Longtime Southwest Airlines CEO will step down next year

Change is coming in the leadership of Southwest Airlines

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines said Wednesday that longtime CEO Gary Kelly will step down in February and be succeeded by another veteran at the nation's fourth-largest airline. The new CEO will be Robert Jordan, the executive vice president of corporate services. Southwest said Kelly, 66, plans to remain executive chairman at least through 2026. Change at the top comes as Southwest and other airlines are starting to recover from the pandemic. Southwest is heavily geared to vacationers flying within the U.S. or to nearby countries, and it has navigated the downturn better than most. Thanks to federal pandemic relief, it turned a small profit in the first quarter of this year, and it has added many new leisure-travel destinations. Jordan said in an interview that his goals are to restore Southwest’s profitability to “the levels we would like and expect,” repair the balance sheet – Southwest took on debt to survive the pandemic – and visit employees every week. He gave a stay-the-course outlook — “We've got a wonderful strategy” — and declined to list any major changes on his agenda.