Creating Certainty in an Uncertain World

The year was 1972, and Southwest Airlines was fresh off a $1.6M loss. As a result, they sold 1 of their four planes and needed to serve a 4-plane passenger docket with only three planes. Bill Franklyn, VP of Ground Operations, was tasked with finding a solution.

The solution? The infamous 10-minute turnaround. The next year Southwest posted a profit and has done so every year since then.

“The flight attendants, the pilots, everybody was racing to get the airplane picked up real, real...