gloopy

Or if you have something completely fake and nonexistant anymore, like the long gone "Southwest Effect" and "low fare leader" and "Boy, when SWA comes to town all the fares plummet to 59 bucks to everywhere! Weeeeeeee!"

But perception alone can be the oil that greases the gears of politics and right now that appears to be why the politicos are still so madly in love with SWA. That and the evil bag fees, which some in DC think the Constitution gives them the right to try and eliminate. Blah blah blah commerce clause, yadda yadda yadda general welfare clause, etc.

So everyone falsely thinks SWA is still the market stimulating low fare dominating scrappy "people's" airline and they apparently still get a lot of leverage from that myth. Maybe we should start calling it the "Clark Howard Effect".

And they very clearly get massive preference from ATC at all levels. If that's pizza parties then DUH we need to be doing that. But I suspect its holdover from the days when the FAA's mandate was blatantly and openly written to be more about commerce over safety and they were literally ordered to do everything they could to help the poor underdog consumer save by any means necessary. Cleared direct, everyone hold for them so they can get right out, vectors so the SWA behind you can land first, never ground their fleet, look the other way and just a slap on the wrist when caught, etc. There is still carryover from that and we need to work hard and throw millions in lobbying at making sure that junk ends.