Southwest’s entry into a market inevitably led to lower fares across the board. “He literally brought air travel to the masses on a scale that was unimaginable,” Mr. Kelleher stuck to the low-fare concept, believing that lower prices did not mean lower profits. Now, given a choice between driving and flying, legions of travelers opted for the plane.Īt a time when Braniff’s coach fare between Dallas and San Antonio was $62, for example, Southwest’s fare for the same route was $15. Robert Mann, an airline industry analyst and former executive, said that by eliminating onerous fees and unnecessary services and using secondary airports, like Love Field in Dallas, Southwest brought low prices to the market and stimulated demand for air travel. His vision for the airline - one that reshaped the industry - centered on using more fuel-efficient, low-cost planes to reduce fares and challenging his employees to provide no-frills service without lowering standards.
Kelleher’s tenure, the company never had a layoff, furlough or pay cut, despite being among the most unionized airlines in the world. Southwest employs more than 58,000 people and has been profitable every year since two years after it was founded. Kelleher, Southwest, which began in 1971 as a low-fare intrastate carrier serving three Texas cities - Houston, Dallas and San Antonio - grew into the behemoth that today carries more than 120 million passengers a year, making it the nation’s most popular domestic airline.
Under the fun-loving, chain-smoking, hard-drinking, New Jersey-born Mr. It did not say where he died or give a cause. The airline announced his death on Twitter. Herb Kelleher, who turned conventional airline industry wisdom on its head by combining low fares with high standards of customer service to build Southwest Airlines into one of the nation’s most successful and admired companies, died on Thursday.
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