Southwest Airlines is turning lemons into lemonade, or better yet, miniskirts into haute couture.
After catching flak for chiding a young San Diego woman about her abbreviated outfit on a recent flight, the Dallas company yesterday announced “skimpy” sale fares of $49 to $109 each way, available nationwide for 10 days.
The pitch was Southwest's attempt to calm some of the outrage directed at the company over the flap first reported in The San Diego Union-Tribune 10 days ago.
Kyla Ebbert, 23, was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight at Lindbergh Field July 3 just before takeoff and asked to change her miniskirt, top and sweater. After she pulled her skirt down a bit and her tank top up, flight crew members let the Mesa College student and Hooters waitress back on the plane.
Southwest officials say they later apologized for the incident, but Ebbert decided to go public with the matter and it quickly became a national sensation, with critics deriding the airline – which in the 1970s put its stewardesses in hot pants and called itself “The love airline” – as prudish.
Ebbert yesterday was a guest on a taped episode of “The Dr. Phil Show,” which will air Tuesday. It was at least her second appearance on national television in the past two weeks, and her experience has been a popular Internet topic.
Host Phil McGraw read an apology from Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly during the show.
“It is quite humorous, given that we were born with hot pants,” Kelly said. “We're trying to be good-humored about all this.”
The airline offered Ebbert two free round-trip tickets and announced the toungue-in-cheek “minifare” sale. Ebbert also received a phone call from company President Colleen Barrett.
Calls to Ebbert's wireless telephone yesterday were routed to a voicemail message: “Sorry I missed your call, but leave a message and I'll call you back ... in like a week.”
Kelly declined to give his opinion of Ebbert's outfit but said the airline needs to “lean towards the customer.”
“We don't have a dress code at Southwest Airlines, and we don't want to put our employees in the position of being the fashion police, but there's a fine line you walk sometimes in not offending other passengers,” he said.
Kelly said that Ebbert is a regular customer of Southwest and that he hopes to keep it that way.
Airline officials said they hadn't contacted another woman, Setara Qassim, who told a TV interviewer this week that a Southwest employee made her wrap a blanket over her short dress with plunging neckline. Southwest officials said they had no record of Qassim, 21, filing a complaint.
Staff writer Keith Darcé contributed to this report.
