Southwest Airlines

The United States carries over one third of the globe’s total traffic, where Over 1.5 billion passengers fly annually. Over the past 20 years, air travel has grown at an average of about 5% per year, the reason for annual change is usually differences in economic growth, and of course other environmental factors, such as the current war. As a rule, the annual growth in air travel has been about twice the annual growth in GDP. Deregulation, liberalization, and competition have essentially altered the management strategies and practices of airlines. Productivity improvements and cost management have been two of the greatest concerns for US airlines for the past twenty years. As a whole, the airline industry must continue to improve their specialization in terms of fleet utilization, pricing and revenue management, and schedule optimization.

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.

Today Southwest Airlines is the biggest domestic passenger carrier in the United States of America operating more than 3,400 flights a day. They provide service to 93 cities and 5 countries internationally. Last year Southwest Airlines, “Enplaned approximately 136 million Customers (About Southwest). The airline has grown since it’s first years flying out of Love Field in Dallas, Texas. In the beginning, Southwest provided flight service to only three Texas cities in 1971. One of Southwest Airlines’ early advertisements was a double page ad that ran in Dallas newspapers during May announcing their first flight on June 18, 1971 (Lusk). This advertisement introducing a new airline would soon revolutionize the airline industry and create the new category, of low cost carrier, to the world.

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 was created in 1967 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX. Southwest offers flights to their passengers to get them to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fare. The advantage that Southwest has in the marketplace is their commitment to their customers. 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

Some of the core competencies and competitive advantages that exist in the Southwest organization are the low-fare and high customer satisfaction ratings. The American Customer Satisfaction Index has rated Southwest first among airlines for highest customer service satisfaction for over 17 years. In 2011, the Department of Transportation rated Southwest highest among all major airlines in terms of the lowest

Southwest Airlines has a friendly culture and a people oriented-leadership. The leader of Southwest treat employees as family member and friends. The whole company not just focus on the

“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.”

The company outperformed every other US Airline in the amount of domestic passengers flown. Southwest airline relished in a first quarter revenue and passenger load factor that exceeded any preceding record. Load factor can be determined through a simple equation using the revenue passenger miles, or “the number of passengers carried multiplied by the distance flown”, divided by the available seat miles, or the number of seats available for sale multiplied by the distance flown”. Southwest continued only in the domestic United States markets as of 2008 (Inkpen 2008).

Southwest Airlines is a well-respected leader within the airline industry internationally and domestically due to the friendly, reliable and friendly

Southwest has a great reputation of treating their passengers like family, often telling jokes and word games during the flights. Southwest also treats their employees very well, offering a wide range of perks and benefits. Southwest employees are routinely the highest paid in the industry.

Southwest Airlines encourages respect, innovation, a caring attitude and strives to adhere to all labor and employment laws which includes respecting privacy and equal opportunity. With a strong concern for avoiding corruption and avoiding anti-competitive behavior, they work hard to maintain accountability of all business practices. An example of this is the promotion of competition to provide consumers low air fares and a variety of high quality air service offerings across the US. This shows their devotion to the community they serve and maintains the company culture.

Southwest Airlines provides short haul, high frequency, point-to-point, low-fare services to and from 58 cities across the United States. The company is known for its low-cost fares and superior customer service in the airline industry. The company was started in 1971 with a motto still lived by today, "If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline." This motto has been effective for the company because they recently reported their 58th straight quarterly profit.

Southwest Airlines Company (Southwest Airlines or ‘the Company’ SWA) is a passenger airline that provides scheduled passenger and freight transportation services. The Company primarily provides scheduled services throughout the US and near-international markets. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and employs 48,000 people and serves over one hundred million customers annually (“Southwest,” 2015). Southwest Airlines has accumulated over forty years of revenue and is one of the supremely flown airlines in the United States of America (Dess, et al, 2014, p. C137). Recognized for dominating the national or domestic airline market, Southwest Airlines’ diligence has built an

Values and beliefs of a company can attract investors to a company or deter investors from a company. Fortunately, the SWA has attractive values and beliefs. According to SWA’s home page, the Southwest Airlines mission is “dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit”.