Southwest Airlines was founded in 1967 as a low-cost airline operating in the state of Texas. Today, Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic airline in the United States, employing over 46,000 employees and operating 3,600 flights per day (Southwest, 2014). Southwest is also the largest operator of Boeing 737 aircraft in the world with over 680 aircraft in service operating an average of six flights per day each (Southwest, 2014). Under its original name, Air Southwest Company, Southwest Airlines was founded by a group of Texas investors who pooled $560,000 to form a small airline to serve the cities of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. By the summer of 1971, operating under Southwest Air, the airline owned three planes. By utilizing high-end aircraft and employee productivity while minimizing costs by reducing aircraft turnaround times at the gate, Southwest was able to generate operating revenue of $17.7 billion and an average passenger load of 80.1%. (Southwest, 2014). One of the major factors contributing to the airline's success is fuel coverage. Fuel coverage is a contractual tool used to mitigate rising fuel costs. Fuel hedging allows Southwest to set a fixed or capped cost, either through a commodity swap or an option. When purchasing a fuel swap, if the price of fuel drops, the company will be forced to pay the above market rate. When you buy a fuel call option and the price rises, the company will receive a return that offsets its actual costs. Some fuel call options require an upfront cost. In the above scenario, if the cost of fuel decreases, the company will not receive a return from the option, but will benefit from purchasing fuel at a lower cost. Southwest Airlines has taken advantage of this technique and by doing so avoids high fuel costs; extremely important for a company whose annual fuel consumption in 2012 exceeded approximately 1.9 billion gallons (Southwest, Braniff, Trans-Texas and Continental Airlines have all filed lawsuits against the airline for interstate service all interior of Texas. Three years later, Southwest won when the Texas Supreme Court upheld their right to fly to Texas. The decision became final after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case without comment. In the early 1960s, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth jointly found a new location for a major airport due to the decision of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which determined that Love Field in Dallas and the international airport Greater Southwest than Fort Worth were unsuited for future air traffic demands. Both cities had to resolve this issue due to the FAA refusing to provide continued federal funding to airports. The end result is Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), which opened to commercial traffic in 1974. All airlines agreed to move to DFW. Southwest Airlines insisted that this would affect their business model being very far from downtown Dallas. Southwest sued to remain at Love Field, and in 1973 the Supreme Court ruled in Southwest's favor as long as the airport remained