All Southwest Airlines flights go through one building, no matter where they are flying.
Violet tinted lights glow above hundreds of computer monitors and more than 40 large 50-inch flat-screen televisions displaying everything from weather maps to live webcams at airports throughout the country.
In huge letters on the back wall it reads: NOC, or Network Operations Center.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) uses the 50,000-square-foot NOC to dispatch all 3,500 flights per day, the largest operation of its kind under one roof in the United States, Matt Hafner, vice president of network operations control for Southwest, said.
He emphasized that while that the "other" airline in North Texas might be the world's largest, Fort Worth-based American Airlines (Nasdaq: AAL) doesn't run its regional operations at the same location as mainline flights.
That could change when American opens its new Robert W.Baker Integrated Operations Center in third quarter of this year.
Southwest's NOC runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week making key decisions on weather-related issues, mechanical problems or security concerns.
Southwest (NYSE: LUV) moved into the facility in May. It puts 450 employees from different departments under one roof, where before they were scattered in different rooms at the Southwest headquarters across the street.
Each work station has four or five computer screens and can raise or lower depending on it the worker wants to stand or sit. The NOC was designed to expand easily, too.
"We can slide these things around. You want something that's flexible. All those desks are configured so they can move quickly," Hafner said.
The idea for violet, subdued lighting came from consultants who found it would lead to a calmer workplace, which is critical when you're dispatching aircraft, and it's easier on the eyes, Hafner said.
Live webcams displayed Southwest aircraft on the ground at Denver International Airport.
"We can fire it up and put it on one screen and zoom in as close as the wings on the airplane and see how they're doing with de-icing," Hafner said.
As Southwest grows and adds new flights, the NOC plans to hire up to 20 new employees in 2015, Hafner said.