Case #20 – Southwest Airlines
Company History
1966 Rollin King approached Herb Kelleher’s law office with plan to start low-cost/lowfare airline
Ran into legal problems, rival airlines in Texas did everything they could to block new airline Herb Kelleher was determined to start up airline
1971 – Lamar Muse Southwest CEO, background in industry to get it up and starting
Raised $7 million in capital and private investors to purchase planes and equipment
Flights started between Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston known as the “Golden
Triangle”
First ever annual profit in 1973
2010 – market share leader in domestic air travel in US, consistently profitable even during down turning economy, profit every year since 1973
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Southwest also initiated special fare promotions when advance reservations were weak for particular weeks or times of the day to fill up planes and avoid losing revenues and covering costs. This strategy combined with the “Bags
Fly Free” resulted in Southwest having record load factoring of filling up all seats on the aircrafts. By filling up available space and the volume of passenger traffic helped to compensate for the low fares they were able to offer to customers. Southwest also concentrated on their route system on flights between pairs of cities 150 to 700 miles apart that handled enough passenger traffic to offer a sizable number of daily flights. They also implemented a quick turnover of flights with boarding times ranging from 15-30 minutes to create more daily flights. Other ways of execution of their low-cost/no frills strategy include:
The company operates on only one type of aircraft (Boeing 737) to minimize the size of spare parts inventories, simplify training of maintenance and repair, and improve proficiency and speed of routines.
Southwest was the first major airline to introduce ticketless travel and allowed customers to make reservations and buy tickets online.
They used medium sized, less congested airports instead of major cities which allowed them to produce better than average on time performance and reduce fuel costs with planes sitting in line on crowded runways.
Southwest’s point to point
Business Strategy – BAD 4013 – SUMMER 1999 Case Study Southwest Airlines I. Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit. Twenty-seven years ago, Rolling King, owner of floundering commuter airline, and Herb Kelleher, King’s lawyer, got together and decided to start a different kind of airline that would provide a short-haul, low-fair, high-frequency, point-to-point service in the United States. The company began service on June 18, 1971 with flights between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio (“The Golden Triangle” as Herb called it). Southwest Airlines is the fourth
Southwest Airlines is currently the fourth largest airline in the United States. It flies over 64 million passengers a year, which makes 2,700 passengers a day, traveling to 58 cities. Southwest is the only major carrier to remain profitable in every quarter since 9/11, opposed to many other companies who have declared bankruptcy. It is an influential company that has greatly contributed to the development of the commercial airline industry.
Bargaining Power of Customers (high)- Customers has several options when it comes to flying. But the main attraction to customers are low prices and Southwest makes it known that they have some of the lowest airfares. The only way Southwest can take back the power is by offering direct flights to cities that other airliners do not offer. Besides the small occurrence of having a direct flight to a city that no other airline has, Southwest
Southwest Airlines is a major US airline established in 1967 that services a multitude of cities in all 50 states and beyond. The company is known for its outstanding quality in providing services and it 's cost effective ticket prices to its many passengers throughout the nation. This airline is based in the southwestern United States, in the city of Dallas Texas, and due to the tremendous number of airplanes that it has and the timely service that it provides to its passengers, this airline services more US passengers than any other airline. This airline also has the largest fleet of planes of any economical or low-cost airline service in the world and employees more than 45,000.
Air Southwest was incorporated on “March 15, 1967” (1966 to 1971, 2016), at a time when “price competition from interstate competitors was ferocious” (Heskett & Sasser, 2013, p. 3). However, Rollin King one of Southwest original founders had an idea that would shake things up. While having a couple of drinks with his friend Herb Kelleher, he scribbled is point-to-point triangular service idea
The Boeing 737 was flown by Southwest Airlines, which was exciting for the company, to be the first to fly that size plane. In 1973, Southwest Airlines was one of the first companies to offer profit sharing to their employees; they were also the first to offer online access and a website of the company to the customers. Southwest made sure that they would keep their customers returning to them, therefore they made sure that they eliminate the middle person, which allowed the customers to book directly through the
Over 35 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher decided to create a different type of airline. They began with the simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time and at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. They were right (Southwest Airlines, 2004)!
The United States Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was a dramatic turning point in America. It was the first systematic dismantling of a comprehensive system of government control since the Supreme Court declared the National Recovery Act unconstitutional in 1935. It was also part of a broader movement that, with varying degrees of thoroughness, transformed such industries as trucking, railroads, buses, cable television, stock exchange brokerage, oil and gas, telecommunications, financial markets, and even local electric and gas utilities. Since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the airline industry has experienced significant growth,
This paper will give a historical overview of the company, discuss the ingredients to the company success, offer some financial strengths and present a final conclusion. Section I: Southwest's History Twenty-seven years ago, Rollin King, a San Antonio entrepreneur who owned a small commuter air service, and Kelleher, who was a lawyer at the time, got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion. If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make certain they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right. Within those 27 years, Southwest Airlines became the fifth largest major airline in America. Today, they have flown over 50 million passengers a year to 54 cities all over the southwest and beyond. They do it over 2,300 times a day with over 267 of the newest jets in the nation and fly only one type aircraft; the B-737. The average age of their fleet is only 8.4 years and they own over sixty percent of them. In May 1988, they were the first airline to win the coveted U.S. Department of Transportation Triple Crown for a month - Best On-time Record, Best Baggage Handling, and Fewest Customer Complaints. Since then, they've won it
Since 1973, Southwest has been profitable even year. Their strategy included many factors like offering no-frills, short-haul, high-frequency, point-to-point, and low-fair service. Using point-to-point because they acquired only one model of the plane then figured out the latest way to turn an airplane around, using less busy airports, alongside with no meals provided or assigned seating. Southwest also did not have an assigned seat for their passengers but rather given the boarding numbers at the gate eliminating the double-booked seats. Further through the case, it
On October 1st, 1994 when United Airlines introduced their “Shuttle By United” high-frequency, low-fare, minimal amenity, short-haul flight operation, Southwest Airlines was already the industry leader in this market segment. Southwest was the eighth largest airline in the United States based on the number of passenger miles flown
At the onset of the airline industry in the United States, major network airlines were the sole providers of air travel. This multifaceted industry was a difficult industry to break into as a consequence of “sophisticated customer segmentation, hub-and spoke models and costly information systems for reservations, fare wars and intense competition” (Thompson 2008). Shrinkage in airline ticket prices augmented the demand for airline travel. Many markets were simply deserted or over-looked by major network airlines; this is a region a fresh “second tier of service providers” could enter into. This endeavor proved to provide a consumer savings of billions per year. Thus in June of 1971, after a tumultuous battle with other Texas-based
Some of the incumbent airlines of the time (Braniff, Trans-Texas, and Continental Airlines) initiated legal action, and thus began a three-year
Southwest Airlines was started in 1971 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. Their idea was
Southwest Airlines was created in the late 1960’s by a businessperson Rolling King, and law school graduate Herb Kelleher, who sought a faster travel time between Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas (Dess, et al., 2014, p. C137). After overcoming all of the antagonism and legal problems of many major airlines, Southwest was able to take its first flight in 1971 (Dess, et al., 2014, p.C137). With a dedication and will power to grow the company, King and Kelleher sought out ways to increase growth.