Southwest Airlines Community

I’m happy to report aircraft N409WN has emerged from the paint hangar in Spokane as Southwest's new Triple Crown One specialty plane, featuring both its original #1 heart medallion, along with our new Heart branding on its tail. Originally introduced on June 9, 1997, Triple Crown One was dedicated to the Employees of Southwest Airlines responsible for achieving five annual “Triple Crowns” for number one in ontime performance, baggage handling, and Customer Service (based on DOT reports from 1992-1996).  The names of each of the 24,113 Employees are etched on the overhead bins in recognition of their individual efforts toward achieving the Triple Crown for five years running.  With our Company's focus on Reliability and Hospitality, Triple Crown One stands as an important reminder to all Employees of how everyone’s individual contributions continue to make Southwest Airlines the world’s most loved, most flown and most profitable airline. During a scheduled Maintenance visit later next month, overhead bin doors containing the names of the Employees who were originally part of this momentous accomplishment will be installed on our new Triple Crown One, just as they were in 1997.  If you are one of more than 12,000 active Employees with us today whose name appeared on the original aircraft, you may find your name in a slightly different location on the bin doors due to the differences in design between our Classic and Next Generation cabin designs.  The original overhead bins will be on special display at our Training and Operations Support facility in Dallas. ... View more

This is the eighth in a series of posts about our integrated annual report, the 2010 Southwest Airlines One Report™, where we have illustrated our commitment to a triple bottom line and how our passion and focus on Performance, People, and Planet continues to propel us forward. Helping preserve our planet and conserve resources is important to us here at Southwest, because this is what we do – we help people see the world.  Good stewardship is not only the right thing to do as citizens of our planet, but also because our business is giving people access to see the world. When I think of environmental stewardship, I think of efficiency, which is the elimination of waste, a streamlined way of doing business, and an effective use of our resources.  It’s fitting then that efficiency is the foundation of our environmental commitment, because efficiency and the planet go hand-in-hand.  The 2010 Southwest Airlines One Report™ details how when we are efficient in our flight paths and fuel burn, we reduce emissions; when we clean our engines, they run more efficiently and save fuel and reduce emissions; how when we use electric ground support equipment, we create a better, cleaner work environment for our People, reduce emissions, and save fuel. An efficient use of our resources also is important.  I am very proud of the way our Employees have embraced our co-mingled recycling efforts.  In 2010, we saw an increase of 69 percent in the amount of waste diverted from the waste stream to recycling.  That is pretty amazing!  I think recycling is a great example of environmental decisions making good business sense, because it is definitely an environmental decision to recycle aluminum, cardboard, plastic, and paper.  It is a great business decision because we spend millions of dollars a year on waste pickups – by diverting recyclables from the waste stream, we reduce the number of waste pickups, which is a true bottom line savings.  It’s a win for our planet and our business.  We are proud of our commitment to being a good citizen of the world.  We look forward to sharing the journey with you in our blog post series on Performance, People, and Planet, and we hope it will inspire you to read our 2010 Southwest Airlines One Report™, which, in an effort to conserve our natural resources, can only be found online at www.southwest.com/citizenship.    ... View more