Southwest closer to assigned seating: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance: "he carrier invented the '20-minute turn' out of necessity in late 1971, the year it began flying. In order to meet its payroll, the thinly capitalized start-up had to return one of its four leased planes. But by turning its three remaining planes in 20 minutes, it continued operating its full schedule.
The idea worked. In the process, Southwest discovered that an intense focus on the highly efficient use of assets - planes, gates and employees - is a key to its profitability. That focus on efficiency became the company's hallmark. And it has paid off with 60 consecutive quarterly profits.
Southwest's turn times have stretched in recent years to around 30 minutes, on average. In part that's because it now flies larger-capacity planes. It also flies into more big airports where congestion slows operations.
Southwest ranks as the USA's No. 6 carrier in passenger miles flown, and it is on pace to move ahead of No. 5 Northwest Airlines in the 2006 rankings due out next spring. It already carries more domestic passengers than any other U.S. carrier"
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