Southwest Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: LUV), based in Dallas, Texas, is an airline in the United States. It is the third-largest airline in the world, as measured in number of passengers carried, and the largest with destinations exclusively in the United States. It is known as a "discount airline" compared to its domestic rivals and has been profitable every year since 1973.

The experience of flying on Southwest is quite different from that of most other U.S. airlines. Tickets must be bought from the airline itself, and can't be purchased through a travel agent or through common online venues like Orbitz or Travelocity. The airline's tickets can be bought over the phone or online at the website which features Web only fare discounts. Extra Rapid Rewards (the airline's version of a frequent flier program) credits used to be awarded for online booking, but this policy was eventually terminated in early 2005. Customers are not assigned seats; rather, they are assigned to a "boarding group" depending on their check-in time (earlier check-ins get to board earlier), and are left to find their own seats on the plane. Meal service is less than on historically full service airlines, with shorter flights receiving just a single small snack and soft drink, and longer flights meriting a "Snack Pack" of prepackaged goods. In the post-9/11 era these meals in a bag typically exceed the food served on full-service airlines like United or American. Although there is no video entertainment, Southwest is known for colorful boarding announcements and crews that burst out in song.

For all the leanness in comforts, which helped it pass through the post-9/11 travel slump as one of the few profitable major American airlines, Southwest manages to maintain excellent customer satisfaction ratings. Its employees are generally well-known for their friendliness, which is often attributed to a unique "love-based" corporate atmosphere that made chairman and founder Herb Kelleher a celebrity in the business world. However, concerns attributed to labor unrest and complaints by the Transportation Workers Union (TWU) representing Southwest flight attendants were reportedly a factor in the recent resignation of Kelleher's hand-picked replacement as CEO. Jim Parker resigned in July 2004 and was replaced by Chief Financial Officer Gary Kelly. The President of Southwest is former corporate secretary Colleen Barrett, who has been with the company since day one. Southwest's CFO is Laura Wright.

Southwest has also been a major inspiration to other low-cost airlines, and its business model has been repeated many times around the world. Europe's easyJet and Ryanair are two of the best known airlines to follow Southwest's business strategy in that continent (though easyJet operates two different aircraft models today), while Canada's WestJet is using Southwest's modus operandi in that country. New Zealand's Freedom Air and Thailand's Nok Air are another examples of airlines that are based on Southwest's system.

One of the reasons for profitability is Southwest's reliance on fuel hedging. Almost since its inception, Southwest has purchased fuel options for years in advance to smooth out fluctuations in fuel costs. Southwest substantially increased its hedging in 2001 in response to projections of increased crude oil prices. The use of these hedges helped Southwest maintain its profitability during the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the oil shocks related to the Iraq War and later Hurricane Katrina. As of 2005, Southwest is currently paying 50% of the market price for its fuel; however, that number will increase as hedges from 2001 and 2002 expire and new hedges at higher prices take effect. Southwest has hedges of varying percentages and prices in place through 2009.

Another basis for its profitability is that, since inception, Southwest has operated one model of aircraft, the Boeing 737, though it has operated with several variants of this model (it has occasionally used other Boeing models, but only on an occasional basis until a replacement 737 was purchased). The first deviation was a Boeing 727-200 series aircraft, N406BN leased from Braniff International Airways for a short time and used between Dallas and Houston in the late 1970s/early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, six 727-200s were leased from People Express as temporary lift until new 737-300 aircraft started being delivered. In the late-1980s, a few Transtar (nee Muse Air) DC-9's were used on Southwest Airlines routes shortly after the carrier agreed to be purchased by Southwest. The 1970s and 1980s also saw the temporary leasing of 737-200s from other operators such as Aer Lingus, TEA, and Continental. It has been argued that operating only one model of aircraft has allowed Southwest to operate more profitably than its competitors, which often operate with several aircraft models, since it needs to purchase and stock fewer replacement parts, ground support equipment, and other items necessary to maintain its fleet.

Southwest is the basis of the American version of the reality show Airline.

(Southwest Airlines Information Courtesy of Wikipedia.)