What did Southwest Airlines used to be called?

The airline was established on March 9, 1967, by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King as Air Southwest Co. and adopted its current name, Southwest Airlines Co., in 1971, when it began operating as an intrastate airline wholly within the state of Texas, first flying between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.



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JetBlue started by following Southwest's approach of offering low-cost travel, but sought to distinguish itself by its amenities, such as in-flight entertainment, TV at every seat, and Sirius XM satellite radio.

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The airline canceled thousands of flights during the holidays and left hundreds of thousands of people across the country looking for new travel plans. Critics say that's because it failed to fund technology needed to match its growth, dating back to Southwest co-founder Herb Kelleher.

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United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are the top ranked airlines based on 2022 domestic market share. Delta operates out of Atlanta, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta's hub, sees the most passenger traffic in the United States.

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Southwest Is A Safe Airline
They are a favorite among travelers looking for cheap flights without having to compromise on comfort or security. According to the most recent list of the world's safest airlines, Southwest was ranked in the top 15 airlines in the world in 2021, even beating out Delta, American, and United.

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Lack of airline partners. Southwest Airlines does not belong to an airline alliance, nor does it partner with any other airlines independently, so your Rapid Rewards points cannot take you to places such as Europe or Asia when used directly for flights.

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Since its inception, Southwest Airlines has almost exclusively operated Boeing 737 aircraft (except for a brief period when it operated a handful of leased Boeing 727-200 aircraft). Southwest is the world's largest operator of the Boeing 737, and was the launch customer of the 737-300, 737-500, and 737-700.

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While a massive winter storm caused the initial cancellations, the company's outdated software systems turned what should have been a normal problem into a snowballing disaster that lasted for days after other airlines had resumed their usual operations.

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Southwest Airlines faces battles on multiple fronts. First, the struggling carrier must win back its customers' trust after its holiday-season meltdown left tens of thousands of passengers stranded. The company then compounded those problems by not handling its apologies and make-goods from those cancellations well.

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