Western Asia

Western Asia, West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. The concept is in limited use, as it significantly overlaps with the Middle East (or Near East), the main difference being the exclusion of Egypt (which would be counted as part of North Africa).

The term is sometimes used for the purposes of grouping countries in statistics. The total population of Western Asia is estimated at about 300 million as of 2015.

In an unrelated context, the term is also used in ancient history and archaeology to divide the Fertile Crescent into the "Asiatic" or "Western Asian" cultures as opposed to Ancient Egypt.

Definitions

As a geographic concept, "Western Asia" includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian peninsula, Anatolia, Iran, Armenian Highlands and South Caucasus. The Sinai Peninsula belongs to Western Asia, making Egypt a transcontinental country.

However, the term "Western Asia" is mostly used as a convenient division of contemporary sovereign states into a manageable number of world regions for statistical purposes; it is sometimes used instead of the more geopolitical term "Middle East", for example by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) statistics office or the Government of Canada.

Asia

Asia (ⁱ/ˈeɪʒə/ or /ˈeɪʃə/) is the Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. Asia covers an area of 44,579,000 square kilometers, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. It has historically been home to the world's first modern civilizations and has always hosted the bulk of the planet's human population. Asia is notable for not only overall large size and population, but unusually dense and large settlements as well as vast barely populated regions within the continent of 4.4 billion people. The boundaries of Asia are traditionally determined as that of Eurasia, as there is no significant geographical separation between Asia and Europe. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the Suez Canal, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean.

Southwest Airlines

Coordinates: 32°50′48″N 96°51′40″W / 32.8467°N 96.861°W / 32.8467; -96.861 (Southwest Airlines Headquarters)

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is a major U.S. airline and the world's largest low-cost carrier, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The airline was established in 1967 by Herb Kelleher and adopted its current name (Southwest Airlines) in 1971. The airline has nearly 46,000 employees as of December 2014 and operates more than 3,800 flights per day. As of 2014, it carries the most domestic passengers of any U.S. airline. As of January 2016, Southwest Airlines has scheduled service to 97 destinations in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and abroad.

Southwest Airlines has used only Boeing 737s, except for several years in the 1970s and 1980s, when it leased some Boeing 727s from Braniff. As of January 2016, Southwest is the largest operator of the Boeing 737 worldwide, with over 700 in service, each averaging six flights per day.

History

Early history

Southwest Airlines began with the March 15, 1967, incorporation of Air Southwest Co. by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher to fly within the state of Texas.