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.

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,