Southwest Airlines announced today at the Corporate Travel World
conference in New York that it has dedicated a management team to support
the growing impact of its corporate booking tool, http://www.swabiz.com/ ,
in the business travel marketplace.
A pilot project sales team was launched in August 2003, whose efforts
spiked corporate travel manager enrollment from some of the top companies
in America. It was soon evident that a fulltime sales force was needed to
maintain the SWABIZ momentum. For the first time, a sales team is
completely dedicated toward the product that has quickly established
itself as a corporate travel manager favorite.

The country will be covered by Terry Eisenbart in the western states,
Joyce Hobbs will cover the central region, with Kevin Sullivan focused in
the northeast markets, and Alison Hoefler in the southeast. The effort is
being led by Scott Anderson who has been named manager of national
accounts.

With enrollments in SWABIZ up 72 percent in 2003 versus 2002, Southwest
sits in the front row when it comes to meeting the demands of the business
traveler. Southwest draws the business traveler with low airfares,
frequent flights to desired destinations, and flexible fare rules, such as
no required Saturday night stay.

“No matter the size of an expense account, everyone wants the best value
for the money,” said Rob Brown, Southwest’s director of corporate sales,
in charge of the new SWABIZ team. “The SWABIZ tool offers Southwest’s
legendary low air fares with double credit in our Rapid Rewards program,
coupled with our soon to be 59-city route network and Employees who are
truly dedicated to our Customers’ needs. The fact that SWABIZ is
absolutely free to use is just icing on the cake.”

Southwest’s 33-year history of low fares with a high-frequency flight
schedule always has attracted the “road warrior,” but travel managers have
not always been able to tie Internet purchases on Southwest’s stand-alone
system into traditional “back office” accounting systems. The development
of SWABIZ allows corporate travel managers to purchase even Southwest
Airlines’ lowest “Click N Save” air fares on SWABIZ and integrate
customized reports into existing accounting systems, without paying an
additional booking or change fee. The SWABIZ online corporate booking tool
also allows a corporate travel manager to customize booking pages that
enables him or her to showcase preferred hotel and car rental agreements,
or take advantage of Southwest’s extensive network of preferred hotel and
car rental discounts.

“The growth of SWABIZ is mostly due to word-of-mouth from satisfied
Customers and the efforts of our Field Marketing Managers,” Brown said.
“The team we have assembled to focus on the future of SWABIZ truly is our
best advertising. Our people really believe in the value SWABIZ offers our
Customers and they love to hear how Southwest is out there making a
difference.”

Take Kaiser Permanente, for example. Margy Skinner, manager of national
travel services, says that SWABIZ gains her company access to all the
value and service Southwest Airlines is famous for without the penalty of
a booking or change fee. “Health care is an area under extreme pressure to
reduce costs,” Skinner said. “Using SWABIZ, we can manage our travel
dollars more effectively by benefiting from Southwest’s consistently low
air fares and double Rapid Rewards credit.”

Sierra Health Services of Las Vegas, a Fortune 1000 company, knows that
time is money. Marianne Millsaps, corporate travel manager of Sierra, says
that SWABIZ “is very user friendly and offers rapid results and complete
control of our airline reservation. Our travel department can view every
airline fare and the booking capabilities are very simple to follow.”

The team that Southwest Airlines has assembled to support its SWABIZ
effort is very pleased with the acceptance of its online corporate booking
tool thusfar and hopes to build on its growing visibility with corporate
travel managers. “We know there are a number of corporate booking options
out there right now, but SWABIZ is completely free, with no set up,
transaction, or change fees. Additionally, no other product available
offers the consistently low air fares and excellent Customer Service of
Southwest Airlines,” Brown said.

FORTUNE has consistently recognized Southwest Airlines in its annual
survey of corporate reputations. Among airlines, Southwest came out on top
as the most admired airline in the world for 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, and 2003. Among all industries, FORTUNE has listed Southwest as one
of the most admired companies in the world, year after year. Southwest
starts service to its 59th city—Philadelphia—on May 9, 2004.
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