If you think commercial air travel isn’t what it used to be then you haven’t flown Southwest Airlines. Long distance travel was once a perk limited to the upper crust. The advent of commercial airline travel has made it possible for virtually anyone to get across the country or across the globe, for what is practically a pittance. But somewhere along the way, most major carriers became too complacent and just could not seem to keep it together. Enter Southwest Airlines is a maverick company with a maverick CEO. Southwest Airlines is breaking all kinds of records for affordable airfares, on time service, and customer and employee loyalty. The airline manages these feats while also also doing what seems to be the impossible for most other airlines, it's profitable!
It has been over a year since the September 11th attacks and our nation’s airline industry has suffered huge losses in revenues because of them. Southwest Airlines however, has been the only major U.S. carrier to post a profit, with or without the federal grant, during the fourth quarter of 2001 and for the full year of 2001. Southwest also happens to be the best U.S. stock of the last thirty years as quoted in the 2002 fall issue of Money. Jon Birger of Money says that since August 1972, Southwest has produced annualized returns of 25.99%, which means that if you had invested $10,000 in Southwest thirty years ago, it would be worth a little over $10.2 million today. Southwest Airlines has been able to consistently turnout profit...