Southwest Airlines Co.

Product Details

Beautifully engraved stock certificate from the Southwest Airlines Co. dating back to 2000. This document, which carries the printed signature of the company Chairman of the Board/President and Secretary, was printed by the American Bank Note Company and measures approximately 12" (w) by 8" (h).

This certificate features a great vignette of a female figure, a plane and a control tower.

Images

Historical Context

Southwest Airlines was founded in 1966 by Herbert Kelleher and Rollin King, and in 1967 it was incorporated as Air Southwest Co. Three other airlines took legal action to try to prevent the company from its planned strategy of undercutting their prices by flying only within Texas and thus being exempt from various regulations. The lawsuits were resolved in 1970, and in 1971 the airline began operating regularly scheduled flights between Dallas Love Field and Houston and between Love Field and San Antonio, and adopted the name Southwest Airlines Co.

In 1975, Southwest began operating flights to various additional cities within Texas, and in 1979 it began flying to neighboring states. Service to the East and the Southeast started in the 1990s.

Southwest has been a major inspiration to other low-cost carriers, and its business model has been repeated many times around the world. The competitive strategy combines high level of employee and aircraft productivity with low unit costs by reducing aircraft turn around time particularly at the gate.

Europe's EasyJet and Ryanair are two of the best known airlines to follow Southwest's business strategy in that continent. Other airlines with a business model based on Southwest's system include Canada's WestJet, Malaysia's AirAsia (the first and biggest LCC in Asia), India's IndiGo, Australia's Jetstar, a subsidiary of Qantas (although Jetstar now operates three aircraft types), Philippines's Cebu Pacific, Thailand's Nok Air, Mexico's Volaris, Indonesia's Lion Air and Turkey's Pegasus Airlines.