Senin, 30 Juni 2014

Southwest Airlines co-founder dies at 83


Rollin King, co-founder of the affordable carrier Southwest Airlines, has died at age 83, the airline said on Saturday.


King passed away from undisclosed causes on Thursday, Southwest Airlines said in a statement.


"I am indeed profoundly saddened to learn of Rollin's passing," said Herb Kelleher, who founded the airline with King. "The People of Southwest Airlines grieve with Rollin's family; mourn his absence and thank him for his vision," Kelleher said.


Cleveland-born King was a licensed pilot with an MBA from Harvard University, the Texas State Historical Association said on its website. He moved to San Antonio and acquired a small air-taxi service, Wild Goose Flying, in the early 1960s, the association said.


King soon partnered with Kelleher, then working as an attorney, to develop the business, and the two reincorporated Wild Goose Flying as Southwest in 1967, the association said.


It has been said that King outlined the entire Southwest Airlines business plan on a cocktail napkin.







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Businessman who helped start Southwest dies


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Southwest Airlines finds itself at a crossroads - USA TODAY



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DALLAS — To say that Southwest Airlines has undergone profound changes during Gary Kelly's decade-long tenure as CEO there would be something of an understatement.


There's the company's revamped frequent-flier program.The carrier has undertaken a new focus on courting business travelers, including expanding to the big-city airports those fliers prefer. Sustained rapid growth has seen Southwest overtake rivals like American and United to become the USA's top carrier of domestic passengers. And, starting Tuesday, the company's first-ever foray into international flying begins.


"A lot has changed in a 10-year period," Kelly said during a recent sit-down interview at Southwest's headquarters in Dallas. "And I don't think it's overly dramatic to say it's been the most transformative period in our history."


That transformation also has left Southwest at something of a crossroads. For much of its 43-year history, the carrier cut its teeth as a scrappy upstart looking to carve out market share against established legacy rivals like American, Delta and United.


Now, buoyed by a fleet of nearly 700 Boeing 737s, Southwest flies more passengers within the U.S. than any other carrier. The carrier flies to every major city in the lower 48 states except Cincinnati.


"This isn't the Southwest of old," says Henry Harteveldt, a San Francisco-based travel analyst at the Atmosphere Research Group. "It's a much more mature Southwest, a much more complex Southwest. This is an airline that's flying coast to coast."


Kelly, who was promoted to CEO in July 2004, acknowledges that Southwest has been thrust into something of a different role, but he's also quick to assert that despite Southwest's growing prominence, the carrier's ethos remains different from its rivals — which still dwarf Southwest in size when international traffic is counted.


"I think that's more of a mindset when you compare us to the largest airlines in the world," Kelly says. "The biggest three are the United States carriers that we compete head-to-head with. They're twice our size. They are gigantic. There's no doubt that we're still the little guy in that sense."


Kelly says Southwest has balanced its growth by trying to maintain its folksy, down-to-earth image.


"What is different, really, is that beginning in the mid-90s — compared to the '80s — we became a nationwide brand with enough size to justify nationwide advertising," Kelly says. "And we have stuck with it. ... So we do have a personality. I think that does come through very strongly with our messaging and our advertising."


Southwest's growth also has led some industry observers to suggest that the company's corporate culture — long lauded as one of the best — has begun to fray at the edges as the company becomes ever larger.


Harteveldt says the company has been able to maintain such a strong culture because "Southwest places such an emphasis on the types of people they hire."


But "they have a big challenge in keeping the culture alive," he says. Harteveldt believes the company's workers — notably the frontline "troops — aren't exactly motivated" they same way they have been over the carrier's history.


Kelly says there's "no truth" to that.


"We've never had a layoff, much less asking our employees for pay cuts or benefit cuts," Kelly says. "It's a great place to work."



A Southwest Airlines plane at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif.(Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP)



He does acknowledge that there's been "some rhetoric" by unions around the company's ongoing contract negotiations with several of its labor groups.


"Labor negotiations are always vigorous and there's always rhetoric," Kelly says. "That's not surprising and there's nothing new about that. It's certainly not new at Southwest."


Among the items that are new at Southwest: An increased focus on longer flights, part of what's leading to Tuesday's launch of international flights.


"We've been making a pivot over the last five to 10 years to be less dependent on short-haul markets and prepare the airline better for flying longer distances and longer times for our customers," Kelly say. "So we've changed our frequent-flier program. We've changed our boarding process. And we've offered more choices for business customers."


One thing that Kelly says won't change as the company grows is its no-fee stance for things like checked baggage or ticket changes.


"We have absolutely no plans to charge, especially for bags," Kelly says. "Bag fees don't fit. I won't promise that into infinity, I don't think that's fair. But we have absolutely no plans to ever charge for them, and I hope we never do."


Another thing that won't change is the carrier's focus on fares — which Kelly acknowledges have risen along with fuel costs.


He points to "the dramatic increase in fuel prices" that hit the U.S. in 2008, saying fuel has since gone "from about 10-15% of our spending for operations … to 35% of our spend. And that's forced fares up."


Overall, though, Kelly expects Southwest to continue its transformation this year. Its first international flights begin Tuesday — when Southwest-operated planes will take off to three international destinations in the Caribbean. Southwest could eventually add as many as 50 new destinations outside the lower 48, ranging anywhere from Canada to the "northern tier" of South America — though he cautions that could take a decade or more.


Elsewhere, the carrier is expected to wrap up its integration with AirTran before Dec. 31. And, in October, the carrier will be able to begin flying long-haul flights from its "home airport" at Dallas Love Field — something it will be able to do for the first time thanks to the phase-out of legislation that had restricted flight options there. And Southwest will beef up its presence at Washington's Reagan National Airport, something it was able to do by successfully bidding for slots given up by American Airlines as part of its merger with US Airways.


"We've got a lot of things coming together this year," Kelly says.


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Rollin King, Texas Pilot Who Helped Start Southwest, Dies at 83 - New York Times

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Rollin King on a demo flight for Southwest Airlines in 1968. Credit Southwest Airlines


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Rollin W. King, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines, the low-cost carrier that helped to change the way Americans travel, died Thursday in Dallas. He was 83. The cause was complications from a stroke he had a year ago, his son Edward King of Dallas said.


An avid pilot who had a business degree from Harvard, Mr. King sketched out a plan to create Southwest in 1967. The idea was to create an airline that was less expensive and more fun to fly.


“He really had a feeling there was a better way to go about air travel,” his son said.


Back when Mr. King and his collaborator, Herbert D. Kelleher, started the company with just a few planes, Southwest faced stiff opposition from larger, established carriers, whose prices made frequent air travel the near-exclusive domain of the wealthy.


The company started flying in 1971, but only in Texas at first. Southwest is now one of the world’s largest airlines with more than 100 million passengers annually and $17.7 billion in revenue last year.


“His idea to create a low-cost, low-fare, better service quality airline in Texas subsequently proved to be an empirical role model for not only the U.S. as a whole but, ultimately, for all of the world’s inhabited continents,” said Mr. Kelleher, Southwest’s chairman emeritus.


Photo


Rollin King Credit Southwest Airlines

Southwest’s chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, credited Mr. King for helping to start the company’s effort to “democratize the skies.”


After helping Mr. Kelleher get the airline off the ground, Mr. King liked to pitch in as a pilot on some of the company’s routes, his son said. Mr. King served on the company’s board of directors through 2005, a Southwest spokeswoman said.


Born in Cleveland on April 10, 1931, Mr. King graduated from Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Business School. After earning his business degree, he moved to San Antonio, took a job as an investment banker and operated a charter airline.


Among his survivors are another son, Rollin Jr., and a sister, Betty.


The concept for Southwest came to Mr. King when he noticed that businessmen in Texas were willing to charter planes instead of paying the high fares of the domestic airlines.


At the time that Mr. King first proposed the idea to Mr. Kelleher over drinks, the federal government regulated the fares, schedules and routes of interstate airlines, and the mandated prices were high.


Competitors like Texas International Airlines, Braniff International Airways and Continental Airlines waged a protracted legal battle before Southwest could make its first flight. By not flying across state borders, Southwest was able to get around prices set by the Civil Aeronautics Board.


To compete in those early years, Southwest gave out free bottles of liquor to passengers who bought full-fare tickets. The early uniforms of the Southwest female flight attendants also stood out — orange shorts, known as “hot pants,” with high white shoes.



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My Old Man in Maintenance: Aircraft Flaps


















Southwest Airlines Employee Christi Day talks with her father, Southwest Maintenance Operations Controller Steve Day, about our aircrafts hydraulic system. Southwest Airlines Employee Christi...



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Southwest Airlines Employee Christi Day talks with her father, Southwest Maintenance Operations Controller Steve Day, about aircraft flaps - the movable pane. Southwest Airlines Employee...



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Magnitude-5.2 Earthquake Shakes Southwest US - AccuWeather.com



By Mark Leberfinger, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

June 30, 2014; 1:01 AM


The earthquake's epicenter was along the Arizona-New Mexico border about 31 miles northwest of Lordsburg, New Mexico. (Photo/U.S. Geological Survey)


A magnitude-5.2 earthquake occurred late Saturday night in the Southwest United States.


The temblor's epicenter was reported in Arizona at 9:59 p.m. PDT Saturday, about 31 miles northwest of Lordsburg, New Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It had a depth of 3.1 miles.


A 3.5-magnitude aftershock occurred nine minutes later, the USGS said.


There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.



A University of Arizona seismograph records the magnitude-5.2 earthquake that struck Saturday night near the Arizona-New Mexico border. A magnitude-3.5 temblor also registered on the seismograph nine minutes later. (Photo/University of Arizona)


The quake could be felt in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona and El Paso, Texas, the USGS reported on its website.


The quake was felt moderately in the Silver City area of southwestern New Mexico, the National Weather Service at El Paso said. None of the reports indicated any damage. The USGS website also reported that it was felt in Las Cruces, Deming, Lordsburg, Truth or Consequences and Albuquerque, New Mexico.







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Rollin King, who helped start Southwest Airlines, dies at 83 - Chicago Sun-Times





DALLAS — Rollin King, a San Antonio businessman who helped start Southwest Airlines Co. and create a new age of competition in the airline industry, has died at 83.


King died Thursday in Dallas of the effects from a major stroke about a year ago, his son, Edward King, told The Associated Press.


Longtime Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher praised King for coming up with the idea of a discount airline that would serve Texas travelers. Kelleher said in a statement issued by Southwest on Friday that the notion of a low-cost, low-fare airline with quality service became a model not only in the U.S. but worldwide.


“The people of Southwest Airlines grieve with Rollin’s family, mourn his absence, and thank him for his vision,” Kelleher said.


The airline’s current CEO, Gary Kelly, said King helped democratize air travel by making it more affordable.


Interstate air service was heavily regulated by the federal government in 1967, when King sat down with Kelleher, his lawyer, to map out the idea for a no-frills airline that would fly between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Edward King said his father got the idea for a Texas-only carrier by studying the success of Pacific Southwest Airlines, which operated within California.


The fledgling carrier had to survive several legal challenges by Braniff International and other airlines before its first flight in 1971. It began flying outside Texas in 1979, after deregulation, and is scheduled to begin international flights next week. Southwest is the nation’s fourth-biggest airline company, with 2013 revenues of $17.7 billion.


King served on the board of directors from 1967, when the company was incorporated as Air Southwest, until 2006. He also flew as a Southwest pilot for a few years in the 1970s.


King was born in Cleveland, attended Case Western Reserve University and received a master’s in business administration from Harvard, according to his son. He moved to Texas and was working in investment banking and acquired a small air-taxi service in South Texas before starting Southwest, according to the Texas State Historical Association.










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Grado Clinics is one of the most popular cancer treatment hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. It cures for cancer with the latest technologies & therapies naturally in your budget.



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Southwest Airlines finds itself at a crossroads - USA TODAY



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DALLAS — To say that Southwest Airlines has undergone profound changes during Gary Kelly's decade-long tenure as CEO there would be something of an understatement.


There's the company's revamped frequent-flier program.The carrier has undertaken a new focus on courting business travelers, including expanding to the big-city airports those fliers prefer. Sustained rapid growth has seen Southwest overtake rivals like American and United to become the USA's top carrier of domestic passengers. And, starting Tuesday, the company's first-ever foray into international flying begins.


"A lot has changed in a 10-year period," Kelly said during a recent sit-down interview at Southwest's headquarters in Dallas. "And I don't think it's overly dramatic to say it's been the most transformative period in our history."


That transformation also has left Southwest at something of a crossroads. For much of its 43-year history, the carrier cut its teeth as a scrappy upstart looking to carve out market share against established legacy rivals like American, Delta and United.


Now, buoyed by a fleet of nearly 700 Boeing 737s, Southwest flies more passengers within the U.S. than any other carrier. The carrier flies to every major city in the lower 48 states except Cincinnati.


"This isn't the Southwest of old," says Henry Harteveldt, a San Francisco-based travel analyst at the Atmosphere Research Group. "It's a much more mature Southwest, a much more complex Southwest. This is an airline that's flying coast to coast."


Kelly, who was promoted to CEO in July 2004, acknowledges that Southwest has been thrust into something of a different role, but he's also quick to assert that despite Southwest's growing prominence, the carrier's ethos remains different from its rivals — which still dwarf Southwest in size when international traffic is counted.


"I think that's more of a mindset when you compare us to the largest airlines in the world," Kelly says. "The biggest three are the United States carriers that we compete head-to-head with. They're twice our size. They are gigantic. There's no doubt that we're still the little guy in that sense."


Kelly says Southwest has balanced its growth by trying to maintain its folksy, down-to-earth image.


"What is different, really, is that beginning in the mid-90s — compared to the '80s — we became a nationwide brand with enough size to justify nationwide advertising," Kelly says. "And we have stuck with it. ... So we do have a personality. I think that does come through very strongly with our messaging and our advertising."


Southwest's growth also has led some industry observers to suggest that the company's corporate culture — long lauded as one of the best — has begun to fray at the edges as the company becomes ever larger.


Harteveldt says the company has been able to maintain such a strong culture because "Southwest places such an emphasis on the types of people they hire."


But "they have a big challenge in keeping the culture alive," he says. Harteveldt believes the company's workers — notably the frontline "troops — aren't exactly motivated" they same way they have been over the carrier's history.


Kelly says there's "no truth" to that.


"We've never had a layoff, much less asking our employees for pay cuts or benefit cuts," Kelly says. "It's a great place to work."



A Southwest Airlines plane at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif.(Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP)



He does acknowledge that there's been "some rhetoric" by unions around the company's ongoing contract negotiations with several of its labor groups.


"Labor negotiations are always vigorous and there's always rhetoric," Kelly says. "That's not surprising and there's nothing new about that. It's certainly not new at Southwest."


Among the items that are new at Southwest: An increased focus on longer flights, part of what's leading to Tuesday's launch of international flights.


"We've been making a pivot over the last five to 10 years to be less dependent on short-haul markets and prepare the airline better for flying longer distances and longer times for our customers," Kelly say. "So we've changed our frequent-flier program. We've changed our boarding process. And we've offered more choices for business customers."


One thing that Kelly says won't change as the company grows is its no-fee stance for things like checked baggage or ticket changes.


"We have absolutely no plans to charge, especially for bags," Kelly says. "Bag fees don't fit. I won't promise that into infinity, I don't think that's fair. But we have absolutely no plans to ever charge for them, and I hope we never do."


Another thing that won't change is the carrier's focus on fares — which Kelly acknowledges have risen along with fuel costs.


He points to "the dramatic increase in fuel prices" that hit the U.S. in 2008, saying fuel has since gone "from about 10-15% of our spending for operations … to 35% of our spend. And that's forced fares up."


Overall, though, Kelly expects Southwest to continue its transformation this year. Its first international flights begin Tuesday — when Southwest-operated planes will take off to three international destinations in the Caribbean. Southwest could eventually add as many as 50 new destinations outside the lower 48, ranging anywhere from Canada to the "northern tier" of South America — though he cautions that could take a decade or more.


Elsewhere, the carrier is expected to wrap up its integration with AirTran before Dec. 31. And, in October, the carrier will be able to begin flying long-haul flights from its "home airport" at Dallas Love Field — something it will be able to do for the first time thanks to the phase-out of legislation that had restricted flight options there. And Southwest will beef up its presence at Washington's Reagan National Airport, something it was able to do by successfully bidding for slots given up by American Airlines as part of its merger with US Airways.


"We've got a lot of things coming together this year," Kelly says.


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Rollin King, Texas Pilot Who Helped Start Southwest, Dies at 83 - New York Times

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Rollin King on a demo flight for Southwest Airlines in 1968. Credit Southwest Airlines


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Rollin W. King, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines, the low-cost carrier that helped to change the way Americans travel, died Thursday in Dallas. He was 83. The cause was complications from a stroke he had a year ago, his son Edward King of Dallas said.


An avid pilot who had a business degree from Harvard, Mr. King sketched out a plan to create Southwest in 1967. The idea was to create an airline that was less expensive and more fun to fly.


“He really had a feeling there was a better way to go about air travel,” his son said.


Back when Mr. King and his collaborator, Herbert D. Kelleher, started the company with just a few planes, Southwest faced stiff opposition from larger, established carriers, whose prices made frequent air travel the near-exclusive domain of the wealthy.


The company started flying in 1971, but only in Texas at first. Southwest is now one of the world’s largest airlines with more than 100 million passengers annually and $17.7 billion in revenue last year.


“His idea to create a low-cost, low-fare, better service quality airline in Texas subsequently proved to be an empirical role model for not only the U.S. as a whole but, ultimately, for all of the world’s inhabited continents,” said Mr. Kelleher, Southwest’s chairman emeritus.


Photo


Rollin King Credit Southwest Airlines

Southwest’s chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, credited Mr. King for helping to start the company’s effort to “democratize the skies.”


After helping Mr. Kelleher get the airline off the ground, Mr. King liked to pitch in as a pilot on some of the company’s routes, his son said. Mr. King served on the company’s board of directors through 2005, a Southwest spokeswoman said.


Born in Cleveland on April 10, 1931, Mr. King graduated from Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Business School. After earning his business degree, he moved to San Antonio, took a job as an investment banker and operated a charter airline.


Among his survivors are another son, Rollin Jr., and a sister, Betty.


The concept for Southwest came to Mr. King when he noticed that businessmen in Texas were willing to charter planes instead of paying the high fares of the domestic airlines.


At the time that Mr. King first proposed the idea to Mr. Kelleher over drinks, the federal government regulated the fares, schedules and routes of interstate airlines, and the mandated prices were high.


Competitors like Texas International Airlines, Braniff International Airways and Continental Airlines waged a protracted legal battle before Southwest could make its first flight. By not flying across state borders, Southwest was able to get around prices set by the Civil Aeronautics Board.


To compete in those early years, Southwest gave out free bottles of liquor to passengers who bought full-fare tickets. The early uniforms of the Southwest female flight attendants also stood out — orange shorts, known as “hot pants,” with high white shoes.



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Rollin King, who helped start Southwest Airlines, dies at 83 - Chicago Sun-Times





DALLAS — Rollin King, a San Antonio businessman who helped start Southwest Airlines Co. and create a new age of competition in the airline industry, has died at 83.


King died Thursday in Dallas of the effects from a major stroke about a year ago, his son, Edward King, told The Associated Press.


Longtime Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher praised King for coming up with the idea of a discount airline that would serve Texas travelers. Kelleher said in a statement issued by Southwest on Friday that the notion of a low-cost, low-fare airline with quality service became a model not only in the U.S. but worldwide.


“The people of Southwest Airlines grieve with Rollin’s family, mourn his absence, and thank him for his vision,” Kelleher said.


The airline’s current CEO, Gary Kelly, said King helped democratize air travel by making it more affordable.


Interstate air service was heavily regulated by the federal government in 1967, when King sat down with Kelleher, his lawyer, to map out the idea for a no-frills airline that would fly between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Edward King said his father got the idea for a Texas-only carrier by studying the success of Pacific Southwest Airlines, which operated within California.


The fledgling carrier had to survive several legal challenges by Braniff International and other airlines before its first flight in 1971. It began flying outside Texas in 1979, after deregulation, and is scheduled to begin international flights next week. Southwest is the nation’s fourth-biggest airline company, with 2013 revenues of $17.7 billion.


King served on the board of directors from 1967, when the company was incorporated as Air Southwest, until 2006. He also flew as a Southwest pilot for a few years in the 1970s.


King was born in Cleveland, attended Case Western Reserve University and received a master’s in business administration from Harvard, according to his son. He moved to Texas and was working in investment banking and acquired a small air-taxi service in South Texas before starting Southwest, according to the Texas State Historical Association.










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Southwest Airlines co-founder dead at 83 - CNBC.com



Rollin King, co-founder of the affordable carrier Southwest Airlines, has died at age 83, the airline said on Saturday.


King passed away from undisclosed causes on Thursday, Southwest Airlines said in a statement.


"I am indeed profoundly saddened to learn of Rollin's passing,'' said Herb Kelleher, who founded the airline with King.


"The People of Southwest Airlines grieve with Rollin's family; mourn his absence and thank him for his vision,'' Kelleher said.


Cleveland-born King was a licensed pilot with an MBA from Harvard University, the Texas State Historical Association said on its website. He moved to San Antonio and acquired a small air-taxi service, Wild Goose Flying, in the early 1960s, the association said.


King soon partnered with Kelleher, then working as an attorney, to develop the business, and the two reincorporated Wild Goose Flying as Southwest in 1967, the association said.


It has been said that King outlined the entire Southwest Airlines business plan on a cocktail napkin.








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Evacuation Slide Deploys In Midair On United Flight


















A United Airlines flight was diverted to Wichita, Kansas after the evacuation slide accidentally deployed in midair on Sunday. None of the 96 passengers on board the Boeing 737 were hurt. The...



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Southwest Airlines finds itself at a crossroads - USA TODAY



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DALLAS — To say that Southwest Airlines has undergone profound changes during Gary Kelly's decade-long tenure as CEO there would be something of an understatement.


There's the company's revamped frequent-flier program.The carrier has undertaken a new focus on courting business travelers, including expanding to the big-city airports those fliers prefer. Sustained rapid growth has seen Southwest overtake rivals like American and United to become the USA's top carrier of domestic passengers. And, starting Tuesday, the company's first-ever foray into international flying begins.


"A lot has changed in a 10-year period," Kelly said during a recent sit-down interview at Southwest's headquarters in Dallas. "And I don't think it's overly dramatic to say it's been the most transformative period in our history."


That transformation also has left Southwest at something of a crossroads. For much of its 43-year history, the carrier cut its teeth as a scrappy upstart looking to carve out market share against established legacy rivals like American, Delta and United.


Now, buoyed by a fleet of nearly 700 Boeing 737s, Southwest flies more passengers within the U.S. than any other carrier. The carrier flies to every major city in the lower 48 states except Cincinnati.


"This isn't the Southwest of old," says Henry Harteveldt, a San Francisco-based travel analyst at the Atmosphere Research Group. "It's a much more mature Southwest, a much more complex Southwest. This is an airline that's flying coast to coast."


Kelly, who was promoted to CEO in July 2004, acknowledges that Southwest has been thrust into something of a different role, but he's also quick to assert that despite Southwest's growing prominence, the carrier's ethos remains different from its rivals — which still dwarf Southwest in size when international traffic is counted.


"I think that's more of a mindset when you compare us to the largest airlines in the world," Kelly says. "The biggest three are the United States carriers that we compete head-to-head with. They're twice our size. They are gigantic. There's no doubt that we're still the little guy in that sense."


Kelly says Southwest has balanced its growth by trying to maintain its folksy, down-to-earth image.


"What is different, really, is that beginning in the mid-90s — compared to the '80s — we became a nationwide brand with enough size to justify nationwide advertising," Kelly says. "And we have stuck with it. ... So we do have a personality. I think that does come through very strongly with our messaging and our advertising."


Southwest's growth also has led some industry observers to suggest that the company's corporate culture — long lauded as one of the best — has begun to fray at the edges as the company becomes ever larger.


Harteveldt says the company has been able to maintain such a strong culture because "Southwest places such an emphasis on the types of people they hire."


But "they have a big challenge in keeping the culture alive," he says. Harteveldt believes the company's workers — notably the frontline "troops — aren't exactly motivated" they same way they have been over the carrier's history.


Kelly says there's "no truth" to that.


"We've never had a layoff, much less asking our employees for pay cuts or benefit cuts," Kelly says. "It's a great place to work."



A Southwest Airlines plane at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif.(Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP)



He does acknowledge that there's been "some rhetoric" by unions around the company's ongoing contract negotiations with several of its labor groups.


"Labor negotiations are always vigorous and there's always rhetoric," Kelly says. "That's not surprising and there's nothing new about that. It's certainly not new at Southwest."


Among the items that are new at Southwest: An increased focus on longer flights, part of what's leading to Tuesday's launch of international flights.


"We've been making a pivot over the last five to 10 years to be less dependent on short-haul markets and prepare the airline better for flying longer distances and longer times for our customers," Kelly say. "So we've changed our frequent-flier program. We've changed our boarding process. And we've offered more choices for business customers."


One thing that Kelly says won't change as the company grows is its no-fee stance for things like checked baggage or ticket changes.


"We have absolutely no plans to charge, especially for bags," Kelly says. "Bag fees don't fit. I won't promise that into infinity, I don't think that's fair. But we have absolutely no plans to ever charge for them, and I hope we never do."


Another thing that won't change is the carrier's focus on fares — which Kelly acknowledges have risen along with fuel costs.


He points to "the dramatic increase in fuel prices" that hit the U.S. in 2008, saying fuel has since gone "from about 10-15% of our spending for operations … to 35% of our spend. And that's forced fares up."


Overall, though, Kelly expects Southwest to continue its transformation this year. Its first international flights begin Tuesday — when Southwest-operated planes will take off to three international destinations in the Caribbean. Southwest could eventually add as many as 50 new destinations outside the lower 48, ranging anywhere from Canada to the "northern tier" of South America — though he cautions that could take a decade or more.


Elsewhere, the carrier is expected to wrap up its integration with AirTran before Dec. 31. And, in October, the carrier will be able to begin flying long-haul flights from its "home airport" at Dallas Love Field — something it will be able to do for the first time thanks to the phase-out of legislation that had restricted flight options there. And Southwest will beef up its presence at Washington's Reagan National Airport, something it was able to do by successfully bidding for slots given up by American Airlines as part of its merger with US Airways.


"We've got a lot of things coming together this year," Kelly says.


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Rollin King, Texas Pilot Who Helped Start Southwest, Dies at 83 - New York Times

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Rollin King on a demo flight for Southwest Airlines in 1968. Credit Southwest Airlines


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Rollin W. King, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines, the low-cost carrier that helped to change the way Americans travel, died Thursday in Dallas. He was 83. The cause was complications from a stroke he had a year ago, his son Edward King of Dallas said.


An avid pilot who had a business degree from Harvard, Mr. King sketched out a plan to create Southwest in 1967. The idea was to create an airline that was less expensive and more fun to fly.


“He really had a feeling there was a better way to go about air travel,” his son said.


Back when Mr. King and his collaborator, Herbert D. Kelleher, started the company with just a few planes, Southwest faced stiff opposition from larger, established carriers, whose prices made frequent air travel the near-exclusive domain of the wealthy.


The company started flying in 1971, but only in Texas at first. Southwest is now one of the world’s largest airlines with more than 100 million passengers annually and $17.7 billion in revenue last year.


“His idea to create a low-cost, low-fare, better service quality airline in Texas subsequently proved to be an empirical role model for not only the U.S. as a whole but, ultimately, for all of the world’s inhabited continents,” said Mr. Kelleher, Southwest’s chairman emeritus.


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Rollin King Credit Southwest Airlines

Southwest’s chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, credited Mr. King for helping to start the company’s effort to “democratize the skies.”


After helping Mr. Kelleher get the airline off the ground, Mr. King liked to pitch in as a pilot on some of the company’s routes, his son said. Mr. King served on the company’s board of directors through 2005, a Southwest spokeswoman said.


Born in Cleveland on April 10, 1931, Mr. King graduated from Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Business School. After earning his business degree, he moved to San Antonio, took a job as an investment banker and operated a charter airline.


Among his survivors are another son, Rollin Jr., and a sister, Betty.


The concept for Southwest came to Mr. King when he noticed that businessmen in Texas were willing to charter planes instead of paying the high fares of the domestic airlines.


At the time that Mr. King first proposed the idea to Mr. Kelleher over drinks, the federal government regulated the fares, schedules and routes of interstate airlines, and the mandated prices were high.


Competitors like Texas International Airlines, Braniff International Airways and Continental Airlines waged a protracted legal battle before Southwest could make its first flight. By not flying across state borders, Southwest was able to get around prices set by the Civil Aeronautics Board.


To compete in those early years, Southwest gave out free bottles of liquor to passengers who bought full-fare tickets. The early uniforms of the Southwest female flight attendants also stood out — orange shorts, known as “hot pants,” with high white shoes.



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