Many seem to assert that any problem associated with today's Southwest can be linked to Herbs departure. While I agree he was a visionary CEO with an uncanny ability to think outside of the box, it was a different airline when he stepped down as CEO in 2001.

Many of the changes at SWA can be attributed to nothing more than growth. In 2001 SWA employed 30,000. In 2016 Southwest has more than 52,000 employees. Maintaining any semblance of a "family" feeling becomes progressively more difficult as an airline nearly doubles in size.

Add in the complexity of introducing large congested airports and a limited international route structure and SWA begins to experience some of the maddening delays and problems inherent to a larger and more complex system.

I don't believe SWA has lost that luving feeling but I think most can understand that Southwest will begin to share more issues troubling the legacies as time marches on.