Rollin King, 83, helped start Southwest Airlines
Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:55 am
Rollin King, Who Helped Start
Southwest Airlines, Is Dead at 83
By MICHAEL CORKERY
The New York Times
Rollin W. King, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines, the low-cost carrier that helped to change the way Americans travel, died Thursday in Dallas. He was 83. The cause was complications from a stroke he had a year ago, his son Edward King of Dallas said.
An avid pilot, who had a business degree from Harvard, Mr. King sketched out a plan to create Southwest in 1967. The idea was to create an airline that was less expensive and more fun to fly.
“He really had a feeling there was a better way to go about air travel,” his son said.
Back when Mr. King and his lawyer at the time, Herbert D. Kelleher, started the company with just a few planes, Southwest faced stiff opposition from larger, established carriers, whose prices made frequent air travel the near-exclusive domain of the wealthy.
The company started flying in 1971, but only in Texas at first. Southwest is now one of the world’s largest airlines with more than 100 million passengers annually and $17.7 billion in revenue last year.
“His idea to create a low-cost, low-fare, better service quality airline in Texas subsequently proved to be an empirical role model for not only the U.S. as a whole but, ultimately, for all of the world’s inhabited continents,” said Mr. Kelleher, Southwest’s co-founder and chairman emeritus.
Southwest’s chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, credited Mr. King for helping to start the company’s effort to “democratize the skies.”
After helping Mr. Kelleher get the airline off the ground, Mr. King liked to pitch in as a pilot on some of the company’s routes, his son said. Mr. King was the company’s first president and served on the company’s board of directors until 2005.
MORE
Southwest Airlines, Is Dead at 83
By MICHAEL CORKERY
The New York Times
Rollin W. King, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines, the low-cost carrier that helped to change the way Americans travel, died Thursday in Dallas. He was 83. The cause was complications from a stroke he had a year ago, his son Edward King of Dallas said.
An avid pilot, who had a business degree from Harvard, Mr. King sketched out a plan to create Southwest in 1967. The idea was to create an airline that was less expensive and more fun to fly.
“He really had a feeling there was a better way to go about air travel,” his son said.
Back when Mr. King and his lawyer at the time, Herbert D. Kelleher, started the company with just a few planes, Southwest faced stiff opposition from larger, established carriers, whose prices made frequent air travel the near-exclusive domain of the wealthy.
The company started flying in 1971, but only in Texas at first. Southwest is now one of the world’s largest airlines with more than 100 million passengers annually and $17.7 billion in revenue last year.
“His idea to create a low-cost, low-fare, better service quality airline in Texas subsequently proved to be an empirical role model for not only the U.S. as a whole but, ultimately, for all of the world’s inhabited continents,” said Mr. Kelleher, Southwest’s co-founder and chairman emeritus.
Southwest’s chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, credited Mr. King for helping to start the company’s effort to “democratize the skies.”
After helping Mr. Kelleher get the airline off the ground, Mr. King liked to pitch in as a pilot on some of the company’s routes, his son said. Mr. King was the company’s first president and served on the company’s board of directors until 2005.
MORE