Southwest Airlines

The number of people flying from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport has surpassed pre-Sept. 11 levels for the first time, thanks in large part to Southwest Airlines, which now carries more than half the airport's passengers. BWI this week reported that a record 20.7 million passengers passed through the airport last year, bumping the previous high set in 2001, the year of the terrorist attacks. The initial downturn in travel that followed the attacks, plus a weakened economy and spiking fuel costs, caused financial havoc in the airline industry in general.

Forty years ago, a young Air Force wife from New England went looking for work as a legal secretary in her new hometown of San Antonio. Colleen C. Barrett went into the lobby of each office building over six stories tall and checked the directory for law firms. She was hired by Herbert D. Kelleher, a lawyer who latched onto the idea of starting a no-frills, low-cost airline flying between San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Southwest Airlines was born in 1971. Co-founder Kelleher took over as chairman seven years later with Barrett as his assistant.

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co., the world's biggest low-fare airline and the dominant carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said yesterday that second-quarter earnings rose 18 percent because of increased passenger demand along the East Coast.Net income climbed to $157.8 million, or 29 cents a split-adjusted share, from $133.4 million, or 25 cents, in the second quarter of last year. The most recent per-share results were in line with the average estimate of 30 cents from analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport has a new king. Southwest Airlines, six years after its inaugural East Coast flight, now flies more passengers through BWI than any other carrier.The news might seem like a blow to former No. 1 US Airways, which last year formed a low-fare subsidiary airline, called MetroJet, specifically to compete with Southwest.But airline industry observers don't think US Airways has lost the fight for Baltimore just yet.The real fight, they say, might be still to come.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport moved a record number of passengers for the fifth straight year in 1998, surpassing 15 million travelers, airport officials said yesterday.Buoyed by the growth of its two dominant carriers -- US Airways and Southwest Airlines -- BWI's passenger traffic increased 6.5 percent last year from 1997.The airport also set air cargo records last year, handling more than 420 million pounds -- an 18.8 percent increase from 1997."It was a fantastic year for us," said Maryland Aviation Administration Director Theodore Mathison, who will retire this summer after 14 years in charge of BWI. "We served more passengers last year than during the first 17 years of the airport's existence."

Southwest Airlines is investigating how a 13-year-old Baltimore boy managed to sneak onto a plane -- apparently without a ticket -- and fly from Baltimore to San Diego with three stops in between.Tay'mond Allen of the 3200 block of Shannon Drive in Northeast Baltimore managed to obtain a boarding pass for a Jan. 25 flight from Baltimore-Washington International Airport to San Diego, a Southwest spokeswoman said last night from the discount carrier's headquarters in Dallas.Kristin M. Nelson, the Southwest official, said no one is allowed to board without a pass and that most of what the airline knows about the incident has come from media reports.

Southwest Airlines further cemented its role as the dominant carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport yesterday, announcing that it will expand service to Connecticut's Bradley International Airport near Hartford.The Dallas-based airline will fly 12 daily flights to Bradley beginning Oct. 31, eight of them from BWI.The move is the latest in a long list of East Coast expansions for Southwest, which recently surpassed US Airways as the top airline at BWI. Since its 1993 arrival in Baltimore, Southwest has steadily built the airport into its main East Coast hub."

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co. said yesterday that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Herb Kelleher has prostate cancer and has begun radiation treatment.Kelleher, 68, said the cancer was discovered during an annual exam, and he will receive brief treatments weekdays for about two months while he keeps working. His colorful promotions of Southwest, such as shimmying in an Elvis Presley jumpsuit for a magazine cover, have made him a high-profile chief executive.The diagnosis highlights the lack of a clear successor at an airline whose co-founder and holder of the top three jobs has reached an age when many executives are retired, a key weakness for a company even if the leader is healthy.

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co., the dominant carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said yesterday that its third-quarter profit fell 2.1 percent as jet-fuel costs rose and Hurricane Floyd forced it to cancel flights.Net income fell to $127 million, or 24 cents a share, from $129.6 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier, matching forecasts. Revenue rose 13 percent to $1.23 billion from $1.09 billion.Southwest's fuel and oil costs jumped 48 percent to $142.6 million.

Last year was the best ever at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and yet it seems officials there are almost frantic.They're piecing together as many as five construction projects this year, including renovating a pier, adding baggage belts and finishing a new plane de-icing pad. They're expanding to accommodate one of BWI's largest customers. And they're shopping BWI's year-old international terminal around the globe in search of a new overseas carrier or two.It seems that record-setting years are the norm these days at Maryland's international airport.

As federal aviation safety officials investigated Tuesday why a Baltimore-bound jet was forced into an emergency landing by a football-size hole in its passenger cabin, Southwest Airlines said it found no other problems in a mass inspection of its planes. The Boeing 737-300 took off in Nashville, Tenn., and landed safely in West Virginia about 5 p.m. Monday after the 1-foot-by-1-foot hole opened up in the rear of the aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board sent two investigators to the scene and could issue a preliminary report about the incident as soon as next week, said spokesman Keith Holloway.

Southwest CEO says June looks weak for airline DALLAS - The chief executive of Southwest Airlines said Thursday that June looks weaker than May, judging by a key measure of revenue, and he doesn't yet see signs of a turnaround. "It's a very, very difficult time, and earnings are going to be very stressed until the economy changes," CEO Gary Kelly said. Kelly said that revenue divided by capacity, a key measure of financial performance in the airline business, was weaker so far in June than in May, when unit revenue fell about 9 percent from a year earlier.

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Southwest Airlines has always promoted the fact that it doesn't charge passengers extra fees like its competitors, but that was before the economy went bust and people stopped traveling as much. The Texas-based airline and largest carrier at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport said yesterday that it was going to start allowing people to bring pets on board - but for a $75 "pet fare." It also will begin charging $25 for helping unaccompanied minors on flights, and $25 more for overweight bags and a third piece of luggage.

Southwest Airlines is scheduled to announce plans Tuesday to offer nonstop service from Baltimore to Boston, adding a second major market to its portfolio in little more than a week as it works to build business despite the downturn in travel amid the recession. Beginning Aug. 16, Southwest will schedule 10 flights daily to Boston's Logan International Airport, including five each from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and from Chicago. Last week, the air carrier began booking flights to New York's LaGuardia Airport from Baltimore and Chicago.

Southwest Airlines has reached a deal with federal regulators that will reduce a proposed fine for aircraft inspection lapses by nearly $3 million. The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday that under the agreement, Southwest will pay $7.5 million in three installments to settle the penalty, which was originally proposed at $10.2 million last year. The fine stemmed from allegations that the Dallas-based discount airline allowed 46 airplanes on nearly 60,000 flights without performing required inspections for fuselage cracks.

Construction begins on housing in Middle River Construction has begun on Renaissance Square, a 196-home development in Middle River that includes senior housing, Baltimore County officials said yesterday. The developer, Enterprise Homes, has secured financing for the project, which will include 115 townhouses and detached homes priced from $225,000 to $375,000. Help with closing costs and down payments will be available on some homes. Evergreen, the senior housing component to be built by Bozzuto Construction, will include 81 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Southwest mechanics approve 4-year pact DALLAS : Mechanics at Southwest Airlines Co. approved a new four-year contract that calls for annual raises and bonuses and includes an agreement on the company's ability to send maintenance work abroad. The union that represents 2,500 of Southwest's 35,000 employees said the contract includes raises of 3 percent each in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and 1 percent in 2012. Southwest is the largest carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

MidAmerican reduces stake in Constellation MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., whose $4.7 billion takeover of Constellation Energy Group was terminated last month, reduced its stake in the Baltimore utility by nearly 2.7 million shares to 8.65 percent, according to documents filed last night with the Securities and Exchange Commission. MidAmerican, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, received a nearly 10 percent stake in Constellation and $593 million in fees when the deal was aborted.

Amid a flagging economy, Southwest Airlines wants to give up nearly a quarter of its gates at Maryland's flagship airport, company officials said yesterday. The low-cost carrier, which operates more than half the flights at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, is seeking to shrink its footprint without reducing the number of flights offered. The move comes just months after state officials granted millions in concessions to persuade Southwest to maintain its investment here.