Southwest marks 30 years in Las Vegas with celebration, Twitter contest

A United Airlines passenger jet is shown on the ground as a Southwest jet takes off at McCarran International Airport on Dec. 9, 2011.

Thirty years ago, few might have guessed that Dallas-based Southwest Airlines — a company whose first route map was drawn on a napkin over cocktails — would become the biggest carrier at McCarran International Airport.

But that's what happened, and the company commemorated 30 years of service in the community with a celebration Wednesday at McCarran and the kickoff of a contest on Twitter.

Southwest opened its doors in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 1982, the 15th city on the airline’s route map. It flew five flights a day from Las Vegas to Houston and Phoenix. Today, it has nearly 200 daily nonstop flights to 53 cities and brings nearly 16 million travelers a year to Las Vegas — about 40 percent of all McCarran passengers — in its distinctive blue, orange and gold Boeing 737 jets.

Las Vegas currently is the second-busiest city in the Southwest system behind Chicago’s Midway Airport, a major connecting point for the airline. For several years, McCarran was Southwest’s largest operation.

Southwest has 2,807 Las Vegas employees, including 1,185 pilots and flight attendants based here. When the airline started here in 1982, it had 29.

Legendary Southwest co-founder Herb Kelleher and business associate Rollin King met in a San Antonio restaurant in 1971, drawing a triangle representing core routes between San Antonio, Dallas and Houston on a napkin.

Randall Walker, director of the Clark County Department of Aviation, and Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, saluted the airline in a news conference Wednesday morning.

“Southwest’s presence in Las Vegas has had a significant impact on our local economy and has also proven popular among local residents,” Walker said.

“Southwest Airlines has been a tremendous partner for three decades,” Ralenkotter said. “Combining the brands of Southwest and Las Vegas is a winning combination that has proven itself time and again.”

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who chairs the LVCVA’s host committee, offered a toast to the airline’s next 30 years.

Those could be huge for Southwest, which is the midst of expanding its fleet with larger 737 aircraft and absorbing AirTran, an airline it acquired in May. The AirTran merger will gradually add 22 cities to the Southwest system as well as planes to the airline’s fleet.

Southwest also will begin flying to the Caribbean and Mexico as it absorbs AirTran routes.

Southwest employees from across the country came to celebrate Wednesday in Las Vegas — and will have to dodge airspace closures resulting from the arrival of Air Force One to get home. President Obama is due to arrive later Wednesday.

In addition to getting applause from local officials, Southwest celebrated on its own, recognizing two 30-year employees in Las Vegas and awarding the Southwest Airlines Las Vegas Pilot Base with the ACE Base Award, given to the station with the most participation in the airline’s Adopt-a-Pilot Program pairing pilots with fifth-grade classes.

Southwest is observing the anniversary with a contest on the company’s @SouthwestAir Twitter handle. Followers will be asked to submit a photo answering a Las Vegas-themed riddle. Winners will get a flight and hotel lodging in Las Vegas.

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