Southwest Airlines Ceo Quotes

Its low fares made flying an attractive alternative for price-sensitive travelers accustomed to driving or taking a bus. In the early years, a shareholder asked CEO Herb Kelleher if Southwest couldn’t raise its prices by just a few dollars since its $15 price on the Dallas–San Antonio route was so much lower than Braniff’s $62 fare. Kelleher said no, our real competition is ground transportation, not other airlines.

However, leadership is not confined to the CEO. Leadership is better understood as a process that can take place at any level of an organization.

The events of September 11, 2001 presented an unprecedented ethical challenge to the business leaders of the airline industry. From Jim Parker’s own lecture (Parker. 2010) and his book Do the Right Thing (Parker, 2008) as well as other publicly available material, we can highlight the ethical business decisions of Jim Parker, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Southwest Airlines at that time, and the highly positive business impact these decisions had on Southwest Airlines.

The customer is sometimes wrong. —HERB KELLEHER, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES