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Staff post about: Herb Kelleher Become an Author

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When the idea for Southwest Airlines first came about, it had some ardent opponents. It was going to be able to sidestep federal regulations and offer greater value to customers. It was going to push point-to-point flights between smaller airports and speed up turnaround times. And, it was going to have a lot of fun doing it.

As a result, other already established airline carriers started to worry. Lawsuit after lawsuit popped up against Southwest. “Nobody believed that it would work, and the other carriers thought that we were just an annoyance, not something permanent,” he says. In total, Kelleher was facing 31 legal challenges over his right to start a business. Even investors behind Southwest began to waver.

“It turned into a marathon because the incumbent carriers – Braniff, Trans-Texas, and Continental, didn’t want any competition,” recalls Kelleher. “I was involved in 31 separate administrative and/or judicial proceedings with those carriers over four or five years. I made three trips to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a judge at the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals said: I have sat on this bench for 30 years, and this is the worst case of business harassment I've ever seen.”

For more than four years, Kelleher made fighting Southwest’s legal battles his new profession. But Kelleher was confident it would be a success if only it was allowed to get off the ground. He volunteered to work without pay in fighting the lawsuits, even taking on all of the legal costs himself. “We ran out of money in 1969, and the board of directors said: Let’s just shut this down,” recalls Kelleher. “And I said: I’ll pay all the costs out of my own pocket and work for nothing to see if we can get this thing going. And fortunately, it did go.”

It was not only the other airlines that proved to be a thorn in Kelleher’s side. It was the New York financial community as well. “Every time I’d go up there, they’d give me a lecture, and they’d say: Well, Herb, now that we’re deregulated, you’ve got to be just like the other airlines. And I said: No I don’t think so,” says Kelleher. “And after about maybe nine or ten years, [an analyst] with Credit Suisse First Boston got up at an investor seminar and said, ‘For 10 years we've been telling Herb Kelleher how to run Southwest Airlines, and for 10 years he's been telling us to bug off. Since they're the most profitable airline in America, how about if we all bug off?’”

Kelleher was willing to sacrifice his time, energy, and personal money to see his dreams take off. “If they want to fight a war, we’re ready to go to two years or five years or ten years,” says Kelleher, “whatever it takes – in order to be successful.”

In 1988, Southwest became the first airline to win the one-month Triple Crown service award for Best On-Time Record, Best Baggage Handling, and Fewest Customer Complaints. Between 1992 and 1996, Southwest won five consecutive Triple Crown awards. Kelleher’s refusal to give up paid off.

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