Southwest Airlines Company History In 1971 from a sketch on a napkin Southwest Airlines was born with three boeing737 jets flying to three Texas cities. Kelleher and a group of investors had put up the 560,000 dollars to found the company. (Business Week 1989).The philosophy of the company was clear to offer low-fare seats every flight every day. Southwest gave away leather ice buckets and fifths of liquor on its flights in order to keep its planes …showed first 75 words of 1189 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1189 total…to their success and allowing them to be only one of two carriers to be in profit that year. This nearly doubled the capacity for future Oakland flight operations . Therefore, a number of strategic issues face Southwest Airlines. Some industry observers wondered whether Southwest should acquire on more of its ailing competitors, initiate a hub- spoke system, or begin to use computer presentation systems. Herb and Southwest still had t work cut out for them.