Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Co.

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8
IATA ICAO Call sign WN SWA SOUTHWEST
Founded	March 9, 1967; 58 years ago (1967-03-09) (as Air Southwest)
Commenced operations	June 18, 1971; 54 years ago (1971-06-18) (as Southwest Airlines)
AOC #	SWAA304A
Operating bases	Atlanta Baltimore Chicago–Midway Dallas–Love Denver Houston–Hobby Las Vegas Los Angeles Nashville Oakland Orlando Phoenix–Sky Harbor
Frequent-flyer program	Rapid Rewards
Fleet size	801[1]: 3
Destinations	117[1]: 3
Traded as	NYSE: LUV DJTA component S&P 500 component
Headquarters	Love Field, Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Key people	Bob Jordan (president and CEO) Rakesh Gangwal (chairman of the Board)
Founders	Herb Kelleher Rollin King
Revenue	US$27.5 billion (2024)[1]
Operating income	US$321 million (2024)[1]
Net income	US$465 million (2024)[1]
Total assets	US$33.7 billion (2024)[1]
Total equity	US$10.3 billion (2024)[1]
Employees	72,450 (2024)[1]
Website	southwest.com

Southwest Airlines Co., or simply Southwest, is a major airline in the United States that formerly operated on a low-cost carrier model. It is headquartered in the Love Field neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. It is the fourth-largest airline in North America when measured by passengers carried, as of 2023. With its all-Boeing 737 fleet, Southwest serves over 100 destinations in 42 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and ten other countries near the southern United States in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea regions: Aruba, the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, and Turks and Caicos.

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. It began regional interstate service in 1979, expanding nationwide in the following decades.