Retiring Southwest CEO Gary Kelly on What He Sees as His Legacy
Photo Credit: Southwest Airlines CEO considers his legacy as he prepares to step down after 17 years. Southwest Airlines / Stephen Keller
Skift Take
When Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly took the job in 2004, the airline industry was reeling from the post-9/11 travel slump and rising oil prices. Now, as he gets ready to retire, it's slowly recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. in between, he remade the airline from scrappy discounter to one of the country's largest airlines.
It's rare in any industry for a CEO to stay on top of his or her company for nearly two decades, let alone in the rapidly changing airline sector.
To say that Gary Kelly has seen it all would be understatement. Kelly will retire in February after 35 years at Southwest Airlines, or most of the company's 50-year history, a stretch of time that has seen the airline transform itself from a discount carrier beloved by price-conscious vacationers to one of the country's largest airlines, with a thriving and lucrative corporate travel business.
After 17 years at the helm of Southwest, Kelly will pass the torch to Robert Jordan, a company veteran who now is executive vice president for corporate services. Kelly, who trained as an accountant, came to the company in 1986 as controller, joining from Arthur Young & Co.
On the heels of his big announcement last week, Kelly, 66, spoke on Monday with Skift's Airline Weekly a
