Southwest Airlines

Southwest will provide a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. In addition, employees will be provided with the same concern, respect, and caring attitude that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer. Southwest’s ability to be different and not follow the herd—not to mention becoming America’s largest airline—can be traced in large part to the Airline Deregulation Act. Thanks to this act, Herb and Rollin realized their Vision, and the travelling public benefits on every flight, every day.

In 1967, Herb Kelleher and Rollin King developed the initial Southwest Airlines® concept in a hotel bar in San Antonio. Their original business plan consisted of a triangle drawn on a cocktail napkin— three lines connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. It was a novel idea—and it worked! But only in Texas, initially.

That’s because, before 1979, the federal government tightly controlled interstate air travel and decided which airlines flew where and at what price. As a result, competition on interstate routes was virtually nonexistent, and federal regulators, not the market, determined the price. All that changed on Oct. 24, 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act.