Southwest Airlines Co. It is headquartered in Love Field, Dallas , in the DallasβFort Worth metroplex , and has scheduled service to destinations in the United States and ten other countries.
Southwest currently serves airports in 42 states and multiple Central American destinations. Southwest's business model is distinct from that of other US airlines. It uses a rolling hub and point-to-point network and allows free checked baggage. Its fleet exclusively consists of Boeing jets.
The airline has nearly 66, employees and operates about 4, daily departures during peak travel season. Three other airlines Braniff, Trans-Texas Airways , and Continental Airlines took legal action to try to prevent the company from its planned strategy of undercutting their prices by flying only within Texas and thus being exempt from regulation by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board.
The lawsuits were resolved in , and in the airline changed its name to Southwest Airlines and began operating regularly scheduled flights between the Texas Triangle cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
In , Southwest began flying to other cities in Texas, and in , after passage of the Airline Deregulation Act , it began flying to adjacent states. It started service to the East and the Southeast in the s, [ 12 ] and Denver in , [ 13 ] which is now its most popular destination.
