Pilots of Southwest Airlines re-elect Capt. Carl Kuwitzky as president for second term

DALLAS, TX – Southwest Airlines pilots re-elected Capt. Carl Kuwitzky for a second two-year term as Union president. Capt. Kuwitzky received 82 percent of the vote in the election to represent almost 6,000 pilots. An Oklahoma native, Kuwitzky has been a pilot at Southwest Airlines since July 1983 and is currently based at Dallas Love Field.

“I am excited and honored the pilots of Southwest Airlines have chosen to re-elect me as president for the next two years,” said Capt. Kuwitzky. “Many of the initiatives that began during my first term, especially as we continue to negotiate a new contract with Southwest Airlines and work to address national safety and security issues, are not complete, and I am looking forward to seeing these projects to their conclusion. Serving the most experienced pilot group at the nation’s number-one carrier of domestic passengers is an honor and a privilege that I do not take lightly.”

Capt. Kuwitzky’s lengthy service with SWAPA includes time as the Association’s vice president in 2006, as a member of the board of directors representing Phoenix and Houston Hobby and also as chairman of both the Scheduling and Air Safety committees. He also served as a member of the Negotiating Committee and merger committee during the Southwest Airlines acquisition of Muse Air in 1986.

Capt. Kuwitzky and association leaders are continuing work on national issues, such as cabotage/foreign ownership, by participating in an advisory role in US/EU “Open Skies” treaty negotiations. Capt. Kuwitzky’s leadership was instrumental in helping to obtain the nation’s first biometric crew identification demonstration project now underway at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI).