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Flashback Fridays: Harlingen and the Battle for the Valley

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Aviator C

Thanks to Bill Owen for his great Flashback Friday on Newark last week!  This week we return to Southwest’s early days to look at our fourth destination, Harlingen.  The photos come from a batch of negatives that haven’t seen light in over 35 years.

Harlingen is an interesting subject because it was the first city to which we expanded after our three original cities, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.  By choosing Harlingen, we passed over more logical cities like Austin and El Paso, and it triggered the “Battle for the Rio Grande Valley” with Texas International.  Although they served many parts of the state, Texas International had a virtual monopoly on service to the Valley, where they served McAllen, Brownsville, Harlingen, and other destinations.  Their primary intent was to carry passengers to Dallas or Houston to connect to other carriers, and the fares they charged for local traffic were high.  In 1973, Southwest asked the Texas Aeronautics Commission (TAC) for authority to begin service to nearby Harlingen.  The case took two years to hear, but on February 6, 1975, the TAC awarded Southwest the authority.  On February 11, 1975, Harlingen became Southwest’s fourth city.  Shortly after that, TI filed suit against the TAC and Southwest contesting the route award.  During the year that Harlingen service was being contested in the court, Southwest filed application to add five more cities, Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Lubbock, and Midland/Odessa to the system.  On October 28, 1976, a state district court had upheld the TAC’s granting of Harlingen service, and TI declined to appeal.

 

These photos show that our early Harlingen Station operated at a different pace than our other cities.  The photo above has much more in common with air travel in the 1950s than the 1970s, and a gate was just that, a gate in the fence leading to the ramp.  Notice that, except for some garment bags and very small carryons, there are no carryon items.  The roll up doorway just behind the three men leading the way out of the gate is Texas International’s operations and bag makeup area.

 

Our Agent above is collecting a very old version of our plastic boarding passes.  Back then, Passengers who wanted to sit in smoking, which was at the back of the plane, boarded first.  The button she is wearing reads:  “Have a good time on Southwest Airlines.” 

 

At the checkin desk, the Agent is exchanging the paper tickets, which were cash register receipts, for the plastic boarding passes.  The tickets are on the counter in front of her, and the boarding passes are in the cubby hole just beyond.

 

I find two things very interesting in the above photo.  One is that apparently there was no belt loader or it was broken on this day.  The second is that it illustrates how everyone pitches in to get things done as the man in the uniform coat and tie is probably either an Operations Agent or a Supervisor.  The cart has some athletic bags from the local Pan American University.

 

And of course, the Valley is known for citrus fruit, and it appears that one of the Passengers has fashioned luggage out of orange and grapefruit boxes.

 

The airplane is N26SW, a Boeing 737-2H4, and since we obtained that aircraft in July 1975, we know the station has been in operation for a few months when these photos were taken.  Since a lot of the Customers have lightweight jackets, my guess is that the photos were taken the fall of 1975 or spring of 1976.

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