If you read this blog or traveled with us last week, you know that we went all out to celebrate Independence Day.  We even had visits from Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty.  Our regular Customers know we LUV to celebrate and that includes big holidays like July Fourth and some “smaller” ones like St. Patrick’s Day.  This is part of our strategy of “Owning the Holidays.”

So why are holidays so important to us?  Well, being a holiday airline is part of our DNA and history, and it goes back to when we measured our age in months, not years.  The June 1972 edition of Southwest Airlines Magazine (the forerunner of our current inflight magazine, Spirit) features a photo of our Flight Attendants decorating the cabin for the Easter bunny.  The text explains why holidays were so important to us then, and if you overlook the primary “male” viewpoint of the article (most air travelers in 1971 and 1972 were male businessmen—until we made it affordable for everyone to fly), the reasons are the same today:

A lot of things have changed since those words were written, but it really is reassuring of all the things (including our smiles) that have remained a constant.