Gallery: Southwest's Headquarters & History

Southwest Airlines main corporate headquarters building on the company’s campus near Dallas Love Field is named after co-founder and former Chief Executive Herb Kelleher.
 

Visitors to Southwest’s corporate headquarters are greeted with a sky-full of 737s suspended from the ceiling. The large-scale models commemorate current and past liveries from the original desert gold, canyon blue, and current Heart schemes. Many of the company’s famous logojets are on display going back to the original Shamu from 1988.
 

A model of one of Southwest’s original Boeing 737-200s in the company’s first paint scheme “Desert Gold” from the 1971 launch is preserved in the archives. Today, this livery is only preserved on the special Herb Kelleher christened 737 MAX-8 retrojet.
 

A collection of Southwest memorabilia culled from the company’s archives including: the first inflight magazines from 1971, the love potions drink menus, a pilot’s hat, and the ice decanter gift offered to customers during the infamous “$13 Fare War” with Braniff in 1973. Southwest responded by offering a base $13 fare or a full fare ticket for $26 that included a bottle of premium liquor or this decanter. 
 

Southwest’s Listening Center, opened in 2014, serves as a nerve center, integrating traditional media, social media, and operational data to allow various functions to move quickly and efficiently from insights to action. The Listening Center is staffed seven days a week with employees from customer relations, communication and marketing departments. 
 

The office of Colleen Barrett, Southwest’s former president/COO is preserved behind glass next to Herb Kelleher’s office. The office is still powered up ready for when Barrett returns. She last visited prior to covid. Barrett became the first and only female president of an airline when she ascended to the role in 2001. Beginning as Herb Kelleher’s legal secretary, she is considered the mother of Southwest and still serves as President Emerita.  
 

A model of a ValuJet Douglas DC-9 in the “Critter” livery, next to a Boeing 717. ValuJet acquired Air Tran in 1997 and took the latter’s brand. The model of the Southwest 717-200 is rare. These aircraft were acquired during the 2010 acquisition of Air Tran but never operated under Southwest colors, and instead were leased to Delta Air Lines beginning a decade ago.
 

AirTran memorabilia is preserved in Southwest’s archive, including models of AirTran’s final fleet of 737-700s and 717-200s. Southwest completed its integration of AirTran, with the merging into a single AOC in December 2014. 
 

Southwest’s corporate headquarters is literally a museum dedicated to celebrating the company’s heritage and its Warrior Spirit. It is populated with a series of culture centers, such as this one saluting the airline’s legendary co-founder Herb Kelleher.
 

Southwest Airlines welcome new team-members with boisterous red carpet rallies, replete with cheers and dance music. During press day in 2022, the media were rousted with an 8 a.m. surprise wake-up party!
 

Southwest Airlines’ love of celebrating its culture is curated in an extensive archive. This treasure trove of memorabilia includes displays like this featuring original flight attendants on the ramp in the 1970s hot pants uniforms, Former chief executive Lamar Muse’s newspaper ad during the 1973 “$13 fare war”, and various bumper stickers and buttons.
 

Southwest’s corporate historian Dick West shows off the centerpiece exhibit, Herb Kelleher’s office. The day after the former CEO died in 2019, West’s team took detailed photos of the office just as Kelleher had left it. It was then moved 25 feet from its original location and put back just as it was so it could be on display behind glass. Prized objects include the first operating certificate from the Texas Aeronautics Commission, a bottle of Wild Turkey, and a drawer full of lighters (including one from Airbus).
 

Fuselage panels from “The Herb Kelleher,” a Boeing 737-700 registered as N711HK that was broken up in May 2022 are preserved on the wall. Herb’s namesake ship is now a newly delivered Boeing 737 MAX-8.
 

This life-sized plush toy mascot was a fixture at inaugurals throughout the system for many years through the early 2000s until the then new Canyon Blue livery arrived.
 

Colleen Barrett’s portraits of Herb hang in her preserved office. Barrett got a job as a legal secretary working for Herb when he was a young lawyer in San Antonio, Texas. She grew to play a pivotal role in keeping Kelleher organized, setting him up for his eventual success. They became an inseparable team for 51 years.
 

Southwest’s ‘70s Salute table in the corporate archives reflects a very different era in fashion and branding, plus a photo of co-founders Herb Kelleher and Rollin King in front of the latter’s namesake 737.
 

A model of a TranStar MD-80 rests in the Southwest corporate archives. Southwest bought out former SW President Lamar Muse’s namesake rival airline, Muse Air in 1985. Southwest originally scrubbed the Muse branding, rechristening the airline as TranStar and introduced a longer-haul network across the U.S. sunbelt. TranStar was extinguished in 1987.
 

Two generation of Southwest seats, including the Canyon Blue cabin from 2001, guard the entrance to the airline’s massive corporate archive. This place is an AvGeek’s paradise!
 

Southwest was one of the first airlines with an internet presence. This is the actual PC that hosted the first airline’s first website in 1995. It is flanked by an early reservation system, based on Braniff’s Cowboy CRS, and the airline’s signature unassigned seat boarding passes that soldiered on well until the 2000s until the arrival of the digital app.