Nuts!

Southwest airlines is seeking approval from the Dept of transportation for authority to operate internationally with Canada. As of now, this approval is only a preamble to fully implementing a code share that SWA has with Canadian West Jet but will also allow SWA to operate its own jets into Canadian destinations in the future.

There is an excellent corporate bio on SWA entitled Nuts! by Kevin and Jackie Frieberg. I read this book and absolutly could not put it down. It outlines many of the reasons why SWA had enjoyed uninterrupted profitability for over thirty years. Among those reasons are Herb Kelleher, and SWA's insisting on remaining in its niche- the domestic market.

On May 21, 2008, beloved chairman and co-founder Herb Kelleher stepped down as chairman of the board at Southwest. When he and Colleen Barrett (People department director, PR, budget manager, etc.) left, I had a feeling that despite their legacy at SWA, things were bound to change in their absence.  Herb Kelleher kept the company on the same course since its creation on a cocktail napkin at a bar in San Antonio. He is to Southwest what Walt Disney is to Disney. 

This action by the new CEO bodes ill for SWA's future because it opened the doorway into the international market. Granted, Southwest has not announced any plans to send Shamu across the border as of yet but unless great care is taken to protect the company's original domestic business model, current CEO Gary Kelly may end up doing just that. This is not the kind of operation that SWA was built for. This is not the kind of operation that has made SWA profitable for more than 30 consecutive years (including the post-9/11 drop in air travel). The new management is exploring the pathway to peril... I hope that they don't venture down it.