Herb Kelleher was the co-founder and then the CEO of Southwest Airlines for 20 years, ending in 2001 — although he stayed on as chairman until 2007. While that was a while ago now, it’s when Southwest’s DNA as a company really was formed.

There's a growing volume of online chatter about the next big airline merger that's likely to be proposed, and much of it involves Southwest Airlines.

The company said the cuts, the first round of broad layoffs in the airline’s 53-year history, would affect mostly corporate employees.

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines has announced an "unprecedented" mass layoff, cutting over 1,700 jobs. Monday, Southwest announced it is cutting 15% of its corporate and leadership workforce. "This decision is unprecedented in our 53-year history," Southwest President and CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement.

Southwest Airlines said it will slash 15% of its corporate workforce -- the first mass layoffs in the company's decades-long history -- as the airline looks to cut costs.

Southwest Airlines , the fourth-largest airline in the U.S., is on a strict road to recovery after facing significant reputational and financial headwinds over the last few years.

Southwest Airlines plans to cut 1,750 jobs or 15 percent of its corporate workforce, in the US carrier's first company-wide layoffs in its 54-year history. The Dallas-based airline said Monday that the job cuts would be focused almost entirely on “corporate overhead and leadership positions,