There's a growing volume of online chatter about the next big airline merger that's likely to be proposed, and much of it involves Southwest Airlines.

Southwest Airlines said it will slash 15% of its corporate workforce -- the first mass layoffs in the company's decades-long history -- as the airline looks to cut costs.

The company said the cuts, the first round of broad layoffs in the airline’s 53-year history, would affect mostly corporate employees.

Competitors have copied some of the advantages Southwest used to have, like refundable or creditable tickets. The airline is working hard to squeeze more revenue, for example by getting rid of the no-assigned-seats policy.

Southwest Airlines plans to cut 1,750 jobs or 15 percent of its corporate workforce, in the US carrier's first company-wide layoffs in its 54-year history. The Dallas-based airline said Monday that the job cuts would be focused almost entirely on “corporate overhead and leadership positions,