The
Southwest Airlines corporate team in Dallas reports $.5 billion in 3Q
profits, showing the mighty airline isn’t slowing down anytime
soon. Southwest is king of the airport in the City of Lights. The
city’s busiest commercial carrier brings record numbers of
pleasure-seeking leisure travelers and executive
teams to Las Vegas for team building, meetings, corporate training,
trade shows and fun.
While
Las Vegas is going strong, “This is the year of Houston,” says
Gary Kelly, Southwest
CEO in a recent article in Fortune magazine.
Southwest’s
new international building at Houston’s Hobby airport opened in
October, with daily service to Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica. Plans
for the $146 million, five-gate terminal call for adding news
destinations in 2016, including Cuba, although Kelly would not
specify.
Leisure
travelers may account for the bulk of Southwest’s international
business via Houston, but the future is bright for Texas-bound
corporate travel and global
executives coming to Houston for corporate training and events.
Houston
was the likely site to establish an international gateway. An
original hub for Southwest during its humble beginnings, Houston now
serves Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Cancun, Belize
City, Montego Bay, Nassau, San Juan, Punta Cana; and Liberia and San
Jose, Costa Rica.
While
Southwest is saving on fuel, it’s also offering customers lower
fares. Jet fuel prices decreased $300 million for the third quarter,
saving Southwest $1.3 billion on fuel alone this year, according to a
recent
article in the Las Vegas Business Journal. Southwest shares more
of the love with customers as it plans to build new larger and
lighter-weight seats for passenger comfort and fuel economy.
