Southwest Airlines Essay

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.

Currently, Southwest Airlines Company achieved the higher net income in 2013 and widened its field of operations by the integration with AirTran Airways. It seems Southwest’s business is going pretty well. However, there are numerous problems from competitors who will cause negative effect on Southwest’ market leader position and market shares. This marketing plan will make a careful analysis of the current activities of Southwest Airlines Company, and then this marketing plan will create how the company develop Southwest’s market leadership and higher market shares within 5years.

What is Southwest's competitive strategy? What are the sources of its success? How does it make money in this business?

Introduction While flying home to Texas last summer with Southwest Airlines, I had the most fun and unique experience with an airline that I could ever remember. It all started out quite oddly enough in the lobby just before takeoff. As I was checking in at the ticket counter, the representative asked me if I wanted to play a game that could get me free round trip tickets. "Sure, who wouldn't," I exclaimed. As she gave me my boarding pass she said, "Great, how many holes do you have in your socks?" Initially caught off guard, I responded, "Excuse me!" "The free tickets are being given to the customer who has the most holes in their socks," she explained with a perky smile.

If Southwest decided that they needed to increase their revenue they would have to start by raising the prices of their tickets. The need for increased revenue would need to be passed on to the consumers’. When a ticket price is higher with one airline than the other, the customer

Air travel has its ups and down, as does basically any type of travel. However, Southwest Airlines has always been my favorite airline to fly. As a young single who loved traveling, I found their fares and schedules to be the most convenient for my taste. I always appreciated the staff’s sense of humor, and it really never bothered me where I sat, so I didn’t mind the “A, B, C” boarding groups as opposed to assigned seats: I actually appreciated the freedom of choice. It wasn’t until after a couple of marketing classes that I realized the things I preferred about Southwest were intentional marketing strategies that the company used to differentiate

Southwest Airlines (SWA) begins in June 18, 1971, when SWA first operated a first airline consul between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Rollin King and Herb Kelleher are the founders of the company. The end of 1971 SWA immediately began to expand.

The price competition among airlines remains strong. Levisohn (2017) reported on a price war between LCC Spirit Airlines and network carrier United (UAL), where Spirit Airlines called out Chicago, Houston and Newark as its target markets, and UAL has confirmed it is aggressively defending the above hub markets. It appears that AAL is most at risk in getting caught in the crossfire, as UAL is being very specific about lowering fares only on flights that match up with Spirit's schedule the risk is most likely highest for carriers that have a large amount of capacity in markets where United and Spirit are going head to head.

American airlines is a corporation that exhibits all of the characteristics of a firm in an industry where good tactical management is the key to success. This company and its regional airline partner American eagle serve almost 250 cities around the world and operate more than 3600 daily flights. Its goal is to provide safe, dependable and friendly air transportation along with related services, making a great effort to transform any experience into a positive one. All of the services that this company has and the image that they are trying to keep in every day activities make each day an inevitable challenge for its employees.

Ask people who the major United States airlines are and Delta and US Airways immediately come to mind. What might surprise you to know is that Southwest Airlines a comparatively smaller airline is able to compete with these big two and in my opinion it is the best. In order to compete at a national level Southwest Airlines reimagined the airline business model by focusing on a personalized approach toward both its employees and customers. A key component of Southwest Airlines quality management philosophy is employees first. This approach has led to the lowest employee turnover amongst US air carriers and as a result some of the best customer service in the industry.

In the opinion of Dr. Grace S. Thomson, “a heterogeneous mix of long and short-haul in very thing segments, passenger, density, and per capita income at end points gives [Southwest Airlines] competitive advantage. The way to establish a company in such a market as the airline industry would be to strategically expand in to airports with less competition. Southwest Airline capitalized on this fact to become a national airline (Keller 2008). Southwest Airlines satisfies what were once negligible markets. Southwest serves “64 cities in 411 non-stop city pairs” (Thompson 2008). Saturating these markets has allowed Southwest Airlines to expand without putting a strain on its pocket book (Keller

When they didn’t, the airline retaliated by offering deep cuts in fares on several routes flown by its competitors. Northwest airline responded with a $198 round-trip fares with connections on routes for which American airline’s average fare was $1,600. American’s response was to offer $99 one way fairs in 10 markets flown by each of the other competitors except that of Continental Airlines which had followed and matched the leader’s (American Airline) original changes in all markets. With respect to the concept of strategic behavior exhibited by firms in an oligopolistic setting, some firms may try to achieve a dominant strategy that yields them better results and do not flip-flop, no matter what strategies other industry participant follow. This was illustrated in the case, when, in 2004, Continental Airlines raised its fares to mitigate rising cost of aviation fuel. Firms in an oligopoly may differ in terms of their cost structure and the airline industry is no exception and participants do exhibit strategies that enable them not to follow price increases driven by aviation fuel cost.

The goal of this paper is to explain the prominent success of Southwest Airline in the United States through a single case study analysis making use of the McKinsey’s 7-S framework. Developed in the early 1980s at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, this framework looks at 7 internal factors (Structure, Strategy, Systems, Style, Staff, Skills, Super-ordinate goals) which, according to its authors, need to be aligned for an organization to be successful. In this paper, we will analyse each of its internal elements through the case study “Southwest Airlines in 2008, Culture, Values, and Operating Practices”.

This proposal addresses the needed steps to be taken in order for Southwest Airlines to see continued growth in the airline industry. Southwest Airlines has been able to remain one of the most profitable airlines in the industry for an extended period of time. Even with the hindrance of the 2001 terrorist attacks involving airplanes and the U.S recession of 2008, Southwest has continued to see strong revenue growth. Meanwhile, other companies were experiencing major losses and in some cases folding. Southwest Airlines has capitalized on the company’s strength of being the top low cost

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.