Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines boasts the best on-time record, best baggage handling, and fewest customer complaints in the airline industry. For these achievements, it won the industry's Triple Crown award for Best Airline five times in a row (Fortune 100 Best Companies, 2011). The Great Place to Work Institute, cites statistics published annually by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that Southwest has ranked number one in customer satisfaction for eleven consecutive years 1991 through 2001. Southwest is the only airline that has made money every year since 1973 (southwest.com).

Southwest Airlines Southwest is a major player in the airline industry, which employs nearly 35,000 individuals. According to an article, (Hollis, 2003), Southwest Airlines has taken a different approach to building interactively relationships with the company, with employees, and with its customers to ensure the success of the business. As a result, Southwest has sustained an enhanced growth and profitability when most airlines struggle to avoid bankruptcy. Fritz Petree, Senior Manager Career Development Services, states, “Southwest philosophy is to hire for attitude and train for skill” (Hollis, 2003, p. 2). Southwest has successfully launched Virtual

Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have been direct competitors in the airline business for a number of years. As time has passed, we have seen Southwest take a more Servant Leadership minded approach, while United decided upon a more traditional style of Leadership. From their mission statements, along with reviews from flyers and profitability, to the overall culture of the companies, we look to see how these two airlines compete, and which one comes out on top.

Southwest Airline’s successful strategy consists of three complementary qualities which are focus, divergence and compelling tagline. This short-haul airline believes that by focusing on friendly service, speed and frequent point-to-point departures, its low pricing is able to compete against car transportation. While other competitors try to delight customers by investing in meals, airport lounges and seating selections, Southwest chooses to eliminate or reduces investments in these industry’s competitive factors. As a result, Southwest’s low prices are unbeatable making them the preferred airline in the industry. With a divergence element in Southwest’s strategy, it is able to innovate and stand apart

Southwest Airlines clearly outlines their values in their corporate mission statement: 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 (www.southwest.com). This mission both describes the company 's approach to its workforce, and the customer at large. Rather than focusing on the financial side of the business, Southwest has been successful in creating an organization centered in fostering positive relationships with its employees and customers. The airline is also known for its ‘zany corporate culture ',

Good Evening board members and staff, I am Megan Wilson, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of your company, Southwest Airlines. We have gathered here this evening to take a look at the current position of our company, how we are measuring up to our competition, and what I am proposing we do to continue our success within our future. First I will start off with the mission of our airlines, as many of you know it is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. Our mission to our employees is to be committed to provide our employees with a stable work

Overall, Southwest Airlines performance has remained very stable and favorable over the years. In the third quarter of 2013, Southwest earned (net income) $259 million and expects these figures to be even high for fourth quarter, as the airline is anticipating a huge influx of holiday travelers [5]. While maintaining such a high level of profitability, Southwest was also ranked 2nd in customer satisfaction for 2013 by the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index), shadowing only rival low-cost carrier JetBlue. Now you may ask, “how does an airline remain at such a high level of profitability all while maintaining such a high level of customer service in the post-deregulation era airline industry?” There’s only one reason why Southwest has been able to make it out consistently on (or near) the

From 1972 to 2002, Southwest Airlines stock returned more for their shareholders than any other stock in the same time period (Collins, 2006, Hospital Strategy IV: Southwest Airlines and thinking outside the box). Many companies have begun to take notice of the Southwest model; a model that allows Southwest to thrive while many of its contemporaries are faced with financial difficulties. The success of Southwest Airlines can be attributed to their structure. This structure has made it possible for Southwest Airlines founders Rollin King and Herb Kelleher to create a culture that was unique and ahead of its time: a people first culture. This culture is supported by Southwest 's human resource practices. Every aspect is dependant upon each

Southwest Airlines made a constant and steady growth since 40 years. During 1980’s, in another turning event it acquired Morris Air and Muse Air to provide low fare and frequent point-to-point service in domestic market. (Pearlson & Saunders,2001)

Southwest Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the United States by number of passengers carried each year (Inkpen, 2013). The company had been profitable for decades unlink other major competitors and also was able to weather 2008-09 recession (Inkpen, 2013). At southwest, leadership philosophy is to manage well at good times to prosper through bad times (Inkpen, 2013). The airlines we found by Herb Kelleher and San Antonio in the year 1970. Southwest began flying in year 1971 in three Texas cities with three aircrafts and 25 employees. Its initial focus: Short-haul, point-to-point flights, a fleet of Boeing 737s, low fares and high-frequency flights (Inkpen, 2013). In year 2012, 81% of its passengers booked tickets via

Southwest Airlines roots can be traced back to Texas in the 1960’s where a company by the name of Air Southwest Co. was created to provide interstate flights in Texas to avoid federal aviation laws. This technique of trying to avoid federal regulation was challenged when 3 other major airlines filed a lawsuit against Air Southwest Co.; later the state of Texas upheld Air Southwest Co. right to fly within the state of Texas and the Supreme Court decided not to review the case. (Southwest Airlines, n.d.) This was a challenging start for Southwest as it was being targeted right off the bat by some of its competitors. The company name was changed in the early 1970’s to Southwest Airlines Co. and a headquarters was established in Dallas, TX.

The vision of a company discusses what the company hopes to achieve within a given period. The vision of a company promotes the development and is a measure of growth within the organization. The value of the company incorporates the people who are valuable to the company. The company can value its workers, shareholders or its customers in a given market. The vision of the company should be long term and should be unique compared to the visions of other companies. The management should formulate a mission statement for every statement to remind the workers why the company operates and its objective. The mission statement serves as a reminder that the company has some objectives that the workers have to work on to be achieved. Failure in most companies is attributed to the loss of sight of the objectives set by the company. The management should emphasis on the mission statement to ensure the success of the company (Gittell, 2005).

This is the historic background of an American Airline company called the Southwest Airlines Co. based in Dallas which still exists and operates with great success between 57 cities in 26 states of the US, by over 300 airplanes , providing primarily short-haul, high frequency, point to point, low fare service . Through this essay we will see an analysis of the company 's advantages and disadvantages through a SWOT Analysis. We will try to localize the problems of the company at the time and in the case of a future expansion, and we will try to give a number of alternative solutions and chose one of them. The Southwest Airlines is a company that has done its first movements in the airline world in 1971 after many efforts for its opening

Chapter 13 is titled “Scheduling Operations” and it is mainly about scheduling decisions for batch operations and how they deal with the allocation of scarce resources to jobs, activities, tasks, or customers. “Scheduling results in a time-phased plan, or schedule, of activities. The schedule indicates what is to be done, when, by whom, and with what equipment. Scheduling should be clearly differentiated from aggregate planning” (Schroeder, pg. 293).

Southwest Airlines (SWA) is a “passenger airline company, principally focused on offering scheduled air transportation in the U.S.” (Logistics Business Review, 2010). SWA also offers a supply chain of travel services to its passengers such as air, car, hotel, cruise and vacation packages and other services including selling credits to various business partners that include credit card companies, hotels, telecommunication companies and rental car agencies (Logistics Business Review, 2010).