Southwest hiring 322 in S.A.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. already is hiring for a 322-position expansion at its San Antonio customer service center, which is scheduled to move to a larger location by June.

Starting pay, set by union contract, is $12 an hour, or nearly $25,000 per year, although pay scales are flexible depending on schedules and overtime, said Bob Montgomery, Southwest Airlines vice president of airport affairs.

Details of the airline's expansion in San Antonio were announced Thursday after the City Council approved an incentives package aimed at retaining 478 positions at the customer service center and adding 322 workers.

Southwest Airlines has signed a 15-year lease, with options, at 11711 Interstate 35 North, a former Kmart retail store that more recently was occupied by the U.S. Army. The airline is leasing 60,000 square feet, double the space at the existing customer service center at 3635 Medical Drive.

Montgomery said trailers are in position at the Medical Drive center to train workers.

Southwest Airlines wanted a one-story building as its searched San Antonio sites for the expansion, said Mario Hernandez, San Antonio Economic Development Foundation president. Real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle assisted in the site search, Hernandez said.

People interested in applying for a job at the center can do so online at www.southwest.com and going to the “careers” page, Montgomery said. Benefits include 401(k) retirement plans with a 100 percent company match.

Southwest Airlines' 2011 acquisition of AirTran Holdings Inc. “had a big hand” in the decision to expand the San Antonio customer service center. “It gives us the platform for Southwest to grow,” Montgomery said.

Acquiring AirTran Airways, including its international routes, “allowed us a good way to grow without putting Southwest Airlines at risk,” he added.

Southwest Airlines operates six customer service centers fielding more than 60 million calls a year. The San Antonio center, which will be the largest, opened in 1981. The others are in Houston, Chicago, Phoenix, Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, N.M. AirTran continues to operate three customer service centers in Georgia.

As San Antonio's customer service center expands, the staffing levels at the other customer service centers have not been determined as the Southwest Airlines-AirTran Airways integration continues, Montgomery said.

“Southwest Airlines is an iconic Texas company,” Mayor Julián Castro said. “The airline has a special relationship with San Antonio” as one of the three original cities when the airline started in 1971. “We appreciate the values and the outlook Southwest has brought to the industry,” Castro said.

Montgomery said another 181 Southwest Airlines employees work at the San Antonio International Airport as agents and other positions, in addition to the 800 employees planned at the customer service center.

“San Antonio is a competitive city,” Montgomery said. “It has the tools to enable companies to locate here. It has a quality of life unmatched anywhere in the country.

AirTran, now a Southwest Airlines subsidiary, will begin flights from San Antonio to Mexico City and Cancún, Mexico, this spring.

The start-of-service date will be announced when the airline receives airport slot confirmations from the Mexican government, Montgomery said.

dhendricks@express-news.net

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