Wednesday Marks Herb Kelleher's Last Day As Chairman

The airline industry is about to change forever. Wednesday is founder Herb Kelleher's last day as Chairman of Southwest Airlines.

The Dallas Morning News reports that after chairing Wednesday's annual meeting, the 77-year-old Kelleher will step back into an officially undefined role which will keep him on the airline's payroll until at least 2013, at $400,000 a year.

Kelleher has had a controversial, colorful, and uniquely successful career with Southwest. He started the airline, originally called Air Southwest, with businessman Rollin King in 1967. The airline industry was still federally regulated, and it was a good thing Kelleher was an attorney. It took four years in court to defeat challenges from Continental, Braniff, and Trans-texas Airlines before the new carrier was able to begin service.

The court battle inspired Winifred Barnum to write a children's book called "Gumwrappers and Goggles" in 1983, in which a small jet named "TJ Love," in Southwest-like livery, was bullied by larger jets wearing the colors of Continental and Braniff. The book was eventually adapted as a stage musical titled, "Show Your Spirit," and performed in cities served by the airline.

After some hand-to-mouth times in its first few years, Southwest went on to do something no other US airline has done - run up a string of 35 consecutive, profitable years. Regarding the industry's current fuel-price crisis, Kelleher recalls the 1990s, when financial difficulties and cutbacks at other airlines allowed Southwest to expand quickly in Chicago, California, and other cities.

"I think potentially...as the industry contracts in economic agony as the result of jet fuel prices, that you may find that Southwest has a substantial number of new opportunities opening up before it," Kelleher said.

Kelleher says he loves solving problems... but even though his new contract will keep him working till he's 82 years old, he does plan to slow down. "Basically for the last 40 years, I have worked seven-day weeks, at least 12 hours a day," he said. "Hopefully, when we make this transition... I'll have a few weekends off."

FMI: www.southwest.com