Southwest Airlines (original) (raw)

Southwest Airlines (IATA code: "WN") is an airline in the United States, founded in Dallas, Texas on June 18, 1971. It is currently the fourth largest U.S airline (in terms of domestic customers carried). It is known as a "discount airline" compared to its larger rivals and has been profitable every year since 1973.

Southwest is headquartered at Love Field Airport in Dallas. Southwest built its successful business on flying multiple short, quick trips into the secondary airports of major cities. For example, Southwest flies into Love Field in Dallas, Midway Airport in Chicago, and BWI Airport in Washington D.C rather than the more expensive DFW International, O'Hare International and Dulles International Airports. Southwest does, however, fly to some larger airports in major cities, such as LAX.

Southwest is one of the few airlines to depart from the more tradtional "Hub-And-Spoke" flight routing system. It still has notably large operations in certain airports which serve as transfer points for passengers between different regions of the country: these include Albuquerque International Sunport, Chicago's Midway Airport, Houston's Hobby Airport, Kansas City International Airport, and Nashville International Airport. Southwest also has large operations at Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport, where it handles a large amount of tourist traffic to various cities throughout the eastern United States.

Current fleet by aircraft size

External links

• Southwest Airlines homepage
• The Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA)

Southwest Airlines is not to be confused with Southwest Air Lines, a former Japanese airline that is now known as Japan Transocean Air.