Southwest Passage: The Inside Story of Southwest Airlines' Formative Years [Paperback]

Lamar Muse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2003

When Southwest Airlines made its inaugural flight on June 18, 1971, experts predicted that the company wouldn’t last more than ninety days. Some thirty-two years later, Southwest is the beleaguered airline industry’s only profitable major company.

Money magazine has named Southwest Airlines’ common stock the premier investment of the last thirty years, with the runner-up, Wal-Mart, only a distant second.

Now Southwest’s founding president and CEO (1970–78), Lamar Muse, offers a definitive account of the airline’s scrappy beginning. The principles and practices that assured the company’s success were, largely, Muse’s own. Those same winning strategies continue to sustain the company through the market’s ups and downs.

During his school days in Palestine, Texas, Muse was known by the nickname "Ug," short for "ugly." He never earned a college degree. But with a brilliant and broad understanding of complex market forces, he bypassed "business as usual" to launch Southwest Airlines.

Lamar Muse established Southwest using clear, practical, timeless solutions. Likewise, in Southwest Passage, he delivers plain facts and informed opinions that replace convoluted outsider accounts of the company’s history. For anyone wondering how the air industry can renew itself, how Southwest achieved its dominance, or how business really works, this unique story has the answers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Eakin Press; 1st edition (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571687394
• ISBN-13: 978-1571687395
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,113,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book for airline/aviation buffs, May 29, 2003

By 

W. Baldwin (austin, tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southwest Passage: The Inside Story of Southwest Airlines' Formative Years (Paperback)

This book was very interesting in relation to the history of several airlines. It covers Lamar and his stints at Trans-Texas, American, Southern, Central, Universal, Southwest, and even covers some of Muse Air. Too bad no pictures were included.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for students of Southwest, November 9, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Southwest Passage: The Inside Story of Southwest Airlines' Formative Years (Paperback)

There's been a lot of blather written about Southwest, including _Nuts_ and _The Southwest Way_. My opinion is that most of these books are written by people who don't know much about the airline business and who are trying to push their pet management theory. I'm a professional airline analyst, for what that's worth.

Muse was actually there and made it happen as the first CEO of Southwest.

Is it a perfect book? No. Muse is opinionated, and you're definitely getting his side of the story. But he's up front about that and doesn't pretend otherwise. It's also as much about him as it is about Southwest, but that's interesting too. He's had quite an eventful life, and his prior experience is totally relevant to what happened at Southwest and why. I think he'd be the last to claim that he's lead a perfect existence.

He also quotes liberally from the letters to the board of directors that he wrote every month. These are valuable historical documents, and one hopes that Muse preserves them by donating them to a transportation library somewhere.

Muse isn't a professional writer, but his language is direct and to the point. The book is informative, easy to read and entertaining. Even if it wasn't, it would still be worth reading, given his critical role in the birth of Southwest.

One day, someone will write a serious business history of Southwest. When that happens, Muse's book (and hopefully his letters to the board) will be key source material. In the meantime, this is probably the single most interesting book on the foundation of Southwest.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, May 26, 2005

By 

Pondering Mind (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Southwest Passage: The Inside Story of Southwest Airlines' Formative Years (Hardcover)

In making a reservation on Southwest's website last week I noted that they are pushing two books about Southwest, one being "NUTS" and the other "THE SOUTHWEST WAY." There was no mention whatsoever about "SOUTHWEST PASSAGE", one of the best business books I have ever read. Could it be that the true story about Southwest in its early days during which the course was set for its 32 years of profitable operations, as told in SOUTHWEST PASSAGE, is so totally different from the tales told in the other books by the airline's current executives that SOUTHWEST PASSAGE has been blackballed? I know nothing about the authors of the three books, but I do know that Lamar Muse was there on the scene and can prove everything he says in SOUTHWEST PASSAGE while the authors of the other two books were probably still just gleams in their fathers' eyes.