A Napkin, a Triangle and Four Years in Court: The Start of Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines started with Rollin King's pitch to his lawyer, Herb Kelleher, and a route map drawn on a cocktail napkin.
Southwest Airlines is one of the best-known business stories in America, and it began with a pitch most people would have dismissed. The airline's own history gives a detailed account of how two very different founders turned that idea into a company.
The pitch
In late 1966, Rollin King walked into the San Antonio office of his lawyer, Herb Kelleher, with a plan for a short-haul airline inside Texas. It would connect San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. King was already paying Kelleher to wind down his previous small airline, which served small Texas towns.
King pointed to Pacific Southwest Airlines in California as proof that a carrier operating within one state could work. Texas, like California, had large cities too far apart for easy travel by car or bus. An airline flying only within Texas also would not fall under the federal Civil Aeronautics Board rules that weighed on many new carriers.
The napkin
Over drinks at the St. Anthony's Club, King drew a triangle on a cocktail napkin with Dallas, San Antonio and Houston at the corners. He called it "The Texas Triangle." Kelleher asked where the capital would come from. King said they would have to raise it. Kelleher's answer, as Southwest tells it: "Rollin, you're crazy. Let's do it."
Air Southwest Co. was incorporated on March 15, 1967. It took the name Southwest Airlines Co. four years later. Legal fights with established carriers delayed the first flights until June 18, 1971, according to the Texas State Historical Association's history of the company.
Two founders, two strengths
King, a Harvard Business School graduate and amateur pilot, served as the first president and then as executive vice president of operations during the airline's first four years of flying. He stayed on the board for 39 years. Kelleher, an NYU-trained lawyer, became chairman in 1978 and kept that title until 2008, with two stints as chief executive. Southwest describes the pairing as disruption meeting discipline.
Kelleher, who died in 2019, was known for his sayings. One sums up his approach to planning: "We have a strategic plan. It's called 'doing things.'"
The airline's early years were defined by its point to point model. Instead of building a network around a hub, it focused on frequent, low cost trips between a few large cities. That kept planes busy and fares low, and it gave customers a clear reason to choose a new carrier over established ones.
The same discipline, doing a few things well before adding more, applies to almost any startup.
Lessons for founders
- Look at what works elsewhere. King modeled the plan on a California airline.
- Understand the rules. Flying only within Texas changed the regulatory picture.
- Pair a visionary with an operator. King's idea needed Kelleher's legal skill to survive.
Short-haul air service between distant cities is a familiar issue in Montana, where travel between towns can take hours by road. Southwest's origin shows how one simple map can define a business. More at the Montana Statesman.
