Part 4. Southwest.
Keywords.
low-cost, low-debt, personal, informal, crazy, low fares, corporate culture, spirit, personality.
Vocabulary.
Charismatic, brash, dividend, unorthodox, concerted, emanate, refute, revenue, Dallas, Southwest Airlines, CEO, Buick.
A. You're going to hear a report about the success of a small airline called SouthWest Airlines. Listen carefully, match each expression in bold print in column A with the one closest in meaning in column B.
Another North American business hard hit in the late eighties and the early nineties is the airline industry.
Major carriers have gone into bankruptcy or they've been bought up, while others have cut back operations and lost money.
Only one airline reported big earnings in the early nineties, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines.
Under the leadership of its charismatic chairman and CEO Herb Kelleher, and his low-cost, low-debt philosophy, SouthWest has beaten the odds in the cutthroat game above the clouds.
Southwest's image reflects Kelleher's style: personal, informal and a little crazy.
He once arm-wrestled the president of an airline manufacturing firm for the right to use an advertising slogan.
Employees are free to dress as they like, even wearing shorts around the company headquarters.
Flight attendants were once famous for wearing hot pants.
Southwest's ad campaigns are clever and brush and not afraid to make fun of competitors.
