the trash and weeds in the parking lot.   My dad was the consummate nonrevenue standby traveler.  In looking for flights with empty seats, he had figured out we could spend Sunday with family friends in Lubbock, then that evening, catch another Viscount (post card above) from there to El Paso via Midland and change to a Boeing for the trip back to Los Angeles.  At Midland, we deplaned from our original flight and boarded a Viscount headed for an overnight in Houston as “plan B” because our original flight looked like it would be full.  At the last minute, we hopped back on the original Viscount to El Paso when it didn’t fill up after all.  For awhile, it looked like our luck had changed for the good.  We got the last three seats out of El Paso on the 720B and rode through the stop in Tucson.  By the time we got to Phoenix (never thought I could work that line into a blog post), our luck ran out, and we were pulled when the flight filled up on its last leg.  We elected to stay at the airport because we still had two more chances later that night for seats to L.A.  Both flights left full, and we wound up sleeping in the old terminal in Phoenix—from where Southwest would begin service.  The next morning, everything from Phoenix to Los Angeles was showing full.  The only flight with seats to L.A. was an afternoon nonstop flight from Houston.  But, how would we backtrack to Houston?   The only way we could do that would be to take the 720B that operated a morning flight from Phoenix to Houston by way of Tucson, El Paso, and San Antonio.  In turn, that aircraft made up the nonstop flight that had seats available back to Los Angeles.  The other option was to rent a car and drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles.  I don’t think Dad was up to a long drive after sleeping in an airport all night.  So, we chose the long way home via Houston, and it was critical we be on that aircraft.  There was one problem:  A movie crew for Arizona Raiders with Audie Murphy was filling up the flight we needed from Phoenix to Tucson (they were moving from a studio outside of Phoenix to Old Tucson).  Dad managed to get us passes to Tucson on a commuter carrier, Apache Airlines, and we flew their Beech 18 from Phoenix to Tucson.  There may have been one other passenger besides the three of us.  We got to Tucson in time to see the movie crew unload, and we were on our way.  From there, it went like clockwork, except that we got put into a holding pattern for about an hour over Palm Springs due to low visibility at LAX.  After an almost 2,000 mile detour, we were finally home.  Not surprising, that was our last family nonrev trip until after we moved to Dallas in 1967.  Here's hoping your Thanksgiving travel is a lot more routine this year. ... 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When Southwest began operations in 1971, it was toward the end of the war in Vietnam.  Many of our younger male Employees were Vietnam vets, and many of the older Employees who came to us from other airlines were World War II and Korean War Vets.  Our appreciation of those who served our country by marching, flying, or sailing into harm’s way was evident pretty much from “day one” of our operations.  It’s not surprising then that one of the favorite spots for Southwest’s early publicity photos has a military connection.  It also doesn’t hurt that the photos include our Flight Attendants.   That spot is the San Jacinto battleground outside of Houston, and it is where Sam Houston defeated Mexican General Santa Ana to secure Texas’ independence.  The San Jacinto Monument figures in some of those publicity photos.  Also located at the battleground is the battleship, USS Texas.  Here in a photo from 1971 or 1972, we see one of our original Flight Attendants, Mary Skwarlo, standing in front of the Texas.  This ship has an amazing history, having served in both World War I and World War II.  When she was launched in 1912, the Texas was the most powerful weapon in the world.  During the first war, also known as “the war to end all wars,” the Texas served alongside Royal Navy ships based at Scapa Flow in the northern Scottish islands.  We have forgotten, but the battleship was the most feared weapon in the world during the first part of the 20 th Century.  After World War I, the victors signed a treaty limiting the size and number of battleships the world’s countries could build—much like we have signed similar treaties about nuclear weapons today.  This had the side effect of helping spur the development of the aircraft carrier.   We returned to the Texas a year or so later for more photos, and this time, Flight Attendant Chris Winslow is posing on the ship’s foredeck, underneath two of the ship’s ten 14-inch guns.  The measurement refers to the diameter of the shells fired.  More modern battleships like those of the recently retired Iowa class used 16-inch guns with even bigger shells.  Each battleship shell contained a massive amount of explosives.  Imagine a shell weighing the equivalent of an original VW Beetle being shot 20 nautical miles through the air at almost 2,700 feet per second, and it’s no wonder that, during the first Gulf War, many Iraqi troops occupying Kuwait feared the Missouri and Wisconsin more than any other weapon.    Chris’s location on the foredeck is a traditional spot for entertainers visiting battleships.  In the 1936 Busby Berkeley movie, Born to Dance, Eleanor Powell and a host of dancers perform in this spot on a battleship set that was built on a back lot.  In a scene reminiscent of this movie, Cher recorded her 1988 video of “If I Could Turn Back Time” on the foredeck of the Missouri.  During World War II, the picture above shows a USO troupe performing for the sailors of the Texas in a similar location on the ship.   More than a photo backdrop or a video set, the Texas was a warrior.  It is the only remaining battleship to have served in both world wars.  During World War II, it was a part of some of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war.  After supporting the landings in North Africa, its big guns were in the waters off Omaha Beach in Normandy during D-Day.  A German coastal battery scored two hits on the ship, but it was quickly repaired.  In 1945, those big guns prepared the beaches of Iwo Jima and Okinawa for the Marine landings.  After the war in 1948, the Texas came home to its namesake state as a museum.   Besides the Texas, several newer battleships built just before or during World War II are on display around our system.  The New Jersey is displayed at Camden, across the river from Philadelphia; the Massachusetts is at Fall River (near Boston); the Wisconsin is docked at Norfolk, Virginia; the Alabama is at Mobile (close to Panama City, Florida); and the North Carolina is at Wilmington (closest to Raleigh-Durham).  As to the Texas, this gallant veteran of two world wars is in danger of being destroyed after resting for over 60 years in the Houston Ship Channel.  A project is underway to move the ship to a dry dock to serve as her permanent home.  If all goes well, the project will be completed in 2017, a little more than 100 years after her launching.  (For more info, click here.)  Several generations of sailors fought in this ship to protect our freedoms.  To those veterans who sailed in the Texas and all her sister ships, we thank you.  ... View more

The photo above showing Flight Attendants running toward the camera is one of the best known icons representing Southwest Airlines’ early days.  A color version of this photo graces the cover of the June 2011 40 th Anniversary issue of Spirit magazine.  This photo from 1972 is such a key image, that at least three different times across the years, we have done an updated version with Flight Attendants wearing their current uniforms.  Thanks to our archives, we can look at how this photo was made—kind of like a “director’s cut” on a DVD, and some of the photos below have never been displayed.   The airplane star of the show is N23SW.  It is the only 737 we have operated with a main deck cargo door, and it was delivered to us in September 1971.  N23SW was also the first airplane to wear what is now our standard titling without the word “airlines.”  Here we see our folks moving aircraft around in preparation for the shoot—N23SW is on the left, and the aircraft on the right (I was unable to identify which of our original three it is) still wears the airlines titles.  N23SW will be the main backdrop for the photographic efforts, and the older aircraft will appear in the background of some shots.   Once the aircraft were situated, the director of the shoot (in dark clothes) tries to get the Flight Attendants in the correct order.  My guess is that they were as hard to corral as some of us today in similar situations.  The buildings on the far left help us place the site of the shoot in front of the original Southwest hangar at Love Field.   Like so many photo shoots, lots of photos were taken to get just the right one.  It looks like the photographer was experimenting with a close shot here, but the effect is pretty chaotic as the “Conga Line” has lost any resemblance of order.  The Flight Attendants on the left are also out of focus.  For my fellow aviation geeks, the nose of the second older aircraft is to the left of the photo behind the boots.    Judging by where this negative is located on the original roll of film, we are looking at the Flight Attendants returning back to the aircraft for another running shot.  The second aircraft is a lot more visible in this shot, and the Employee on the right appears to be either searching for someone or trying to listen to someone “off-camera.”   The photographer tried a few overhead shots, probably from a “cherry picker” because there is a “low altitude” and a “high altitude” version.  This is the low option, and it’s hard to judge what kind of shape the Flight Attendants were trying to form.  In almost all of the aerial photos, either someone is out of position, or someone is adjusting their hair or looking away from the camera.  The photographer apparently eventually gave up, although later in the same batch of negatives, we have aerial shots showing a sampling of all the Employee groups at the time, and that photo did receive wide circulation.  A few more items of note in this photo:  The blast fences for Love Field’s run-up area are just above the airplane’s wing tip in the right of the photo.  Those fences were replaced a few years ago with taller ones, but this is still the area where engines can be run by all the airport tenants to check maintenance work.  It’s only visible on an enlargement, but just above the engine to the left of the aircraft is American’s hangar, where a DC-10 is parked.  On the other side of the aircraft between the fuselage and the blast fence, the North Concourse is visible in the distance, and a Frontier 737 is parked there.   Again, we have proof that a split second in time can last forever through the magic of photography.  When we see a photo like the one at the top of the page, two things happen:  One is that we are instantly taken back to that time and place and become a part of that scene.  The other confirms that a photo is worth a 1,000 words.  Our iconic image symbolizes what Southwest was like during our formative years—edgy, rebellious, and different.  In many ways, the photo opens a window to our Company’s soul and legacy.  And, the fact that these other "cutting-room floor" photos show our Coworkers from an earlier time being a little bit rambunctious is just icing on the cake. ... View more

Take a look at the postcard photo above from Los Angeles International in the 1950s.  Do you see a pattern?  Well, obviously there are no jets, but look again.  Every airplane in the photo was made in Southern California.  The Douglas DC-6s and DC-7s were made at Santa Monica, the TWA Lockheed Super Constellation at Burbank, and the American and Western Convair 240s at San Diego.  Until 1958, most airline passengers around the world (at least on this side of the Iron Curtain) flew on aircraft (with the exception of some British aircraft like the Vickers Viscount) made at these three Southern California factories.  Even after the introduction of commercial jets, Douglas made the DC-8, DC-9, and DC-10 at Long Beach, Lockheed made the turboprop Electra at Burbank and the L-1011 TriStar at Palmdale, and Convair had the 880 and 990 in San Diego.  When Douglas merged with McDonnell Aviation in St. Louis, the MD-11, MD-80, and MD-90 series continued to be made in Long Beach.  After acquiring McDonnell-Douglas, Boeing renamed the MD-95 as the Boeing 717, and it was also built in Long Beach.  All of which brings us to the photo below.   This 717 is N939AT, and the photo was taken on May 23, 2006.  Mark that date and remember this airplane because, on that date, N939AT and an aircraft for Midwest Airlines were the last aircraft to be delivered at the former Douglas plant in Long Beach.  Even more significant is that N939AT is the last new commercial aircraft to have been completed in Southern California.  An era that is so well represented in the postcard above is over.  We have gone from a time when most of the world's airliners were built within a 100-mile radius of each other to none.  The sign on the building above the aircraft urging passersby on the San Diego Freeway to “Fly DC Jets” is a historical landmark.  The plant opened in 1941, primarily to build C-47s, the military version of the DC-3.  Besides the original airliner plant in Santa Monica, Douglas built Navy aircraft like the Dauntless dive bomber, the A-1 Skyraider, and the A-4 Skyhawk at El Segundo, next to Los Angeles International.  (Even military aircraft production has moved elsewhere.)  The Long Beach plant, alone, built over 15,000 aircraft.   A DC-3 was on hand at the ceremonies to serve as a bookmark for aircraft production in Long Beach with the 717.  Unlike some later products from Southern California, the “Three” did serve extensively behind the Iron Curtain (as the Li-2, a Soviet license-built version) and even in Japan during World War II (as the Showa L2D2).  Even though it was developed at Santa Monica, the lion’s share of C-47s came off the Long Beach assembly line after 1941.   AirTran really represents the alpha and omega of the 717 program.  Not only did AirTran take delivery of the last 717, it was the launch customer, being the first airline to operate the twin-jet.  This board shows all the operators of the 717 who were still in business on May 23, 2006.  (TWA was an early 717 customer, but it had been previously acquired by American.  American disposed of the 717s.)   A large contingent of AirTran Employees was on hand for the delivery ceremonies.  In the warm California sunshine, they listen to the speakers on the podium   One of those speakers was Joe Leonard, Chairman and CEO of AirTran, who helped close out a remarkable era of airliner production that began with the DC-1 in 1933.  Instead of hailing from Long Beach, Santa Monica, Burbank, and San Diego, the world now flies on airplanes built in Seattle (Boeing), Toulouse (Airbus), São de José Campos (Embraer), and Dorval (Bombardier).  But remember, it wasn’t always so, and the next time you see N939AT, think of the tradition it represents. Flashback Fridays followup—Early SWAlloweens revisited:  After I posted about Southwest’s early Halloweens on October 14, our President Emeritus, Colleen Barrett, sent me some additional information about our early Halloween traditions.  Colleen tells me that our Flight Crews “were encouraged to dress for Halloween from the very beginning.”  She adds that our Stations (all three of them in the beginning) were allowed to decorate if they wanted to, but it wasn’t organized.  “Some did, some didn’t,” according to Colleen.  When we opened San Francisco (for the first time) on Halloween in 1982, Colleen reports that “our People went way out on this one, and everyone in the airport was staring at us as though we were crazy.”  That same year is the first occasion that she remembers a “Headquarters Halloween” with costumes and skits.  Her most memorable effort that year was the Finance Department dressing as grapes and singing “Heard it through the Grapevine.”  Thank you Colleen for filling in the gaps. ... View more

This coming April, I celebrate my 17 th year with Southwest Airlines, and for all of my tenure, Halloween has been a big deal.  In my new role as Corporate Historian, I’ve been asked, “When did Southwest start celebrating Halloween?” and I don’t have a concrete answer.  I wish I could quote the exact date of that, but to now, that certainty has eluded me.  I did find a reference from 1972, less than a year after we started, about our Flight Attendants celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and Easter (dressed as bunny rabbits), but nothing that firm on Halloween.  However, the Halloween photos below help us date Southwest Halloween back to our earliest years.   Count Dracula appears to like this Flight Attendant (Hostess back then).  The uniform she is wearing was introduced in September 1974 and was the primary uniform until 1977, so we can date the photo to 1974, 1975, or 1976.  (Dracula’s uniform dates to the Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel)  There’s no word if our Flight Attendant was banished to flights between sunset and sunrise after this encounter of the weird kind.   This trio of Halloween beauties is checking in for their first flight of the day.  You might label this photo “Two Gypsies and a Bug.”  I wonder if the “bug’s” costume was inspired by the boy who stands behind Ralphie while they wait to see Santa in the movie, A Christmas Story.  Today, our Flight Crews can’t wear head-to-toe costumes, so these photos really are historical relics—but I’ve seen some good-looking Halloween “flair” out there in more recent years.    Our photographer follows the ladies onto the airplane.  The Gypsy on the right of the photo has now shed her cloak on the airplane, and the bug in the middle has lost her “bug eyes” sometime after boarding the airplane.  The “wide-body” style overheads date this shot to the late 70s or early 80s.    For this final photo, we have a date, Halloween Day 1977, and it shows that our airport Employees also got into the Halloween spirit at a very early date.  A cowgirl works next to a witch (Are you a good witch or a bad witch?).  It was taken at the Dallas Ticket Counter, then located in the building’s baggage claim wing.  Beyond the witch, we have an expectant mother and a “baby girl” to her left.  Behind those two is Catwoman.  Besides the Halloween theme, this photo gives us a good idea of the tools that our Employees at the counter used back then.  The Cowgirl Agent has several bunches of heart-shaped bag tags ready to use, along with an ink pad and four rubber stamps.  The bag tags closest to her are for Houston Hobby.  She has a small spiral notebook in front of her, along with a handwritten ticket.  Just to the left of her left hand is the credit card validater, and toward the back of the counter is the key pad for the phone.  It looks as though the ticket counters have changed over to pushbutton phones at this point of time.  Above the phone, and barely visible, are the buttons to select a phone line.  The edge of a white box at the bottom center of the photo is a cash register to dispense tickets.  The T-shirt of Passenger on the left says, “I am an empiricist because”, and we have no reason why that was (or even what an “empiricist is”) because it seems the answer is on the back of his shirt.   One reason I like looking at these old workplace photos is that, while they show the way we work may have changed, how we work is still the same.  Whether it is 1977 or 2011, having fun is part of the workday.  ... View more

A while back before "Flashback Fridays" began appearing on our SWALife Employee blog, I took a look at some Southwest airplanes that wore Southwest titles but kept the basic livery of their previous operator.  Thanks to Phoenix Flight Attendant Les Isaacowitz, I can both share some additional photos of one of those aircraft for both audiences.   Keep in mind that, back in the early 1980s, Southwest needed aircraft faster than Boeing could produce them, and we did some short-term leases of 737s from other carriers like Continental and Frontier.  One aircraft from that period had an especially unusual Southwest career, and it was a 737-2Q8 that wore the Belgian registration OO-TEM.  It was originally delivered to Trans European Airways (TEA) a Belgium-based charter airline in 1979.  It was subleased to Southwest from 1981 to 1983, and then went on to serve a variety of carriers from Vanguard and America West in the U.S. to British Midland and the Hungarian airline, Malev.  On February 12, 2010, I did a Flashback Fridays about this aircraft serving as both Cupid One with a Cupid drawing on the nose and as Rudolph One with the red-nosed reindeer on the nose.   As an Operations Agent back then, Les was able to get these shots of OO-TEM both at his airport, Houston Hobby, and during his travels.  The above photo is of OO-TEM at Gate 4 in Houston, and it dates from July 1981.  We can see that the large “TEA” markings have been removed from the fuselage and painted over on the tail.   Les and his camera caught up with OO-TEM again in February 1983 in a couple of cities.  The photo above shows the aircraft parked at Dallas.  Contrast the tail markings in this photo with the photo at the bottom of the page.   That same month, Les shot the well-traveled 737 at San Francisco International as a TWA Lockheed TriStar passes behind.  (Just as an aside, the L-1011 was my favorite wide-body aircraft of all time.)  Shortly after these two photos were taken, OO-TEM was being prepared for return to TEA.   Les’s notes show that this photo (and the one at bottom) was made in 1984; all the references I checked state that the sublease from TEA ended on April 30, 1983.  In fact, OO-TEM was flying with America West in October of 1983.  Before returning to TEA, we had to replace their fuselage logo, and this was done at our Dallas Maintenance Base.   The tail logo also had to be restored, and we see the TEA masking on the vertical stabilizer.  The TEA logo on the tail is in white, so I am guessing that the blue will be sprayed on first to cover the Southwest title, and then the TEA will be filled in with white. Thanks again to Les for sharing the photos, and in the future we will look at some of his other subjects. ... View more

After the merger with AirTran was announced, two of their cities took on special interest for me because I worked in both Atlanta (ATL) and Dayton (DAY) for Delta.  I wrote about ATL before AirTran a while back, and today, it’s DAY’s turn.   Dayton lays legitimate claim to being the birthplace of aviation because, even though the Wright’s first flight was in North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur designed and built their Flyer at their Dayton bicycle shop.  Today, the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base houses the amazing Air Force Museum, one of the absolute best air museums in the world and a “must-see” for any aviation geek. (The photo above is the restored Continental DC-3 at DAY.)   Unfortunately, the DAY Airport north of the city has lacked that kind of prominence.  During the 1960s and 1970s, Delta had a large operation that even included the L-1011 TriStar.  In fact, Delta had looked at making DAY their Mid West hub, but its lack of freeway access at the time caused the hub to go to the Cincinnati Airport in Northern Kentucky.  Later, Piedmont had a Dayton hub, complete with a reservation center.  This later became a US Air hub after the two airlines merged.  After the merger, US Air had too many hubs in the same general geographic area, so DAY was reduced.  Emery Worldwide built a large freight hub at DAY, utilizing DC-8s of almost every model, and it was one of the world’s largest air freight facilities at the time.  Unfortunately, Emery shut down in December 2001.  In recent years, AirTran has made its mark in DAY, and currently they operate five daily Atlanta nonstops, three nonstops to Baltimore/Washington and an Orlando nonstop.  But this post is designed to show what came before, and the photos below are a slice of daily life at DAY in 1994.   We start with Delta, since they are one of the longest serving airlines at the airport.  At the time I was there, we had five daily flights to ATL (four nonstops and a one-stopper at Louisville).  All the flights were operated by MD-88s.  We had a vintage air conditioning truck from the early 1950s that was built on a Ford chassis and had a diesel engine the equal of a railroad locomotive to run the heat and air conditioning unit.  It’s interesting to note that once AirTran began serving DAY, Delta upgraded their flights to Boeing 757s.  With their current schedule, they are back to five MD-80s a day to ATL—all nonstop this time.   The other Delta presence at DAY was Comair, and they flew a mix of SAAB 340s, Embraer 120s, and Canadair RJs like the one above.  Comair and Delta flew out of the B Concourse.  Delta originally had their own concourse with six gates, but they moved from the D Concourse to former TWA gates on B.   TWA operated out of B next to us with 727 nonstops to St. Louis, and I was amazed that the most junior TWA employee had 32 years of service and could only work part time.  In 1968, TWA had nonstops from DAY to JFK in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Louisville, and Indianapolis.  American operated Fokker 100 service to DFW off this concourse, and the rest of the gates were used by commuter carriers.  Above is an Air Wisconsin BAe-146 operating a flight for United.   Simmons Airlines operated ATR-42s for American to Chicago O’Hare (above), and Chicago Express operated BAe Jetstream 31s for ATA Airlines to Chicago Midway from the B Concourse.   US Air (they hadn’t become US Airways yet) used the B Concourse, but they were soon joined by DAY’s first low-cost carrier, Continental Lite, with service to Cleveland and Greensboro, North Carolina.  To kick off the service, Continental brought their immaculately restored DC-3 to DAY.  Above is the DC-3, with a DC-9 parked to the left on the C Concourse, and the former Delta D Concourse is to the right.  In the background is the old tower on top of the terminal building.   For an aviation geek airline Employee, one of the great things about working in DAY (besides the close proximity to the Air Force Museum) is the annual Dayton Air Show, held at the airport.  One runway is devoted to the show with exhibits lined up next to it.  Also a bit unusual was the annual Grand American World Trap Shooting Championships held on the south edge of the airport.  It was a bit disconcerting to be on the ramp and hear a constant volley of shotguns.  The championships moved to Illinois a few years back, but the range is still there. ... View more

As I have mentioned in other Flashback Fridays, photos from our early days in Houston are kind of rare, although I have been fortunate enough to uncover more material as I dig deeper through our archives.  This week we don’t have any creepy characters in fur costumes, but we have uncovered some important events in the relationship between Southwest and Houston.   Before we look at them, I found this earlier photo in our files from the mid-1950s when Hobby was known as Houston International Airport.  Before we get to the important stuff like the aircraft, look to the top of the photo (north) and notice how barren the landscape is at this point.  Ironically, the road that rings the parking lot in the photo above is still in use and can be seen on current satellite photos.  Now let’s take a look at some of the unique aircraft.  Notice the TWA Martin 404 at the bottom position on the inside left concourse.  TWA didn’t serve Houston until after deregulation, but their airplane dates this photo to after January, 1955.  So what’s going on?  Back in the 1950s, airlines would create interchange service, kind of like today’s codeshares, but with a difference.  Interchanges filled in service gaps on airline maps.  Until the early 1960s, there was no one airline service between points like Miami, Atlanta, Houston, or Dallas and the West Coast and Pacific Northwest, so the age of the interchange was born.  American formed separate interchanges with Continental and Delta over Dallas and El Paso to California, and Braniff and Continental formed interchanges with United to Portland and Seattle over Denver.  One airline would operate a flight along its route, then turn the airplane over to another carrier in the interchange city.  A Delta crew would fly a DC-6 from Atlanta to Dallas (or Fort Worth), and an American crew would pick up the aircraft and take it to Los Angeles.  The TWA aircraft in the picture represents the only California interchange to avoid American with the aircraft operating on Braniff from Houston to Dallas to Amarillo.  There, it was turned over to TWA who flew it from Amarillo to Albuquerque and California.  And speaking of American, Continental has one of American’s DC-6s parked immediately to the right of the TWA airplane.  It would operate via Continental route to San Antonio, and El Paso, and then American would fly it to California from El Paso.  Other aircraft in the photo include Braniff Convair 340s and a Braniff DC-7C on the left concourse, and an Eastern DC-7B, a Delta Convair 440 and a Continental DC-3 on the right.  If folks are interested, we can look at interchanges with more depth in a future edition.   Houston is an original city, but Hobby isn’t an original airport.  We began our service to Houston on June 18, 1971 at Houston Intercontinental.  We opened Hobby on November 14, 1971, along with beginning service between Hobby and San Antonio, and we temporarily eliminated Saturday service on the same day.  These gentlemen standing in front of the first Hobby departure are (L to R) Bill Rosene, Assistant Airport Manager, Joe Foster, Director of Aviation, Pat Koonce, Airport Manager, and City Councilman Frank Mancuso.  On May 14, 1972, we moved all Houston service to Hobby.   Our initial Hobby service operated out of the old International Arrivals building. We finally moved into the traditional terminal on December 8, 1974.  No date is noted on the photo, but the counter backdrop is typical of the late 70s.  One thing is for sure, there no crowds to make walking through the building difficult.  Check out the ashtrays on the right next to the rental car counters.   At the same time we moved into the main building at Hobby, we opened two new gates that were equipped with jetbridges.  As our presence grew in Hobby and we began interstate flights in 1979 to New Orleans, we added to our gate totals.  This photo was taken on October 2 sometime between 1978 and 1982 because Howard Putnam was President during that time.  I can’t pin down the exact year.  This ribbon cutting marks the opening of three additional gates at Hobby, and looking on (L-R) are Director of Facilities Tom Hoff, Howard, Vice President Ground Operations Bill Franklin, Ticket Agent Barbara Trncak, Herb, and Ticket Agent Carol Zinnante.   My list of “missing” images still includes views of the inside of our original gates on the North Concourse (and the original Ticket Counter) at Love Field and any views of our original operation at Intercontinental in 1971 and 1972.  Hopefully, I will find some. ... View more

In past editions of Flashback Fridays, I’ve written about our early 10-minute turns, an operational procedure that helped secure our survival.  Today, we go back to that period, specifically the year 1974.  To be honest, I couldn’t tell exactly what I had here in these photos—was it an originating flight, or instead, was it another photographic record of a quick turn, this time at Dallas Love Field?  After staring at the photos, I think it is a Dallas quick turn, and unlike the post on San Antonio, these photos seem to have been taken with the express intention of illustrating a quick turn.   Here we see Captain Sam Cohn and two Flight Attendants as they climb the outside of the jetbridge to await the arrival of the aircraft at the gate.    From the next photo, this appears to be Gate 1 at Love Field.  Note the Braniff passenger steps in the distance—this would have been during the short period that Braniff continued to maintain Love Field to Hobby service.   The Flight Attendants go through the cabin picking up trash, and you probably can’t see it in the “blog sized” photos, but the cold air coming out the ceiling air conditioning events is vaporizing, leading me to think it was a typical hot, humid Dallas summer day—my guess is 1974.  The Provisioning Agent hustles the trash can to the back galley.   Outside, Station Manager Carl Worrell and a Ramp Agent are loading the outbound flight.  The building behind the Employees is the baggage claim area at Dallas, and (after 1973) it contains what we call T-point, which is where bags are staged for their outbound flights.   The First Officer does the walk-around inspection of the aircraft prior to departure.  Today, the flight is being operated by one of our original airplanes, N21SW.   The next few photos were mixed in with the others, and they come from about the same timeperiod.  Even if they aren’t from the same photo shoot, they provide us a bit more detail about what our Dallas facility looked like at the time.  The first photo is behind our Ticket Counter in the baggage claim wing, looking toward the end of the building.  At the far, end you can just make out Braniff’s ticket counter—it’s under the row of “dotted” lights in the background.   Our "Counter to Counter Cargo" facility was located on the far end of the counter.  Unfortunately, no one replaced the missing “T” before the scene was recorded for posterity.  The stairs beyond the desk lead up to the passageway that takes you to our concourse.   Back out at the aircraft, the Mechanic on the pushback tug asks the Crew to call for pushback clearance, and another Southwest turn has been completed. ... View more

Back in the time before satellite programming, small town radio stations lived on remote broadcasts from “Joe’s Market,” or the town’s one Chevy-Olds-Pontiac-Buick-Cadillac-GMC dealer.  Basically, those AM stations were doing anything to squeeze an advertising buck out of a small market, and they would go wherever an advertising customer might be.  Southwest’s marketing approach was a lot like that in our early days.  After looking back through our vintage photo files, it looks like we never met a promotion we didn’t like.  Case in point is this week’s Flashback Friday.   By now, you are asking “Who are these critters, anyway?” and why are they on a Southwest Airlines airplane.  Fortunately, thanks to a fading press release from October 14, 1973, we know the “who” and the “when” of these photos, not to mention the “where.”  The “who” is these are Kid’s Kounty Kharacters from what the press release calls “the SuperfunSuperstore for Kids.”  We see Peter Panda, Dirty Bird, Hugh the Shoe, and Connie Cone as they deplane off a Southwest Airlines aircraft in Houston.  The big event was the opening of their two new prototype stores in Houston, which sold everything from toys to pets to bicycles, furniture, clothes and Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream.  There is more to these photos than a long lost promotion, however.  For the serious aviation student, consider this.  Kid’s Kounty was owned by the W.R. Grace & Co.  In Peru during the 1800s, Grace formed a steamship line to serve the West Coast of South America, and it eventually formed an airline with Pan American called Pan American-Grace or popularly, Panagra.  (Braniff later merged with Panagra.)  Also Southwest students will notice that the airplane wears the original titling with “SOUTHWEST AIRLINES” on the tail.  This style of marking began to disappear in 1972 with the arrival of our fourth aircraft and the later sale of one of our original three.  Based on the late date of the photo, this is probably the last one (and maybe last date) of our aircraft with the original titles.  As you can see in some of the photos, the airplane is more than ready to be repainted as the elements have sandblasted the nose back to bare metal. One of the iconic Southwest Photos of our early days has our Flight Attendants lined up on the aircraft steps.  It looks as though the photographer is trying to recreate this classic photo using the Kharacters and our Flight Attendants,.   This photo looks also looks like it is paying homage to another classic photo—the one with a line of Flight Attendants running toward the camera.   Although they are far from being typical Customers, this photo inside the Houston Hobby gate house shows some of the first screening equipment used at airports around the country.  On January 5, 1973 was the deadline set by the Federal Aviation Administration for airlines to screen passengers and their carryon luggage.  Here we see the Hobby gate area with an early magnetometer. These young “Kustomers” seem overwhelmed by Ms. Cone and Mr. Shoe.  It doesn't look as though the Kid’s Kounty idea never spread beyond Houston, but maybe the time wasn’t right for the “superstore” concept. ... View more

At the time, it seemed enormous, and it was truly state of the art.  On August 28, 1986, our original Flight Operations Training Center opened.  Tucked between Hangar 5 and the three-story portion of Headquarters, the building actually predates the Headquarters Building, which opened in 1990.  Today, the building serves as the Maintenance Training Center and Engine Shop, and our massive Flight Ops Training Center occupies the southern part of our campus.  Twenty-five years ago, when the original building opened, it also housed Inflight Training, and its proper title was the “Southwest Airlines Training Center.”  Above, the sign out front welcomes everyone to the new facility.   Like most buildings, this one began with a groundbreaking ceremony.  Herb is joined by eight other hard-hatted executives wielding silver shovels.   Unless it was just coincidence that he was wearing the same suit, shirt, and tie, it looks like the cornerstone ceremony was also held the same day as groundbreaking.  Each participant placed their hands in wet concrete, and then they wrote something in the concrete.  No doubt, Herb’s comments were wittier than the rest.  I wonder if the builders  went ahead and put flooring over all the signatures.  If so, we might get to see them (and the comments) again, when and if the building is razed.   Inside the building was the first 737-200/300 simulator in the United States.  Designed by Redifussion in the United Kingdom, the unit cost $8 million.  The local television stations deemed the event newsworthy enough to cover.    Inside the cockpit of the simulator, Herb gives Southwest’s latest investment a look, as Training Center Employees explain the system to him.  Today, although the -200s have been retired, this simulator is still hard at work doing what it has done for a quarter century--training Southwest Pilots.  The Training Center operates eight simulators in a bay that has space for additional units as they train our approximately 6,000 Pilots. ... View more

This photo couldn’t be taken today, or at least, a major company couldn’t use it in a promotion, advertisement, or advisory.  And, it’s not because of our early 70s uniforms.  No, the reason is because the big honchos of pro football would be on the phone to protect the name of the championship game.  However, back in January 1974, they weren’t as possessive, and I think the statute of limitations has run out for this example.  But what is the sign about anyway?  Well, all of the airlines, except Southwest, of course, moved to the DFW Airport the same weekend as the big game.  I think they may have wanted a weekend where very few people were traveling for the big switch.  Southwest also did some moving that weekend.  With DAL flight totals cut from 300-400 a day to just 15 or so, Southwest didn’t need the entire terminal, and we consolidated our operations in the baggage claim area and the former American concourse.  Below are photos taken from that weekend (with one bonus).  Oh by the way, the big game was played at Rice Stadium in Houston, and the Dolphins beat the Vikings.   Before we look at that big weekend, I also found this bonus photo of operations on the North Concourse that I want to share.  Judging by the coats being worn, this would be the winter of 1971/72.  In 1972, we pulled the word “AIRLINES” off of our aircraft.  It looks as though the man with headphones is returning from having dispatched 737-200, N22SW, off of Gate 23.  N22SW has been in service a while because it has the characteristic fuselage grime aft of the wing from the way the -200 reversed thrust.  There is an excellent chance that I probably drove that Delta tug in the left of the frame over at DFW during my career.  (Delta never got rid of a tug that showed any signs of life.)   Now, back to 1974, where we see an Employee at one of the former American gates.  Every aviation geek reading this must be saying, “Look at all the stuff American just abandoned.”  Besides the logo with the eagle, I see an American sign on the top of the podium.   Our gates and counters featured large portraits of our Flight Attendants, and the two Employees are placing one of the portraits into position at the new gate area.  Other than changing names and logos, it appears that was the extent of the “decorating” changes. Jack Mercer, the Dallas Station Manager is handing out sandwiches during the first day of operation at the new gates.  The matronly looking woman with the overcoat is all decked out in Minnesota Viking buttons—one says “Purple Power.”  Take a look at the man with the fedora standing in line smoking, and note the ash tray on the edge of the gate podium.    From the apprehension on Bill Franklin’s face, you would think the public address system was about to explode.  I don’t know who the older man in the suit is, but he appears to be the expert on the sound system.  Harold Reilly is the Southwest Employee in the rear.   I think I saved the best for last this week.  I knew the ticket counter had relocated to the baggage claim wing after January 1974, but I didn’t know about this temporary ticket counter position in the middle of the baggage claim floor.  It looks like one podium with two or three Ticket Agents—no conveyor belts or a back office.  These temporary quarters must have been used for just a few days as this is the only photo I have ever seen of it in use.  Incidentally, back then, the baggage areas just consisted of a shelf.  The Ramp Agent would drive up, open the metal doors and set bags on the shelf.  The sign on the easel next to the podium reads “Pardon Our Dust while we are remodeling ‘Love Headquarters,’” and the biggest part of the sign contained our flight schedules.  Coincidentally, Love Field is again under construction, and it will again be able to serve all the country in 2014, just 40 years after these photos were taken. ... View more

  One of the things I like to do here at Flashback Fridays is to place historical context behind current issues we face as an airline.  Without being too contrarian, I admit I like to burst myths of aviation’s “good old days,” that period from about 1955 to 1965 upon which everyone looks fondly today and bemoans, "Gee I wish we could travel like that today."  Don’t get me wrong, that is the exact period of commercial aviation that interests me most, but it wasn’t some perfect “Nirvana” or “Camelot” for travelers.  A friend of mine sent me the 1962 “Air Transport Progress” issue of Airlift magazine.   Having been part of Southwest for over 16 years, I naturally was interested when I saw a page with ontime charts in the magazine.  The chart above displays the trunk carriers’ (today these would be legacy carriers) ontime records for  1961.  To be honest, the performance at the very top of the 1961 chart is similar to today.  Eastern led the trunks in 1961 with an 84 percent ontime (includes, like today, flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule) rating, followed by Braniff at 82.9 percent, and American at 78.7 percent.  There is a lot more disparity between best and worst in these “golden age” charts than recent modern standings.  The bottom four carriers were Western at 71.6 percent, then Northeast at 68.1 percent, Delta at 65.0 percent, and at the bottom, Northwest at 63.1 percent.  Ironically, all four of those airlines are part of Delta today.    Take a look at 1960 in the chart above, however.  Five of the airlines finished below 70 percent, with National at 52.9 percent.  Most of the same factors that affect ontime performance today were present back then:  heavy loads, weather, mechanicals, and air traffic control.  But the industry was also in a top to bottom revolution by exchanging jets for almost brand-new piston-powered airliners.  There were learning curves arising from the operation of a brand new type of propulsion system that may have added to those ontime issues.  Check out the ontime records of those early jets in the previous chart, and you will see they didn't have sterling ontime records.  Even so, by 1968, Braniff was posting an industry-leading ontime record of 92 percent.   Something happened in 1961 that forecast the success of Southwest in the future.  For the first time, airlines carried more passengers in coach class than in first class.  Coach passenger miles in 1961 jumped 18.7 percent and comprised 57.8 percent of the industry’s total traffic.  Unlike the propeller days when coach passengers flew in all-coach older aircraft, the early jets offered room, speed, and comfort for the coach passenger who shared the same aircraft with first class travelers.   Another 1961 transition involved fuel.  The entire airline industry used over two billion gallons of jet fuel in 1961 (last year alone, Southwest used 1.4 billion gallons).  1961 was the first year in a long time that the usage of avgas (for piston engines) dropped below one billion gallons—that statistic would continue to decline as the 727, DC-9, and BAC-111 entered service.   A familiar issue back then (actually a few years later) that is still around today is Air Traffic Control modernization.  In the summer of 1968, flight delays were the topics of conversation, exacerbated by Controllers working to rules.  On some days, delays ran to six hours.  In this August 9, 1968, issue of Life, the article calls for an additional 600 airports to handle the growth in commercial and general aviation traffic.  The irony is that these delays happened during the year Braniff was compiling a 92 percent ontime record, and they had a sizeable number of flights to the Northeast.  Even back then, aviation “facts” were often contradictory. Next week we will return to Southwest topics, but I hope you enjoyed this brief look at a slightly earlier time. ... View more

The ten-minute turn is an indelible part of our history.  To use a sports cliché, it was an example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.  Given the importance of this operational procedure to our survival, and its equal importance to our public reputation of an airline marching to the beat of its own drums, I really am surprised that there isn’t a photographic layout or video showing a quick turn in action.  However, it’s possible to repurpose photo shoots for other articles to accomplish the same thing. Dennis Lardon, a retired Original Employee, was obviously the center of attention for the photographer’s camera.  I hope he will forgive me for the photo at the top of the blog.  I don’t know at what point during the shoot it was taken, but it looks like a still photo from the great movie, Citizen Kane.   Moving to things more aeronautic; the photo above shows Dennis marshalling the aircraft to the gate.  The lack of jetways would indicate that this is San Antonio.   The Crew is given the stop signal, and the ten-minute turn clock is operating.  The aircraft is N22SW, which of our three original 737s, had the longest career with Southwest.  Since the world "AIRLINES" has been removed from the livery (and those double-knit plaids), we can date this to 1972 or later.   Looking above, we see the choreography involved in turning an airplane in ten minutes.  The passenger stairs aren’t even fully deployed yet, but the fuel truck has arrived and is preparing to hook up to the wing.  The ramp is already unloading inbound bags, and the outbound bags are lined up in position to board.   Both the front and aft stairs are fully deployed, and Customers are deplaning through both doors.  Dennis has left two clean trash cans off to the side of the stairs.  Once folks are through deplaning, he can quickly pull the dirty cans and replace them with the clean ones.   Passengers are in the boarding process, and the ramp area around the aircraft is ready to go.  All of the outbound bags have been loaded, and the cargo bin door has probably been closed.  The aft passenger door is closed and ready for departure.  As soon as the last Customer is inside the cabin, the front door will be buttoned up, the stairs retracted, and the flight will be ready for taxi.  Because the airplane parked parallel to the concourse, no tow bar or pushback tug is needed. A lot of industry experts said we could never routinely turn an aircraft in ten minutes, but we did  It’s still just as true today as it was 40 years ago:  An airplane sitting at the gate doesn’t make any money. ... View more

We owe thanks to our Original Employees for many of the traits our current Employees possess.  Probably foremost of the traits they passed down to us is the Warrior Spirit.  We know they struggled against all odds, while surviving those treacherous early years.  Their heritage is the airline we operate today.  And, we also have a pictorial record of their struggles and triumphs.  For me, that is one of the most rewarding parts of my new position is sharing these little seen photographic records of our Employees creating a new way to travel by air.  This week we look at Maintenance and the concept of “all hands on deck.”   Our first photo is this beautifully back-lit photo of our Mechanics working on a JT-8D on one of our 737-200s.  It looks like the photo was taken after January 1974 because the concourse in the background has had all its jetbridges removed after the other airlines moved to DFW.  I think the lighting lends a heroic mood to this photo.   No, airplanes don’t have feet growing out of them.  The Mechanic, whose feet can be seen in the center of the photo, is sitting inside the avionics bay of our fourth 737-200, N23SW.  This compartment is crammed full with radios, navigation devices, and onboard computers.  There’s very little room for the Mechanic. The photo above is the forward end of a Pratt & Whitney JT-8D that was used to power the 737-200.  Because the engines of all models of the 737 are mounted so close to the ground, airlines have established “safety zones” in the area of the engine’s intake and exhaust; from the cabin, the painting on the ramp looks like a big fan.  All ground equipment and personnel have to remain clear of this area until the engine stops.   Aircraft parts come in all sizes, from four-foot tires to parts measured in millimeters.  Each one of those parts has to be certified for a specific aircraft, and they have to be stored in an easily accessible inventory.  Today, these parts inventories and descriptions are computerized, but in 1974, it was a manual process.  This Stores Employee is looking for a 737 part in the master inventory catalog.   The man hanging out of the cockpit window isn’t an ordinary Employee.  He is Jack Vidal, our first Vice President of Maintenance & Engineering.  This isn’t a posed shot; he is out on the line helping prepare this aircraft for departure.  This is one of the earliest photographic captures of the “all hands on deck” response, when everyone rolls up his or her sleeves to step in and help.        ... View more

While I am at AirVenture 2011 in Oshkosh this week, I thought I would share three photos that, when shown together, are unrelated, but individually they tell a story of our early days. This first photo shows the unassuming entrance to the ticketing wing after it was relocated to baggage claim when the other airlines moved to DFW.  The Southwest Counter is just to the left of the Hertz facility.  The entrance doors are original to the terminal and were a design feature of the building when it opened.     The next photo is even more humble.  I think it was taken about the time we began service Hobby in late 1972 or early 1972.  The façade of the building was in desperate need of cleaning, and the contrast between then and now is remarkable.  At least the car rental companies had close-in parking.   Besides relocating ticket counters, we moved our gates after the other airlines moved to DFW in January 1974.  Our new operational home was on the former American concourse.  I like this photo because it shows that basically, the other airlines left everything in place that didn’t have wheels.  It’s also a great roadmap to show how our attitudes toward smoking have changed over the years. ... View more

I’m excited because Flashback Friday is on a roll of finding images hidden for decades.  Last week, we found some photos of Reservations Agents from 1974, and a short while back, we had Mechanics in our original hangar.  Well this week, we have some amazing candid photos of our original Dispatch office.  Like our CS&S (formerly Reservations) folks, Dispatch isn’t seen by the public, and early photos, especially candid ones, are pretty rare, so this was an exciting find for me.  Let’s turn back the clock to 1974 (and in some respects much earlier), and take a look.   Before we get into the details of the photo above, just take a moment to look at it.  You could go back through the history of airlines like PanAm, or United, and for years, their Dispatch Offices looked just like this.  This is a room in which the late, great Ernie Gann would have felt at home.  Just out of sight would have been banks of teletype machines typing out pages of weather and other operational information.  That would have been accompanied by the static of a tube-powered air to ground radio.  This office was located in our original building on Love Field Drive.  (This building served as the Love Field passenger terminal until the late 1930s, so it’s possible Charles Lindbergh or Wiley Post may have stood in the same spots as our Pilots in these photos.)  Original Dispatcher, Scott Johnson, tells me that the office was “remodeled” several times before Southwest moved its Headquarters off the airport to an office complex on Regal Row.  He says this was the “last version” of the office before moving in early 1974.  Those are walls of real wood, not the temporary walls most offices have today.  The tabletop has an aerial map, probably under glass.  Captain Warren Hampton (without hat) could be either reviewing the weather reports or his flight plan, while Captain Jim Everett looks on.  At this time, we still only flew between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, so one of them is probably heading for Houston and the other San Antonio.  Paul Quinn is the Dispatcher.   Next we look from the other side of the room.  We really didn’t need the map of the US hanging on the wall since it would still be four or five years before we flew beyond Texas, but it serves as a portent for things to come.  The posters of Southwest Flight Attendants on the wall, were also used as backdrops for our ticket counters.  First Officer Gabona, who apparently is flying with Captain Everett, has joined the crowd.  The clip boards on the table would have contained weather observations of terminal weather and winds aloft, terminal and en route forecasts, and any NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen), which provide information about possible runway construction, terminal construction, equipment outages, etc.    Moving the camera behind the desk gives us this view.  The tube air-to-ground radio is at the lower left.  Captain Sam Cohn has joined the discussion.  I tried to date the photo by enlarging it to look at the calendar on the desk.  The day of the month is the 12 th , and the month’s name is a long one, so that would probably date it to October, November, December, January, or February.  Paul Quinn was hired in October 1973, so it has to be after that, and the offices moved in 1974, so it is a short window.   Further helping to date the photos, is this Flight Attendant in the original uniform, which was worn until late 1974.  She, no doubt, is checking with the Captain on the kind of ride he is expecting.  The bumper sticker above the door reads, “Fly Southwest.”  We get a better look at the map in this photo, and it could be covering something on the wall.   While this photo doesn’t cover any new ground as far as details go, I think it is a great photo to end with because it captures a moment in a work day 38 years ago.  It’s a wonderful illustration that our Original Employees went about their daily routine in much the same way we do.  They had no idea of the legacy they were creating, and to me, that’s why their accomplishments are so amazing.  For help with the identification of the location and the people, special thanks to Dan Johnson, Willie Wilson, and Scott Johnson, all Original Employees. ... View more

Customer Support & Services (CS&S) is our department formerly known as Reservations.  These hard working folks with the pleasant voices on the phone have been an essential part of our success since day one, but because Customers interact over the phone with them, they never get to see them in action like they do our Airport and Inflight folks.  I am also sorry to say that there are gaps in our archives of pictures of Reservations hard at work in the early days.  That’s why I was so excited to discover a big manila envelope with “Early Reservations History” written by hand across the top.  Inside are these three very early photos taken in what I think was our first Dallas Res Center.   The occasion for the photos was a notice in The Southwest Airlines Magazine, our original inflight publication that was entitled “MORE PHONES TO SERVE YOU.”  It goes on to explain that due to a “rapid increase in passengers, Southwest is rapidly increasing the number of telephone lines to reservations.”  There are so many interesting gems of information in these photos, let’s take the time to explore each individually.  The first photo above shows Bill Franklin, one of our first three Vice Presidents, and Geri Campbell.  Today, we would say that the box in front of them represents the “memory” of all the booked reservations.  That would be true, but the memory is stored on paper written in pencil by hand.  Except for today’s and the next day’s flights, the box holds all the future reservations made at the time for all of Southwest’s flights.  Also note the size of the room.  Today our six Centers (San Antonio, Houston, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Chicago) have hundreds of Employees on duty each day.  The lady behind Bill’s left elbow is at position 14—it doesn’t look like there’s room for many more.  The note on the blackboard says; “All flights scheduled and running.”   The next photo above gives us some insight into the “technology” available to each Reservations Agent.  There’s not a computer, monitor, or touch-button phone to be seen in any of these photos, although it does look like the Agents have light-weight headsets.  To the left of the control panel is a printed flight schedule, with some kind of a control box or timer to the right of the phone console.  We must have had a computer somewhere because the book into which she is writing contains computer printouts.  My guess is that this is the master inventory, and when a seat was sold, a checkmark was made next to the flight.  She is the only agent with this book and a box of reservations next to her, so she probably is a control agent.  I don’t know if you can see it, but there is a track under the superstructure that holds the phone.  As Agents complete a Reservation Card, it went in the track which carried it to this Employee.  She pulled the card, checked off the seats booked on the inventory sheet, and then filed the Res Card into the box to her left.  My guess is that this held today’s and tomorrow’s flights.    Above, we see an Agent changing a reservation on the Reservation Cards.  But before that, look around her work space.  On top of her phone is a calendar from Continental featuring a DC-10.  From the calendar, we can see that these photos were taken in March, 1974.  At that time, we only flew between our three original cities, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.  To the right of the phone is a copy of the North American edition of the Official Airline Guide which lists schedules of all airlines.  The Reservations Cards are simplicity.  At the top are two spaces for Passenger names, in this case, a “J Everett” and an “N. Percy.”  In the first vertical column are the origin and destination.  The two cards to her left are from “H” (Houston) to “D” (Dallas).  The next column is the flight number, in this case, Flight #12, followed by travel date.  The top left card is for travel on 3-8, and after the date is the status of the reservation, which is “XX” which would mean canceled.  The last column is the number in the party, which is two in this case.  The bottom left card shows the party rebooked on the same flight for March 25.  Sherry Atlas is the Reservation Agent.   As always, any Employees who can add any detail are invited to comment. ... View more

Click here to read a blog post written by our Founder Emeritus, Herb Kelleher. ... View more