FreedomOne is One Great Looking Jet Worthy of a 50th Anniversary Celebration
Southwest Airlines celebrated 50 years of operation on 18 June 2021. You know the story of Southwest. The airline is one of the largest domestic airlines and the largest “low-cost” carrier. They fly to some 115 destinations in the United States and ten international destinations. The airline was originally established by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King on 15 March 1967 as Air Southwest. In June of 1971 the name was changed to Southwest Airlines. At that time Southwest flew only between destinations within the state of Texas. It wasn’t until 1979 that Southwest began flying to destinations outside the state of Texas.
Southwest Today
Today Southwest employs nearly 56,000 people and operates roughly 4,000 flights per day during the peak travel season. Southwest had turned a profit for 47 consecutive years until COVID pretty much wrecked everything having to do with travel. As of 2021 Southwest flies scheduled flights to 115 destinations in 40 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The airline exceeded 130 million passengers in 2019. Southwest does not use the hub and spoke system of other major airlines, preferring the point-to-point system, combined with a rolling hub model in its base cities. Here’s a look at the newest Southwest color jet, FreedomOne, uploaded to YouTube by Southwest Airlines.
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The Equipment Roster
From 1979 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1985 Southwest it leased and operated a few Boeing 727-200s. But from their beginning to the present they’ve always operated the Boeing 737 series of jetliners. Southwest is indeed the largest operator of the Boeing 737 worldwide. This has some advantages, chief among them that the use of the 737 enables Southwest pilots and flight attendants to crew any aircraft in the fleet without restrictions. Southwest flight attendants are justly famous for their humorous safety announcements. Here’s an example uploaded to YouTube by Tamara Overby.
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Here’s another example of Southwest flight attendants and their zany antics uploaded to YouTube by Andrew Keeth.
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An Enviable Safety Record
While Southwest has experienced a number of mishaps over their 50 years of operation, including some involving passenger deaths, the airline has never lost an entire aircraft to a mishap- an enviable record. The video below was shot from a passenger’s perspective during a flight from DEN to MDW aboard a 737-8 Max and was uploaded to YouTube by Skylite Productions.
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Southwest flight attendants also provide some comic relief upon landing. Here’s an example uploaded to YouTube by Marty Cobb Smile High Club.
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