Celebrating Black History Month: Southwest Airlines becomes a proud national sponsor of the Black Voice

By: Hardy Brown II - Executive Director Black Voice Foundation

We are honored to have a guest post from Hardy Brown II, the Executive Director of The Black Voice Foundation:

Over the last 12 years, educators from Southern California's Inland
region, have learned first hand about the incredible courage of the
individuals who sought freedom or who helped others achieve it along the routes of the Underground Railroad from Kentucky to Canada. Educatorstalk with the descendants of these Americans and retrace their footsteps which are being preserved through a major effort of the National Park Service, The Black Voice Foundation Inc., and now Southwest Airlines.

Educators from Southern California will be able to bring this period alive
in the classroom as a result of this travel study experience where they
listen to family stories of those whose ancestors risked everything for freedom.

By visiting and learning first hand about safe houses, which allowed the
freedom seekers to rest and eat by day as they traveled by night,
participating teachers help students to better understand the price of the freedom we have come to take for granted. After more than 900 miles that freedom seekers walked to a land they called Canaan, or Canada, participants meet the descendants of many of these valiant people, visiting the homes of Josiah Henson (the real "Uncle Tom") and others as they travel the footsteps of freedom.

Adding Southwest Airlines as a partner allows the programs of the Black Voice Foundation Inc. to increase its current programs and expand to now include “The Opportunity of a Lifetime” professional development program.  With Southwest's support, these students
will have the opportunity to learn about Historically Black Colleges & Universities and the career options available to them through Internships. These programs change the lives of educators and students.

 

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Celebrating Black History Month: Southwest Airlines becomes a proud national sponsor of the Black Voice was written on Feb 08,2010 at 01:14pm and posted in the categories Southwest Culture

Celebrating Black History Month--Contemplation: My Friends, My Heroes

By: Lou Freeman - Chief Pilot

A man with no sense of his past has no future as he is destined to the same pitfalls of his forefathers.  With that thought in mind, I contemplate my past, present, and future. It is something that I usually do as Black History Month draws near. My own barometer for “ how goes it?”

In my lifetime, African Americans have gone from manning the washroom to ruling the boardroom. We have struggled past Rosa Parks’ seat on that bus to Barack Obama’s seat on Air Force One. Yes much has been accomplished during the past 50 or so years, but there is still a long way to go.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr provided us with the perfect barometer when he dreamed of the day when we would all be judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin. Don’t lay down your tools now ...There is still work to be done...

Three years ago, Captain Freeman wrote about the Tuskegee Airmen.  This year, he sent us his thoughts on Black History Month, and we thought his new material goes well with the original post below. 

 

There I was...(that's typical of how most pilot stories begin) so, there I was, standing in the Capital Rotunda watching as the President of the United States and Speaker of the House, among others, recognized the men and women of a World War II Military Unit.  They were honoring these people with a Congressional Gold Medal Award.  The rotunda was absolutely packed with an overflow crowd that spilled into the Statuary Hall.  I was thrilled that Southwest Airlines offered me the opportunity to attend this invitation-only affair proclaiming our Nation's respect and gratitude for their jobs well done sixty years prior. Many of the men and women being honored had remained in the military after the war and had distinguished themselves as Senior Master Sergeants, Lieutenant Colonels and Generals (including a 4-Star among them).  Most of the unit, however, had left the military and distinguished themselves as business leaders, principals, and college professors.  Some even became mayors of major cities.  The Members of this unit have the distinction of being the only Bombers Escort Unit to never lose a bomber to enemy fighters, and they were the first U.S. pilots to shoot down a German jet fighter.  They fought the war against Germany, the war of acceptance, and the war against racism, and they distinguished themselves in each arena.  They are the men of distinction.   They are the Tuskegee Airmen; my friends and my heroes.

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Tags: Black History Month Southwest Airlines Tuskegee Airmen

Celebrating Black History Month--Contemplation: My Friends, My Heroes was written on Feb 08,2010 at 07:47am and posted in the categories Working at Southwest

Flashback Fridays--Interim Liveries Part One

By: Brian Lusk - Manager of Online Relationships & Special Projects

I’ve always been interested in what I call interim color schemes.  These are when one airline acquires an aircraft from another and then operates the airplane while it is wearing the original livery with only a few changes.  Enthusiast photographers value shots of aircraft in interim liveries because they are so temporary.  My own intrigue with the subject began as a child when I flew on a Convair 240 that Continental leased from American.  The Continental name and falcon symbol was placed on the all-metal American livery.  When I worked at Delta after the Western merger, we flew former Western aircraft in with Western stripe and the Delta “widget” and name on the fuselage.  When Delta acquired Pan Am’s European routes, Delta kept the white Pan Am color and just added small Delta titles and a small widget.

Here at Southwest, we also have a rich history of interim color schemes both from merger and leasing/buying aircraft from other operators.  In a previous post, Gordon Guillory covered the 737-700s we acquired from the Ford Motor Company.  I am going to take a few Flashback Friday posts and look at some of the other interim liveries in which our aircraft have flown.  While digging through our archives, I found a poster featuring some of these liveries, and I will share that in a later post.  Today, however, I want to look back at the Morris Air merger at the end of 1994. 

Above is the standard Morris livery.  This is a 737-317 (msn 23174), and it was originally delivered to Canadian Pacific as C-FCPI, and then it served with VASP in Brazil as PP-SNR.  Morris Air acquired it in 1993 and reregistered the aircraft as N775MA.  When Southwest acquired Morris, it was reregistered as N693SW.

 

The next aircraft  (msn 23826) wears the interim Southwest scheme, with Southwest titles on the fuselage and the Morris Air emblem on the tail.  This was delivered to Guiness Peat Aviation (GPA) as a 737-3Y0 with the registration EI-BTM, and it also served with VASP as PP-SNV.  It was returned to GPA and leased to Morris with the registration EI-CHE.  When we repainted it into full Southwest colors, it became N699SW. 

In the future we will look at some of the old 737-200s in a variety of interim liveries.  But before that, next week, we will have some Valentine’s Day photos from the archives.

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Tags: archives Boeing 737 Flashback Fridays History Southwest Airlines

Flashback Fridays--Interim Liveries Part One was written on Feb 05,2010 at 12:56pm and posted in the categories Flying and Under the hood

Tickets for Time and New Volunteer Database

By: Casey Welch - Community Relations Specialist

"Tickets for Time." It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Tickets for Time (T4T) is more than a kitschy catchphrase, it’s the name of Southwest’s newest program for Employee volunteers.  Go ahead; say it. "Tickets for Time." Now try it with a Texas accent and you’ve just done an impersonation of me.

We know the positive impact that volunteers have on communities is remarkable, and we’re proud to support volunteers and their missions. To pay tribute to our own Employee volunteers and to further our commitment to the communities we serve, Southwest Airlines is excited to introduce the T4T program powered by the Share the Spirit database.

For every 40 hours registered in the Share the Spirit database by Employees who have volunteered for an organization, the benefitting nonprofit organization is eligible to receive one complimentary, roundtrip ticket on Southwest Airlines for fund-raising or transportation needs. A nonprofit organization may receive up to six tickets a year through T4T and the hours can be accrued by one or more volunteers.

Last year, we crunched the numbers and learned that Southwest Airlines Employees shared their spirit by collectively volunteering more than 35,000 hours to nonprofit organizations across the country. That’s about one volunteer hour to every Southwest Employee!  We wanted to create a program that would help us support the efforts of our hard-working volunteers. Now we have a program with not only a cool name, but one that shows our commitment to the great tradition of volunteerism and to the charitable organizations that do so much to make our communities better places to live and work.

 

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Tickets for Time and New Volunteer Database was written on Feb 05,2010 at 07:29am and posted in the categories Southwest Culture and Working at Southwest

KISS Concert

By: Anita Weaver - Claims Tracing Representative

I work in Central Baggage Services and my Customer gave me and my Coworker Kerri Smith and her husband, Ivan, front-row seats to a recent KISS concert.   My experience was spectacular.  I had always seen KISS on television but to see the entire show live, WOW!!!!.

 

KISS gives you all they have in talent, music, and live performance.  From the fire to the Flying Paul, It is colorful and amazing. They give you the history of Rock and Roll, and I was lucky to be part of history.   Keri adds, "I had a fantastic time! I had never seen KISS or Buck Cherry in concert and the seats were great! Andrew went above and beyond to make it special experience. We really appreciated being included.  We both thought that KISS rocked it out.  Good times!"

 

I would go again for sure. I would like to say thank you to Andrew, the promoter and accountant for giving us the tickets. He treated us like Rock Royalty.

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KISS Concert was written on Feb 04,2010 at 03:53pm and posted in the categories Nutty stuff and Working at Southwest

Seriously. This *really* is what we do, and who we are.

By: Bill Owen - Schedule Planning Lead Planner

Some of you may have seen our tv ads recently talking about our Southwest's involvement in our communites. And I don't mean just the communities we serve--I mean all of the communities that Southwest Employees live in.  Unlike other airlines, Southwest has Employees that reside in every single city we serve, and at the same time we live in a lot of communities that Southwest doesn't even serve (flight benefits are a very nice thing!).

I want you guys to understand that this isn't a marketing tag--this is a personality trait that Southwest Employees share.  Seriously.  It's one of the three tenets of "Living The Southwest Way," to have a Servant's Heart.  And while we have as our Corporate Charity the amazing Ronald McDonald Houses nationwide, we all are also involved in far more than that one cause in our hometowns.  I've seen my SWA Family go way over the top serving their home communities in my 20 years with this remarkable Company....but you guys just have to hear about this one. It's just wonderful.

Southwest has served St. Louis since 1985, and we have an amazing Team assembled to work our operation there.  That also means we have some Employees that have been working for SWA at Lambert for quite a while.  One of those is Rolando, a Leader at STL who's a friend and one of the nicest guys I've ever known.  He lives a Ground Ops routine.  Go to work, go home.  Go to work, go home.  You never know what your hours will be.  Occasionally stop by the grocery, the hardware store, the dry cleaner.  Life is life.

Late last year, Ro noticed that the clerk who had served him at his dry cleaners for years wasn't around.  He asked about her and learned that she had been diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer.  Ro's wife is a breast cancer survivor, so he knew immediately that he had to get involved in helping the clerk.  He, and his STL colleagues, visited the clerk and realized the depth of the need. 

( Oxygen tanks at the front door, because she had labored breathing..)

 (The landing from thegarage area.)

 

(The old kitchen floor.)

 

Enter Extreme Makeover, Southwest Edition.

Ro and his crew almost replicated the ABC television crew's best efforts.  They moved the clerk, her daughter, and grandchildren out of the house to rooms donated by the St. Louis Airport Hilton--and then hit the house renovations hard!  They partnered with the local Home Depot get materials to renovate their dilapidated home, as well as with the generosity of Carol House Furniture in St. Louis to provide beautiful new stuff to move into the renovated space.

The kicker?  All of this work was done on each Employee's own time.  Days off, off-work hours....their own time.  Done purely for LUV and because it was the right thing to do. 

(New bedroom furniture.)

The result?  A family that my Southwest Family knew just from living in  the same town got life-changing help from their Southwest Airlines neighbors.  This was not a corporate thing.  It was a St. Louis thing--and they nailed it! 

(New landing from garage)

The amazing thing about this Company is that we are all empowered to try to make our communities better.  We can't help everybody and every effort, but we can help some folks.  And we work at it, and it's worth it! 

(new kitchen)

You can read an article about the effort from the St. Louis Dispatch here.  But all I can say is, GREAT JOB, Team STL.  Once again, you guys have made us proud. You make me proud.

And this really **is** who we are, everyone.  Thanks for reading.

Bill

 

 

 

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Seriously. This *really* is what we do, and who we are. was written on Feb 04,2010 at 09:50am and posted in the categories Southwest Culture

Colleen Barrett Speaks to MBAs Part 2

By: Steve Heaser - Sr. Multimedia Specialist

As promised, this week’s episode of Red Belly Radio is the second half of an interview between Peter Cappelli, a professor with the MBA program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, asked if Colleen, our President Emeritus, would do a little Q&A for his MBA students.

This is the second half of the interview, the first half was from January 6, 2010. Peter asks Colleen “How do you see Southwest competing going forward?” and “What is the biggest risk you face?”

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Tags: Peter Cappelli Red Belly Radio Steve Heaser University of Pennsylvania Wharton School

Colleen Barrett Speaks to MBAs Part 2 was written on Feb 03,2010 at 03:10pm and posted in the categories Customers and Under the hood

Next stop, paint shop

By: Brian Lusk - Manager of Online Relationships & Special Projects

The process began in 2001 with the delivery of two brand new 737-700s in our new Canyon Blue livery to mark our 30th Anniversary.  Starting that year, all new deliveries to Southwest arrived wearing the new colors, and we began to repaint the existing fleet in the new colors with the exception of three aircraft we planned to keep in the original livery to commemorate our original three cities.  As I mentioned in my January 5 post, those aircraft are:

 

• N711HK is dedicated to our Founder and Chairman Emeritus Herb Kelleher.
• N714CB is dedicated to the model of SOUTHWEST SPIRIT, our President Emeritus, Colleen Barrett.
• N792SW was the last aircraft delivered new in the original livery.  

 

Until today, there was a fourth aircraft in the original livery, and that was N347SW.  Michael Bludworth at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Houston Hobby snapped this spectacular landing shot of N347SW at Hobby the week of January 18.  Thanks to Michael for his permission to use it, and if you have a chance, take a visit to their museum located in Hobby’s 1940 Terminal.

 

(Technically, N347SW is the only aircraft in the original livery; the three classics named above have a new paint that features gold flakes.)  My original post was a bit optimistic about when the aircraft would be repainted, but it left Dallas early this morning on its way to Seattle in its last day of revenue service wearing the original Southwest colors.  By tomorrow this time, it will be stripped to bare metal, and in about six weeks, it will emerge into the damp air of Puget Sound wearing shiny new Canyon Blue.

 

While it was too dark this morning to photograph the last departure from Dallas, we have an additional photo taken while N347SW patiently awaited its makeover.  This is from Rob Hahn in Customer Relations and Rob captured the aircraft departing Dallas a couple of weeks ago.

My colleague, Brad Hawkins, will be with N347SW as it begins its transition, and we should have some video in the future.  Stay tuned.

 

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Tags: Southwest Airlines

Next stop, paint shop was written on Feb 03,2010 at 09:50am and posted in the categories Flying and Under the hood

N680AA Final Flight Update

By: Brian Lusk - Manager of Online Relationships & Special Projects

A few weeks ago in Flashback Fridays, I wrote about the upcoming final flight of N680AA.  Well it took longer than expected for that last flight to depart thanks to some issues about its return, but it finally left this morning as Flight 8700 to Greenwood, Mississippi.  Here are some pics of its last Southwest flight.  The first shot is N680AA leaving the hangar here in Dallas:

Shortly, it was taxiing past the Love Field terminal for the last time.

 

Without a passenger load, N680AA leapt into the air from Runway 31Left. (Note the aircraft in the background landing on Runway 31Right.)

 

And, N680AA flies off into retirement.

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Tags: Brian Lusk Flashback Fridays Southwest Airlines

N680AA Final Flight Update was written on Feb 02,2010 at 08:56am and posted in the categories Flying

Random Act of Kindness

By: Bert Stevens - Nashville Customer Service Agent

You never know what effect a random act of kindness will create. But, I wanted to tell you about an event that reach beyond the small gift given by one of our Crews. However, first I have to tell you a story…

By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the devastation in Haiti.  If you are like me, you are saddened, but a little numb to international tragedy. It’s a world away. Send a little money, say a prayer for the victims, and promptly forget.

However, Haiti is different. I have friends who have been trying to adopt a little girl from an orphanage in Haiti. After several mission trips, Mike and Missy Wilson decided to adopt Tia. The Wilson’s older child, Katie, took a semester off from college to go work at the orphanage, arriving  just one week prior to the earthquake. As you can imagine, Mike and Missy were at first terrified, then relieved to hear from Katie after 24 hours of waiting and trying to reach her. She and Tia, as well as all the orphans were all okay.

Mike was able to get to Haiti shortly after the airport began accepting flights. He took a Southwest flight from Nashville(BNA) to Tampa(TPA) and then got on a charter to Haiti. He was reunited with Katie and Tia and began to work to bring them home. Here’s more in Mike’s own words:

What About These Kids???    

January 16, 2010 11:24 pm

Here in Haiti the orphan crisis is very real. I have been here since Wednesday evening and beginning at dawn on Thursday, the number one priority of my visit was to rescue the orphans we knew were without a building in Carrefour. What began as my simple attempt to rescue my daughters became a realization…Haiti is in dire need of help, and it will not be easy.

Thursday we were fortunate. We were able to locate all of the children from our orphanage, secure transportation for them all, and move them to a safe location outside of Port au Prince. They were all alive, safe, and (with the exception of one of the workers who was at the hospital at the time of the quake and received a broken leg) unharmed.

The problems grow quickly. The building where the children once lived is unfit for them to return to. The bottom two floors have compressed to the point where no one even entertains the thought of reentering the building. When we left the building on Thursday with the children, one of the guards ran back inside ignoring the shouts to stop. When he came back down he was carrying Katie’s clothes that had been hanging in her room. HE RISKED HIS LIFE FOR HER CLOTHES!! The children got out with the basics…clothes for that day, a few mats, and the food and water they bravely went back into the building to get. The children are alive and doing well, but for how long.

The adults can deal with things. The children are on their own. Most of the violence I have seen firsthand comes from those who have lost loved ones, those who have been turned away from getting help for their sick or injured family and friends, criminals, and parents fighting for their children’s lives.

So who fights for those without parents? It’s truly up to us. We MUST take care of these children…because the sad reality is this: over the next few weeks more children will be forced to live in orphanages and creches because they unfortunately are now “orphans.”

As Paul Harvey would say, “And now for the rest of the story.”

This past week I received a call from Mike about his flight to TPA that he just had to tell. He was so appreciative and the story so moving that I couldn’t keep it to myself.

The day after the earthquake, Mike took Flight #1627 from BNA to TPA. The Flight Attendants on that flight were Stephanie, Marchell, and Holly. Upon learning that Mike was on his way to Haiti, they filled a garbage bag with peanuts and pretzels. Mike took that bag with him when he boarded a medical charter to Haiti later that day.

Mike told me that those snacks were supper for his team that night when they got to Port au Prince. When they saw kids on the side of the road that they could tell were starving, they would share some peanuts or pretzels.  Then later, those snacks were used to feed the children at the orphanage until aid could arrive.

I can’t help but remember my Sunday School lesson of the boy with five loaves and three fish that Jesus used to feed five thousand. It may not have been five thousand, but I truly believe the gift that Stephanie, Marchell, and Holly gave was multiplied in ways we will never know. It was their Servant’s Heart that led to a gift that quit literally saved children in Haiti from starving.

Since that time, the orphanage has received food and supplies. But in the first days following the earthquake, a few bags of peanuts and pretzels went a long way to help some hungry children. You just never know the difference that a random act of kindness can have.

(In my best Paul Harvey imitation), “And now you know the rest of the story!”

 

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Tags: Share the Spirit Southwest Airlines

Random Act of Kindness was written on Feb 01,2010 at 12:52pm and posted in the categories Southwest Culture