Trip Report: Visiting A 41 Year Old Start Up

Hi everyone, I know it has been a while since we've posted but we now have a plan to get back into the swing of things and have more fresh content! 

I wanted to post a trip report today about a day trip I took on the 15th to Dallas to spend the day at the headquarters of one of the most entrepreneurial companies in the world, Southwest Airlines. 

Before I begin the report, I wanted to give you a little bit of background on how Southwest Airlines started up. 

History of Southwest Airlines

One thing not many know is that Southwest Airlines can actually trace it's roots back to 1964, as a San Antonio aviator named Rollin King launched Wild Goose Flying Services, which flew Beech 18's around the state of Texas with the words "Southwest Airlines" written on the fuselage. This airline was not an immediate success, and eventually had to liquidate. 

In the process of liquidating, Rollin King selected a lawyer who moved to Texas from New Jersey, by the name of Herb Kelleher. In the time that they spent together, Rollin pitched Herb on the idea on the need for low-cost air service in the state of Texas. 

The idea seemed viable, and in 1967 Air Southwest Co. was registered as a company, and had a plan to fly between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio using a fleet of Lockheed Electras. 

When Braniff, Trans-Texas and Continental got word of this new start up, they created a lengthy legal battle trying to stop this airline from ever getting in the air. The battle lasted for three years, and drained a lot of Air Southwest Co.'s resources. By the time the airline was getting ready to start, it was facing many financial strains. 

The original incorporation documents for Air Southwest Co. 

Southwest got a lucky break in aircraft selection when Boeing had a surplus of 737-200 aircraft, and offered to finance 90% of Southwest's fleet to help it get off of the ground. 

The airline started flying in 1971 and was renamed to Southwest Airlines Co.  After going through many tough battles in the early years, the airline had developed a distinct "Warrior Spirit" which can be seen in how Southwest conducts business today. In addition Southwest also let employees know that they should take their work seriously, but not themselves, which helped develop the "Fun-LUVing attitude" they are known for. When combined with having a Servant's Heart, these principles have led Southwest Airlines to becoming the airline it is today, and one of the greatest companies to work for. 

Trip Report

Now that you know a little bit about the background of Southwest Airline's history, I'll continue with a trip report of my day in Dallas! 

I flew out of Kansas City Saturday morning on flight 1325 to Dallas Love Field, which was a short and sweet flight. It was only about half full and I had the whole row to myself! 

Leaving Kansas City 

After landing in Dallas I spent the day with Brian Lusk, Southwest's corporate historian,as well as a blogger on Nuts About Southwest. I am very thankful that he took the time to show me around, and got to learn some of his vast array of knowledge of the airline industry!

Our first stop was a tour around Southwest's headquarters. It is a truly amazing place, which feels more like a gigantic family living room than an office building. There are almost no blank spaces on the walls, as they are filled with many photos of Southwest's employees and history.

Walls filled with photos! Fun Fact: I have the "Airplanes" poster in the upper right hanging in my cubicle at KCI Airport!

The lobby I have seen in many photos online before. It was nice to actually be seeing it in person! 

 Southwest has some general purpose board rooms for employees to meet in. They are each themed after significant portions of Southwest's culture and history. This room's theme was the $13 fare war with Braniff, and the ad that claimed "No One's going to shoot Southwest Airlines out of the sky for a lousy $13"! This was significant because Braniff was undercutting Southwest's fares by half in an attempt to push them out of the market, and Southwest responded with a creative move that helped define their "warrior spirit" even more. They matched the fare price of $13, but knew many of their customers were business travelers who had their company pay for expenses, so they also offered a $26 fare that included a free bottle of liquor. Southwest Airlines was the largest alcoholic beverage distributor in Texas at the time of that fare war!

The Lousy $13 room. 

Here is the inside of one of the rooms, which has a large photo of a 737-200 and Southwest employees

The headquarters also had culture centers and kitchens scattered throughout. Here is a photo of one that had a unique LUV theme to it. There were lots of great photos all around, and even a table that had letters of LUV from customers underneath the glass part of it!

 Fun looking murals also covered the walls throughout the headquarters!

There were also a lot of mannequins dressed up in Southwest Airlines uniforms from the past and present. There were some pretty cool and unique ones! 

Another fun portion of Southwest's history was the "Malice in Dallas", which was a dispute between Southwest Airlines and a Virginia general aviation company over the use of the slogan "Just Plane Smart". Instead of having a lawsuit, the CEOs of both companies had an arm wrestling match over who could use the slogan. Here is a photo of Herb Kelleher's "training belt", which included bottles of Wild Turkey and cigarettes!

Herb Kelleher's Training Belt

 After walking around a bit, I got to see the area where a lot of the magic happens on Southwest's social media channels and blog! Here is a photo of the work area of the emerging media team! It was empty on a Saturday, but still seriously cool. I hope to eventually work for Southwest Airlines on their emerging media team, or in their marketing department for a while!

The Emerging Media work area

 Any wall that was not covered in photos of employees or Southwest's history was filled with some of the corporate values of Southwest Airlines.

While walking through the headquarters I noticed some seriously cool culture related items! Here are some of the many t-shirts from Southwest's history. The pajamas on the right were given out to employees on the day they "put the 737-200 to bed" and retired it from the fleet in a slumber-party themed event!

There was also another wall filled with even more t-shirts, including a gigantic one. Brian informed me of a joke Southwest has: "How many Southwest employees does it take to change a light bulb?" The answer was "Four, one to actually change the light bulb, and three to make a t-shirt to celebrate the event"

I know this next photo will make a lot of my #AvGeek friends jealous. Just before finishing up the tour at Southwest's headquarters Brian and I went to the outdoor patio and watched aircraft take off from Love Field!

The day continued by taking a trip to the Frontiers of Flight museum. It is an amazing place that I would recommend to anyone with even a slight interest in aviation. It has some cool exhibits, including this amazing one on the history of Southwest Airlines! It has the front section of a 737-200, and an entire 737-300 that has some cool displays inside of it!

The museum also has a unique exhibit on Braniff International!

After going to the museum Brian and I headed up to the DFW Founders plaza for some plane spotting. The pattern in place for that day at DFW did not make for good photography, but it was still a great experience. One of the things I enjoyed about the Founders Plaza was that they were playing live audio from one of the control towers at DFW!

A photo of Brian and I spotting at the DFW Founder's plaza! 

On the way back to Dallas Love Field we had some pit stops at some of the other Dallas airports as well.

An eagle still on the building from American Airlines days

Here is a photo of a unique ice cream cone shaped control tower at the Alliance Airport, where American Airlines does a lot of their wide body maintenance work.

How often do you see an ice cream cone shaped control tower? 

 On the way back to Love Field we drove by the area where Delta Air Lines flight 191 crashed in 1985 due to a microburst while on approach. There is a pretty interesting "Air Crash Investigations" episode about the accident, and I believe it is posted online somewhere.

Crash site of Delta 191, you can still see some dents in the white structures from the accident

After a fun AvGeek filled day in Dallas, it was time to head back to Kansas City! I'd like to give a special thank you to Brian Lusk for showing me around, and providing me with a lot of great insight into Southwest Airlines and a lot of the history of the airline industry!

A Look at SeaPort Airlines

I wanted to take the time to write about a carrier that has interested me for a while, Portland, Oregon's Seaport Airlines.

SeaPort started up back in 2008 during the middle of the economic recession, and has been able to grow to a reasonable size flying mostly Essential Air Service (EAS) routes. It has reported being profitable, transporting nearly 100,000 passengers in 2011 on its 9-seat Pilatus PC-12 and Cessna Caravans. 


To get off the ground SeaPort used the operating certificate of an already existing carrier established in the 1980s named Wings of Alaska, by buying it out for $750,000. This method of entry into the market place is different compared to other startup airlines. By partnering with Wings of Alaska for their operation SeaPort did not have to undergo the daunting task of getting their own FAA operating certificate, but it did not come without its own troubles. Wings of Alaska still owed about $1.6 million on a hangar and had to find a way to pay it back.

SeaPort started out flying between Seattle and Portland (its namesake, and a route it has since dropped) as well as other places in the Pacific Northwest, appealing to business travelers who wanted a convenient schedule, affordable fare, and a no-hassle travel experience. This business model seemed to work at first, but the 2008 recession seemed to hit the startup airline hard, forcing them to go back to the drawing board and readjust their business model.


SeaPort then came back with the profitable idea of bidding for EAS routes to rural communities. Because of numerous multi-million dollar EAS contracts SeaPort's route network now has a Mid-South region to it, serving numerous cities including Memphis, Nashville and Kansas City.

Many have criticized SeaPort for being quick to pull out once a subsidy ends, but these subsides have guaranteed SeaPort profitability while developing its brand in the communities it serves.

SeaPort also notes it's advantage with 9-seat aircraft, touting that they are more fuel efficient and meet capacity demands better and do not over-flood the market with unprofitable 50-70 seat jets.

It has been interesting to see SeaPort's development over the past few years, and I will enjoy seeing how this airline grows in the future. They have seemed to revolutionize the comfort of short-distance travel by offering "private-jet-like" service in small communities, but it will be interesting to see if SeaPort can support many non-EAS routes in the future.

PREVIEW: The Vision Airlines Story

Some of you might be familiar with Vision Airlines. Vision was historically founded in 1994, but continues to switch up its operations every now and then in order to find the right business plan for them to operate with. Vision is currently based and operates a majority of its flights out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a large, famous resort town on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

Watch for my full post on Vision Airlines, which I'll have up here on StartUp Air tomorrow morning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wisconsin Based MetJet Plans October Start

De Pere, Wisconsin based MetJet continues to plan for its new service starting in October, which will connect the northern Wisconsin city of Green Bay with Orlando and Fort Myers, Florida. 

According to their website, the Airline is a public tour operator that is funded by local businesses and individuals who are dedicated to increasing service between northeastern Wisconsin and the rest of the United States. The Airline is a prime example of how a community can help fill a need for air service with hard work by many of its members.

MetJet, which will operate Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-700 Aircraft, describes according to their website a layout that will seat 12 First Class Passengers and 150 Economy Class Passengers. MetJet will charter the Boeing Aircraft from Minneapolis, Minnesota based Sun Country Airlines. The Airline is currently making those who visit their online site aware that MetJet has no intentions of charging for baggage, which when traveling today, certainly can become a hefty extra cost on the traveling consumer.

One thing I find interesting as well, is that the Airline plans to offer "Great Harvest Bread Co." meals to every single passenger on board any of their flights, as well as a standard beverage and snack service during transit between Green Bay and Florida. This offer would, to many, seem unreal as multiple carriers currently operating in the United States offer a limited selection of items for "free" to eat, snack, or even drink.

MetJet originally planned only to begin its Green Bay service with flights to and from Minneapolis/St. Paul and Orlando, Florida. Now, according to their website, www.metjet.net, the Airline now plans to serve Green Bay, Wisconsin with flights only heading south, cutting any booking option between Minneapolis and Green Bay. The flights will fly from Green Bay to Orlando and Fort Myers, two locations that the CEO of MetJet, Mike Heisman, believes is under served from the Northeastern Wisconsin market.

It will truly be an interesting sight to see what happens to MetJet, and if success does come out of this project. Like I commented earlier, MetJet is a community based and funded Airline, that hopes to fill a void many of the citizens believe is very evident. I'll continue to monitor the progress of MetJet, and inform you more on the Airline as we approach their starting dates in October.

MetJet plans to start its charter service operated by Sun Country Airlines between Green Bay and Orlando on October 7th, and Green Bay and Fort Myers on October 10th.

California Pacific's First Aircraft

California Pacific Airlines has reached an important milestone for any airline, getting its first aircraft. They have come a long way since we first interviewed Randy Brown, back in October.

The aircraft has traveled around the country getting prepped and ready for it's expected delivery to CPA in Carlsbad, CA on July 10th for a special delivery ceremony.

California Pacific is having a contest on their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/FlyCPAir,
where users can share one of CPA's photos for the chance to win one of two tickets to the delivery ceremony.

After their delivery, they will have to undergo some flight crew testing and training, and assuming everything goes as planned, start selling tickets and become operational by the end of the year.

photo courtesy of Flight Aware, via California Pacific's Facebook page

Dodson Tweetup

Although Startup Air is a blog that focuses primarily on the world of startup airlines, I wanted to take the time to do a feature here on a "small" Kansas aviation parts company with a global reach named Dodson International, which operates with a very entrepreneurial spirit.

Last Friday, Dodson International's web designer and social media guru, Donielle invited myself and four other AvGeeks (@flyingwithfish, @user47, @trvlinsalesgal, @brianmcspadden) out to tour their facilities in Rantoul, Kansas. 

Photo of all the #avgeeks! Credit goes to Flying With Fish

I am very glad that she did, because prior to this visit I did not know that this avgeek equivalent to Disneyland was right in my backyard, only about 40 minutes south of where I live!

This magnificent place had almost everything you could think of, ranging from 5 million different aircraft parts, to helicopters, commercial aircraft, and crop dusters! The commercial aircraft were what caused the most excitement among the avgeeks. They had a Delta Embraer 170 that overran in CLE a few years back, a DC-8 that lost directional control at MCI, American Airlines 727s, and a few Turbo DC-3s, one of which will be put on the top of The Roasterie's building in downtown Kansas City.

If it weren't for Dodson International, or @trvlinsalesgal telling me about this tweetup my AvGeek soul would be less nourished right now! I'd like to give them a huge thank you, and suggest that you follow Dodson on twitter at @dodsoninternational for cool AvGeek pieces of goodness! 

Below I have some photos/tidbits of info related to the photos to share part of the experience with you guys! 

Started the day off meeting with the other AvGeeks at MCI

After a 90 minute drive with a playlist filled with airplane themed songs (albiet, some of them a stretch! ;)  made by @trvlinsalesgal we made it to Dodson International! 

I've heard of sky lights before, but these covers on the office lights were a nice touch! 

The tour started out with this aircraft that just arrived! 

We then made it through the hangers/warehouses, where this Challenger was being taken apart

Dodson has a few warehouses filled with almost any airplane part you can think of! 

Including airplane engines! (they even had old DL 727 engines!) 

We had fun playing with this old US Airways first class seat with a Verizon air phone on it! (Photo credit to @trvlinsalesgal, knowledge of it being a US Airways seat goes to @flyingwithfish) 

We then moved on to one of my favorite parts of the tour, the aircraft scrapyard!

A Delta Connection/ Shuttle America jet that overran the runway in CLE a few years ago

2 AA 727s. You can tell they tried to cover over the AA name, but the paint faded away! 

Looking in one of the AA 727s. I'm kind of jealous, because the cabin condition is nicer than my last flight with them! (just kidding!) 

A former Easter DC-8, that was converted to a cargo jet and overran the runway at MCI in the 90s. 

There was the front/back half of this MD-82 there. I couldn't find a reg on it. Anyone who can comment below on any info about it gets 100 avgeek respect points in my book! (if those are meaningful or worth anything to you, is your call!) 

All I can say is ouch! 

I saw these plant containers/ hot tubs painted in DL Ron Allen colors! ;)

Me standing on a wing. Nothing unusual! 

We then drove to Dodson Aviation out in Ottawa Kansas, and saw a bunch of DC-3s, including this one which will be put on the top of the Roasterie's building in downtown KC. 

Me pretending to drive a tug, with a Turbo DC-3 in the background. 

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