Inspiring Muse

Cut-rate fares and hot pants

Lamar Muse, 60, the Texan who made upstart Southwest Airlines one of the nation's highest-flying carriers by slashing fares and ballyhooing it as the "love airlines," will soon be back in the air after a two-year grounding. MuseAir will take off next June for seven destinations from San Antonio to Memphis. By 1985 the new airline will fly to 24 cities, including Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

Aggressive promotion and price cutting have long been Muse's trademarks. As Southwest's first president, he started flights in 1971 that gave new meaning to the term friendly skies. The airline billed itself "The Somebody Else Up There Who Loves You." Upon boarding a flight, passengers were greeted by a soft, sexy voice, saying: "Hi. I'm Suzanne. Y'all buckle your seat belts and don't dare get up. We don't want anything happening to you now because we love you." The stewardesses, personally selected by Muse himself, sported tight hot pants and leather go-go boots. In-flight drinks were known as "love potions," and cash registers that issued tickets were "love machines."

Such pizazz impressed good-ole-boy Texans, who were soon vying for aisle seats where stewardess viewing was best. Southwest flights were also packed because of the low fares. A nighttime or weekend trip from Houston to Dallas was only $13 on Southwest, compared with $26 on competing Braniff and Texas International. Soon the inexpensive and colorful Southwest flights within Texas were as much a part of local tradition as the Alamo, longhorn cattle and the Dallas Cowboys.

In 1978, however, Muse and Southwest had a falling out. Muse wanted to expand by starting up operations at Chicago's Midway Airport, but Southwest's board of directors balked because it considered the strategy too expensive and risky. Muse thereupon quit. But in the past two years he has made plans to raise $32 million for MuseAir, of which he will be chairman. Says he defiantly: "This time I'm not going to get caught between a bunch of knuckleheads who don't know their asses from first base."

MuseAir is another of the cut-rate airlines spawned by deregulation of the industry. Next month, New York Air, a new subsidiary of Texas International, will start providing 18 flights a day along the New York City to Washington, D.C., corridor in direct competition with the busy Eastern Air Lines shuttle. And People Express next year will begin service to six cities out of Newark.

Since New York Air had trouble obtaining scarce landing rights at Washington's National Airport, Muse decided to fly his carrier into Tulsa, St. Louis and other less congested Midwestern and Southern cities. Says he: "Our target is where big airlines have cut back, the heartland of Middle America." The new airline will fly fuel-efficient DC-9 Super 80s, and Muse says that he will slash prices by up to 66%. Fares will be low enough to "get people off the interstate highways and onto airplanes." And what about stewardess outfits? A slight smirk ripples through Muse's white mustache as he says: "They won't look like World War II nurses' uniforms."

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