Swa Analysis

COMPANY NAME: Southwest Airlines

INDUSTRY: Air Travel

COMPANY WEBSITE: http://www.swa.com

COMPANY BACKGROUND:

Southwest Airlines was created out of necessity and the foresight of Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. The area between the cities of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio also known as the Golden Triangle was experiencing rapid economic and population growth and ground travel had become expensive and less convenient. Rollin King already running a small commuter air service having heard the complaints relating to the issues, saw the niche and propose the start up. After raising the seed money to start and 4 years, Southwest Airlines was incorporated in Texas on June 18, 1971 with three Boeing 737 aircraft serving Houston, Dallas and San Antonio (Damaraju, Eisner and Dess, 2009).

They originally brought seasoned executives Lamar Muse, who had worked with Trans Texas, Central, and Universal Airlines followed by a brief tenure of Howard Putnam from United Airlines. Herb Kelleher took over as CEO in 1982 after having had served as the chairman of the board (Damaraju, Eisner and Dess, 2009). PRNewswire cited Gary Kelly during the 19 Jan 2012 fourth quarter 2011 report congratulating the company on their 40th year of operations delivering 39th consecutive years of profits. Gary also announced they had recently launched service to Greenville-Spartanburg and Charleston, South Carolina and Newark, New Jersey, increasing Southwest's domestic footprint to 72 cities. (Damaraju, Eisner and Dess, 2009)

Southwest Airlines Is still going strong and their current lineup of executives include; Gary C. Kelly who serves as the Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer, with Bob Jordan as the Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer, And President, AirTran Airways. In addition there is Ellen Torbert as Vice President Diversity and Inclusion, Jeff Lamb, Executive Vice President & Chief People & Administrative Officer. The we sight also lists...