Just one more question. What other jackets are Southwest pilots authorized to wear besides the leather jacket and the Karbon jacket.

The traditional pilot blazer.


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AKA the blAAzer. :eek:

I’d rather wear the blazer than the Fonzie Biker jacket or the Metrosexual Wetsuit jacket. [emoji57]


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Real pilots wear leather jackets and it looks both cool AND professionally competent. Just look inside any flying magazine. If you need more work to sell a different image because your customers demand it, try chippendales or Delta :)

Seriously, we're not selling exactly the same product as some other airlines. A leather jacket, friendly smile, a hand getting up and down the jetway, and some good old SWA LUV seems to be our brand, not dressing up in a dinner jacket to cater to the dozen or so folks in first class. Remember, on those other airlines, their handful of first class passengers pay just about what our entire planeload coughs up. Huge difference in expectations when their first dozen pax pay about what our 150 pay.

Pay a buck fiddy for an ice cream, and it's ok if the guy serving it up is wearing a white/red striped shirt and paper hat. Pay $150 for the same ice cream served in a silver bowl, and the guy serving it damn well better be wearing a tuxedo. It doesn't mean one ice cream server is any better or worse than the other, any more or less competent, any more or less professional. It means that at some point the brand is selling a particular image.

Exactly..... I cringe at the sight of either of those.

I think we’ve discussed this before. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I believe that the casual uniform is an intentional strategy to diminish the profession in the eyes of the public. Playing the long game to make airline pilot nothing more glamorous than city bus driver.... and equally as poorly compensated.


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I cringe at the hat and blazer. It feels like a 3-day checkride is coming.

The worst is a mixed crew of blazer and Karbon walking through the terminal. It's supposed to be a uniform (emphasis on uni). Karbon and leather look close enough to be ok together, but blazer and either look bad together.

The Karbon jacket is a *^%+ing joke. It’s hideous and makes us look completely unprofessional. The leather jacket is slightly better. I wouldn’t be caught dead in either.

The blazer is a very polished, professional, and traditional look. Sorry, but I’m old school when it comes to airline pilot attire.

.......and yes, the flying public does respect you more if you look and act the part of a professional.