Thanks to a research project, I have finally gotten around to a task which I had kept putting aside. I haven’t procrastinated because of dread, but time constraints were the culprit. My task is reading all the back issues of our Employee magazine, LUVLines, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. One thing has struck me quite clearly: The issues and challenges that Southwest faced 30 and 20 years ago are very similar to the ones we face today, and in fact many are the same challenge. To meet those needs, Southwest has been making fundamental changes to the way we do things since day one.
Some changes involve Culture—yes, it has changed over the years. When we started, many of our slogans, logos, and the way we interacted with our Customers were based on not so subtle inferences to the name of our home airport, Dallas Love Field. We were the “Love Airline,” the “someone up there who loves you,” and “the airline that Love built,” just to name a few. A “Love Machine” dispensed tickets, and Customers sipped “Love Potions.” When we listed our stock, first on the American Exchange in 1975 and then later on the New York Stock Exchange, we used the ticker symbol LUV. Over the years, we gradually shifted from Love to LUV in our communications. While Love spoke of romance and innuendo, LUV was platonic. Besides the ticker symbol, the first big example of the change to LUV was when LUVLines debuted in 1976.
Even so, it took over ten years to complete the switch to LUV. The reference above from the January 1983 issue of LUVLines appears to be the first instance of LUV being applied to Employee interaction. From this point forward, LUV would gradually replace Love—except in the name of our airport in Dallas.
Early next year, we will introduce the larger 737-800, and it will require more Crew Members and a different inflight service routine than our current aircraft. This won’t be the first time for a major change like this because we have done this before with six leased 727s during the early 1980s. (The 727 had a third Cockpit Crew Member—the Flight Engineer, where the 737-800 will have an additional Flight Attendant.) Herb Kelleher wrote an open letter in the August 1983 issue explaining the need for these changes, and I have picked out a couple of his points from above that contain similarities (but not exact matches) to today’s competitive market: 3. Our 737-300s do not begin arriving until the end of 1984, and the 727 is a much more marketable longhaul aircraft than the 737-200. 4. With the cessation of the FAA's slot control program (after the PATCO strike), if we do not serve some of the more attractive, longer haul routes within our present system, our competitors will do it for us.
Later in the same letter, Herb explains our new boarding procedures that were going into effect. Instead of just opening the door to the jetbridge so everyone could board at once as we had done since 1971, we would now assign boarding pass numbers. Herb outlines the reasons for this major change affecting Employees and Customers alike: The reason we decided to try this new boarding procedure is really quite simple. Even though we continually hear grumbling about our not having assigned seating, our research into this area and our Customer surveys have shown us very clearly that people are not really objecting to the fact that we do not have assigned seating, but are, rather, objecting to the “mad rush” at the jetbridge entrance when our boarding announcements are made—the pushing and shoving to secure early passage onto the aircraft—the so-called “cattle car” image that our competitors have labeled us with. When we initiated our current boarding process four years ago, there was resistance to this major change. That resistance was similar to what was expressed in 1983, and Herb's letter addresses the need for (and reluctance to) change: We feel that this procedure, once known by our regular Customers, will induce Passengers to check in a little earlier than they have been in the past (lowest numbers on boarding passes board first)—which, in turn, will help bring about a smoother check-in procedure for our gate agents. Nobody ever likes change … but sometimes change is necessary.
Not all of our challenges come from within. The cover of the March/April 1991 LUVLines outlines the economic turmoil arising from the first Gulf War that ravaged the airline industry. Any current Employee recognizes these same issues today. The square at the upper left carries a word of warning for all of us, “Only the Strong Survive.”
And finally, I wish the cover above from the next issue of the magazine that year represented a topic that wasn't still current. It lists the Southwest Employees who served in Desert Storm. The list of our Employees who have been on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan is much larger and numbers in the hundreds. While we are extremely grateful for their service and that of their comrades in arms, it would be nice for this not to be a recurring theme.
There are a lot of platitudes about history like “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As true in most clichés, there is a basis of truth in that warning. We can’t always control what challenges events will throw at us, but we can use our history as a guide on how to meet those challenges. The biggest lesson of our history as written in the pages of LUVLines is that you have to meet these challenges head on to survive. If our Employees of 1971, or 1981, or 1991 had taken the easy way out, Southwest would have been on the someone else’s magazine cover as a warning.