History of Southwest Airlines
"[14] Another idea taken from PSA was an emphasis on attractive flight attendants, a reflection of the mores of the time and Southwest's initial focus on the then heavily-male business market.
[20] In October 1971 it took delivery of the fourth white tail 737 in order to offer hourly service on the Dallas to Houston route, increasing the financial burden further.
[31] The RGV, in the view of Muse, was not only intrinsically underserved, but this city would also permit one-stop flights from Harlingen to Dallas via Houston, thereby providing further support for the existing route.
[33] This time, legal challenges were limited to petitioning the TAC to reconsider, which it declined to do—no court cases were filed, so by January 1977, Southwest was free to start these new points.
[35][36] After the Airline Deregulation Act was enacted in 1978, Southwest announced plans to begin interstate service in 1979 with flights to New Orleans, a proposal that was quickly endorsed by federal regulators at the CAB.
[37] The DFW carriers were incensed, including a new player in North Texas, American Airlines,[dubious – discuss] which moved its headquarters to Fort Worth in 1979.
Southwest was not relocating any assets, but Texas state law allowed the airline to choose Dallas or Houston as the city of registry of its aircraft.
[56] One founder of Morris Air, David Neeleman, worked with Southwest for a short period before leaving to found WestJet and then JetBlue Airways, a competing airline.
[64] In March 1996, after the Dallas City Council unanimously voted to allow construction, the airline began to build a 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) addition to the existing corporate headquarters at a cost of $30 million in 1996 dollars.
[65][66] This occurred after Thursday, March 14, 1996,[67] the airline leased two tracts of land, a total of 10 acres (4.0 ha), from the City of Dallas to build a new pilot training facility, a headquarters expansion, and more parking space.
A $9.8 million pilot training facility was built on a 5 acres (2.0 ha) plot of land owned by the city of Dallas; it was scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 1997.
In 1996, startup carrier Legend Airlines proposed to start long-range flights from Love Field using McDonnell Douglas DC-9s refitted with 56 seats, the maximum allowed under the Wright Amendment.
However, the USDOT ruled in September 1996 that the 56-seat restriction applied to the "designed capacity" of an airliner rather than to the number of seats actually installed, prompting Legend to seek to change the law.
[82] In June 2006, Southwest executed an agreement together with Dallas, Fort Worth, DFW Airport, and American Airlines, and announced the parties' mutual support for the repeal of the Wright Amendment.
Highlights of the agreement are the immediate elimination of through-ticketing prohibitions and unrestricted flights to domestic destinations eight years after the legislation takes effect.
On March 5, 2000, Southwest Airlines Flight 1455, a Boeing 737-3T5, registration N668SW, carrying 137 passengers and 5 crew, overran the runway at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, Burbank, California, skidding across a city street and coming to rest at a Chevron gas station.
Southwest's primary reason for making the purchase was to acquire the operating certificate and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport formerly controlled by ATA.
[95] On March 6, 2008, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors submitted documents to the United States Congress, alleging that Southwest allowed 117 of its aircraft to fly carrying passengers despite the fact that they were "not airworthy" according to air safety investigators.
Southwest stated that its requirement for pilots' unions at both companies to reach a negotiated (not arbitrated) agreement as a condition of acquisition was a key factor in its abandonment of its bid.
Southwest obtained a single operating certificate (SOC) from the United States Federal Aviation Administration on March 1, 2012, but the airline was not fully integrated until AirTran had its last flight on December 28, 2014.
Southwest's organized labor groups ceded contractual "scope" provisions pending acceptable negotiated seniority integration agreements.
[113] Southwest agreed to invest at least $100 million to cover all costs tied to the Hobby upgrade, which included designing and building five new gates and a customs facility.
Most industry experts believe that the expansion of the subsidiary of Southwest, AirTran Airways, into more Mexican markets, was a main reason for the termination of the agreement.
[120] Throughout 2014, Southwest expanded service at Reagan-National in Washington D.C. and LaGuardia Airport in New York City through slot acquisitions from the American Airlines/US Airways merger.
[122] In July 2016, an operational outage caused by technology problems cancelled hundreds of Southwest flights, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and many aircrew.
[130] On October 17, 2019, the airline stated that it was expecting the MAX 8 to remain grounded until at least February 8, 2020, forcing the preemptive cancellation of roughly 175 flights per weekday.
In March 2020, Southwest Airlines had stored 50 737-700 aircraft at Southern California Logistics Airport, adding to the 34 grounded 737 MAX jets already in storage.
[139] On November 6, 2020, citing ongoing pandemic-related losses and stalled negotiations with the unions, Southwest issued WARN Act notices to 42 employees—the first time in company history that the airline had formally threatened to furlough an employee.
[141] However, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 was enacted on December 27, 2020, providing $15 billion in airline aid, and Southwest rescinded the furlough notices and pay cuts.
Some impacted passengers were unable to contact the airline and were left stranded without their luggage, prompting a response from the United States Department of Transportation.
