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Flashback Fridays--A Historical Admiration for Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants

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Aviator C

Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants have always been great ambassadors of our Company and our Brand.  One of my other duties besides managing this blog is serving as our “archivist.”  In the latter roll, I have received a lot of recent requests for photos from the 1970s of our Flight Attendants.

These requests have come from publications as different as The Wall Street Journal and Glamour UK.  So, I thought I would share some of these photos from our archives with you.  The one below really is the iconic image of Southwest Airlines’ early days.  Back then, some airlines called their flight attendants, “stewardesses,” but we used the term “Hostess” for our Flight Attendants.  This picture contains a large group of our Flight Attendant staffing at the time.

About a year ago, I uncovered a group of negatives that had pictures of our one-year anniversary celebration, and I am including this black and white photo here because it defines our Fun-LUVing Attitude that our Original Employees created.

Our inflight magazine at the time, Southwest Airlines Magazine, had a monthly feature called “Hostess of the Month,” and our Flight Attendants were photographed in a variety of scenic spots all across Texas.  The layout included a Playboy-style interview (but not Playboy-style photos!) with similar questions.  We really have come a long way since then.

Our Flight Attendants were also used for promotions in the cities we served.  This photo would appear to date from the late 1970s, and it revolves around some kind of “Love” promotion with candy.

The last photo reflects our tenth anniversary in 1981, and the Flight Attendants have swapped skirts for hot pants.  However, take a look at those faces, and having fun hadn’t changed.  And it still hasn’t changed.

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