Southwest Airlines: From the Beginning

People – One of the many things good about Southwest Airlines is that the kinds of people who are heroes of the organization are people who care and go out of their way to help the customers. They’re the ones who are celebrated and held up as shining examples. Additionally, high levels of satisfaction among employees can be attributed to Southwest employee policy. Happy employees can provide high quality service and bring more customers back. To reinforce the culture of hard work, high-energy, fun, local autonomy, and creativity, the company provided continuous education program to employees. If you can help someone out or brighten someone’s day, be it a co-worker or a passenger, you’re doing your job well.

The target demographic for Southwest is very broad. The fact the airline has a brand that appeals to price-conscious travelers who do not mind the airline’s no-frills philosophy means it attracts lots of small business owners, young adults, middle-class families, and those who are traveling a short distance. Southwest operates a simplified airline to keep costs down. It only operates one type of aircraft, and its no-frills plan includes no assigned seats or class seating, no meals, and no onboard movies. The company has a strong emphasis on customer service and a differentiation strategy to keep customers happy and loyal. When hiring for customer service positions within the organization, Southwest focuses on attitudes rather than skills and encourages peer hiring. This strategy helps the company identify those who fit the organizational culture and who are most likely to further the company’s philosophy of

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.

Southwest Airlines was incorporated on March 15, 1967, in Texas as Air Southwest Co. by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. At the time, Southwest Airlines had a fleet of three Boeing 737 aircraft serving Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Southwest Airlines Founder Herb Kelleher had faith that by operating within Texas, the airline could escape from federal regulation. According to SWA, on February 21, 1968, Braniff, Trans-Texas and Continental Airlines attained a provisional restraining order from a District Court forbidding the Texas Aeronautics Commission (TAC) from delivering SWA Certificate. On May 13, 1970, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously votes to overturn the lower courts ' findings and rules in favor of Air Southwest (SWA, History by Date, (1)). Conclusively, on December 07, 1970, the United States Supreme Court denies appeal by Braniff and Texas International (TI) of Texas Supreme Court decision (1).

Southwest Airlines original name was Air Southwest in 1967 in Dallas, Texas, before the change of the name to Southwest Airlines in 1971. They were faced with battles due to legal issues with Dallas and Love field, because of the Wright Amendment, but the come to an agreement to allow 4 states to connect to Texas. Southwest bought 129 new planes, because of the expansion of the company growth, which currently have 141 planes that enhance the growth of the company because of shorter flights (Gimbel, 2005). Southwest was started in 1971, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher, which released it first flight from Dallas Love Field that is located in Houston and San Antonio Texas. The passengers look for an airline services that can get them to their destination at a cheap price. Majority of the passenger are looking for an airline service that will eliminate layovers and multiple stops as possible.

Southwest Airlines is dedicated to incorporating all servant leadership principles throughout their organization. Accordingly, their mission statement is clear and concise it evidently exemplifies all principles and acknowledges a servant-led organization. Their mission statement embraces their commitment to serve the highest quality of customer service through a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit (Southwest, 2014). Therefore, through Southwest’s’ mission statement it makes it explicitly apparent that they seek to listen and commit to the growth of their people. Southwest empathizes with their employees because they are dedicated to providing

New employees learn nine loyalty principles, some of which include: find the kid in everyone, do more with less, do what is right, and nurture the corporate family. At Southwest, employees are at the top of the priority pyramid; for this reason, Southwest focuses on delivering employees proactive customer service. Southwest believes that by doing this, employees will, in turn, spend their time trying to ensure the passengers, the second most important group of the pyramid, are getting great customer service,

Southwest airlines began in 1967 as Air Southwest Co. Based in Dallas. They began serving three major cities in Texas, with only three Boeing 737 aircrafts. March 29th, 1971 Air Southwest Co. changed its name to Southwest Airlines Co. The company began service on June 18, 1971 from Love Field in Dallas to Houston and San Antonio. Founders Rollin King and Herb Kelleher were inspired by their location to create an airline that was focused on the people. The LUV airline prides itself with exceptional employees and “no frill” customer service. CEO, Gary Kelly states, “After all, we like to say that we are not a Company of planes; we are a Company of People.” Southwest is known to value their employees just as equally as their customers.

Southwest Airlines is globalizing their company in order to reach a bigger market, and become competition for other companies. Southwest Airlines has already conquered the domestic market beating American Airlines, United, and Delta according to Fortune. Access to a new market is what motivated Southwest to globalize, they are expanding to the south of North America, with their new assets found in their acquired airline AirTran Airways (LeBeau, 4) . Southwest Airlines has brought low rates and a great experience to the domestic market, which was warmly received, they now plan to dip into global market to bring better service to all.

Southwest Airlines is a passenger airline company that arranges and provides scheduled flights for passenger and transportation freight services. The company mainly provides, low-fare, point-to-point services all over the US and near-international markets. The headquarters is located in Dallas, Texas and as of December 2014, the company employed over 46,278 people. The company was founded by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher in 1971. Southwest was the first airline to introduce the frequent mile program. This took place in the mid 1980’s. This type of program allowed passengers to add up traveled miles to use later as credit on a future airline ticket. The traveled miles would add up and would also reduce the price of a ticket. Southwest created the idea of senior discount, fun fares and the fun packs. These were perks that attracted people from different age groups. When Southwest originally was incorporated, the idea was to operate in three cities in Texas, but after taking over Morris Air and TranStar in 1987, this gave them a cutting advantage in the airline industry.

As the low-cost leader, Southwest spends an inordinate amount of time focusing on its mission, vision, culture, and goals. This concentration allows Southwest to rank as one of the 100 Best Companies to work for in America. The employee’s attitudes and efforts lead to fewer customer complaints and more on-time arrivals and departures.

The Southwest is a leading American air service and is the largest low-priced service provider with the base in Texas. It came into existence in 1976 and its name became Southwest in 1971. According to an overview in 2014 the company has around 45k employees and around 3.4k flights are operated each day.

So, to start with, the company was founded in 16th of March, 1967 Dallas by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King. It has a subsidiary company which is AirTran Airways. Southwest Airlines flies to 72 destinations in the United States. Key people of the company are Herb Kelleher (Co-founder), Rollin King (Co-founder) and Gary C. Kelly (President, CEO & Chairman). And total assets in 2010 were more than 15 billion dollars.

Management highly believes that treating their employees well and making them loved their job will naturally lead them to treat customers warmly and courteously in return. In this regard, Southwest looks for fun loving and spirited people whose natural warmth and compassion contributes to superior customer service. This is the reason why Southwest particularly takes the pledge of hiring employees for “attitude” prior to “skills” as corroborates this quote from the former C.E.O Kelleher “At Southwest, our People are our greatest assets, which is why we devote so much time and energy to

Travelling can be expensive and tiresome. Airlines make it a priority for their customers to be comfortable, have a good travel experience, and provide good customer service. This would eventually, by word of mouth, get more people to fly with airlines. This is a service industry and customers require to be treated with courtesy, respect, patience, and expect employees to be truthful and most importantly to be treated fairly. Over the years, Southwest Airlines has developed a successful customer relations strategy which filters down to service operations. This gives the company the opportunity for continued success in the future. They fly over one hundred million passengers a year to their various destinations (Gallo, 2014).