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[quote user="blue streak 1"] [quote user="Sam1"]The founders of Southwest Airlines, who put together what is arguably the most successful airline in the world, did not receive any government support for their airline.[/quote] Sam: Most of your statements are correct as I remember but this sentence is not. Remember SW started service out of Dallas airport (DAL) - Houston HOU Hobby). Fortunately for SW Braniff airlines whose main operating and maintenance base was at DAL (some at MIA for South America) went bankrupt and to fill all the infrastructure that BN vacated SWA got a sweet heart deal on the monorail, parking concessions, hangers, terminal, BN gate space, etc, then gate space that was vacated by all the major airlines that moved to DFW. I do not remember the deal at HOU when IAH  was moved into by majors. I would believet that some sort of the same deals were proffered. The Wright ammendment also had some effect. [/quote] SWA got little at Dallas Love Field except a broken down terminal that no one else wanted.  It began operations in the early 70s.  Braniff did not go belly up until 1982.  I began flying SWA in 1975, when I moved to Dallas from the Northeast.  I remember walking into a terminal that looked and felt like a morgue.    SWA got a deal on the gates, parking, etc. at Love Field.  But no one else wanted them.  It was the only deal that the city could get.  The facilities were lousy.  Flying Southwest during the early years gave a new meaning to budget airline.  Southwest's management saw an opportunity to launch an intrastate air service that turned into a winner.  It has made it possible for millions of Americans, who otherwise could not afford to fly, to see their families half way across the country.   Moreover, as Herb Keller has stated, we recognized that many people did not want to fly from a cow pasture between Dallas and Fort Worth to a cow pasture outside of Houston when they could fly from close-in airports.  Grabbing an opportunity like this is what makes the competitive market system so dynamic and, although it has its faults, has resulted in the highest living standards around the world.  Whoops, hopefully no one will consider this a political statement.   SWA was put together by visionaries who understood the importance of competitive markets and were willing to bet the farm on their idea.  Had they failed, they would have lost everything.  The Wright Amendment came along only after Braniff, American, Delta, etc. failed to run SWA out of business.  The SWA story is riveting.  It is capitalism at its best, and the story is one of the cases that are studied extensively at the Harvard Business School.
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