
35 Years Young
35 Years Young
I recently spent a couple of hours during a photo shoot with the 16 remaining "Original Employees" of Southwest Airlines. We refer to them as "Originals" because they were hired during our first year of service. This group consists of eight Flight Attendants; two Maintenance Employees; one Operations Agent; One Disptacher; one Flight Operations Manager; one Marketing Officer; our President; and our Chairman. Being around this group is like meeting up with best friends from high school who were separated when they went off to college! They greet each other with huge hugs and smiles as big as Texas. Without missing a beat, they will ask each other about their spouses, children, and in some cases, their grandchildren, calling each by name.
This very special group of Southwest Employees have made it possible for the other 32,000 of us to have job security, profitsharing, and a 401(k) plan with Company match. It wasn't always easy for this group--Southwest was a struggling airline when they chose to join our cause. We didn't have money to spend on advertising, so our Flight Attendants would stand on street corners in their hotpants and hand out flight schedules. This actually ended up being a brilliant marketing ploy. The future of Southwest was so uncertain that first year that we actually ended up selling one of four airplanes just to survive. That was the beginning of the famous quick turns of our planes.
This group has helped our airline grow from flying the Texas triangle (between Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston) to 3,128 daily departures today. As we celebrate our 35th Anniversary this year, our Original Employees will be featured on our website, southwest.com, in June. Make sure and check them out--especially the Flight Attendants--who are as gorgeous today as they were 35 years ago.
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Comments
Hear, Hear Sunny!!!!! I agree most wholeheartedly with you. Withouth them, I would not have been with Southwest for almost 11 years.
I am currently reading NUTS and hope to apply the same spirit to my businesses.
HAPPY 35th SWA ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! I am also reading NUTS and it is a great read. On a recent flight to Oklahoma City,
I met Reggie (see his FA brief on page 66) as he saw me reading right after the preflight brief. I think he was supprised when I asked him to sign his page. Of course I did enjoy the same entertaining brief for our flight.
My wife and I are long-time supporters of SWA and support the repeal of the Wright Amendment.
SET LUV FREE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
G & K
Thanks so much for your support for our wonderful Company and our efforts to repeal Wright. I sure hope you visit this blog again as we've had a great response so far! Of all of the FUN assignments I've had to date--the NUTS book included, I'm enjoying this one most of all. We get to hear from our friends and our foes, and even though I've never blogged until now--I'm hooked!
[...] Sunny Stone recently did a post about a photo session with our Original Employees, and many of you may be interested in this recentÂ
Was just wondering if one of your pilots, Sonny Childers, was an Air Force Thunderbird pilot back in the early 80's. I believe he is now a pilot with Southwest. We were just at an air show this weekend with another former Thunderbird and Sonny's name came up in the conversation. Was wondering what he was doing now.
Would love to say hello to one of your original flight attendants....Sandra Force. Sandra and I went to college in Clinton, Mississippi together in the late 60's, and even dated for a little while. She was, and still is, a "show stopping beauty" and it is great to hear that she has had such a wonderful career with Southwest!
Sonny is happily married and working for SWA
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