Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is based in Dallas and founded in 1971. They are known for their higher airfares and good customer services. (Elliot) The employees are known to be social with the travelers. They often times make changes and waive airline requirements. (Elliot) For example: “Robert Siegel and his wife scheduled a

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)!

They serve no meals, do not offer seat assignments, and do not baggage to other airlines. They avoid airports with high landing fees or frequent delay. All of this enables them to make quicker turns and fly more legs each day, resulting in lower fares. Today they are without question the most successful airline in America-if not the world.” (p.8, 2002)

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.

However there are several cost drivers that could break the airline and cause a large loss of income. A few are; excess flight

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

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

After the occasions of 9/11, individuals are hesitant to go via air. On account of this reason that organizations lose billions plane air carriers including Delta. So this is bad for delta and it lost numerous billions.

Southwest Airlines is a unique airline that has a history dating back over 45 years. To say that Southwest Airlines is unique, one must only look at how the airline came to life. In 1967 Herb Kelleher was hired by Rollin King to close down a defunct charter flying company in Texas. After the work was complete the two men supposedly met for drinks at a bar in San Antonio. At the bar, King drew a triangle on a cocktail napkin with Dallas, San Antonio and Houston at the three points and said “I have an idea for another airline; one that connects just the main metro areas of Texas.” (Roam, 2008)

network and this allows the company to dominate the short haul segment of the airline

In 1967, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher founded Southwest Airlines to link the cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio (Parnell, 2014). However, Southwest didn’t schedule its first flight until 1971. In 1989, Southwest revenue passed $1 billion and were the first airline to have a homepage on the internet to sell their tickets (Parnell, 2014). According to Parnell, Southwest saves more money selling tickets online than they do sell them through an agent (2014). In addition, Southwest is the largest airline to carry the most passengers and their Rapid Rewards program is considered the favorite among others in the industry (Parnell, 2015). It’s also the reason why they’ve been profitable “38 consecutive years” (Parnell, 2014). In 2001 when

The work force owns 11% of the company, and this helps in aligning their interests to those of the airline. The company has managed tri achieve a team spirit which can only be an envy of others. The company provides their employees with enormous information aimed at enabling them to better understand the company, its mission, its customers and its competitors (Hallowell, 1996). The employees are made to understand that they must at all times comply with the company concept of never inconveniencing the valued customer. It’s by virtue of sticking to its formula of excellent customer service and a positive working environment for employees that the company has managed to remain profitable for over 30 years. The company has had only one strike in its history and has only three employees laid off in 25 years of who were rehired immediately. It is through this job security that loyalty to the company is enhanced. Efficient working practices and low employee turnover help to reduce Southwest’s costs, thereby making it much more successful competitively (.Slack, F. J., Orife, J. N., & Anderson, F. P. (2010).

Southwest Airlines, often recognized by its heart-shaped logo, was founded in 1967 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. Initially, the airline was established, and only flew within, the state of Texas. The Wright amendment, which was a federal law that governed air traffic in Dallas, originally limited nonstop flights to within Texas or its neighboring states. In order to better accommodate its customers and employees, Southwest began a lawsuit in the early 90’s to overturn the amendment. On October 13, 2014, Southwest was granted permission for “freedom of flying”; adding new nonstop flights to various states across the country. They employ approximately 43,000 employees and service more than 100 million customers annually (“About Southwest”).

Southwest has an average turnaround time of 25 minutes. This is quite lower than the industry average. For this success, the factors that were responsible were; an absence of meals on all Southwest flights, a limited amount of checked luggage on Southwest’s typically 60- to 90- minutes flights, a near-uniform configuration for all of its 737 aircraft, a team-oriented approach to ground services with team measures for turning around planes and freedom to do whatever necessary to get a plane pushed off on time with a high speed boarding process.

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