Southwest Airlines : The Most Important Airline

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)!

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 Co., established in 1971 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher, began its operations with only three Boeing 737 aircrafts. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas(Hawkins, Misra, & Tang, 2012). Southwest is well known as one of the largest low-cost carriers. With this strategy, the company has dramatically grown up and deeply rooted in the US airline industry. Now, Southwest Airlines Co. operates 633 aircrafts to 93 domestic cities and the highest number of passengers used Southwest Airlines to fly around U.S in Jan 2014 (Hawkins, Misra, & Tang, 2012). To accomplish more than 40th consecutive years of both profitability and competitiveness, Southwest Airlines Company is constantly trying to find the routes to differentiate itself from other domestic carriers (Hawkins, Misra, & Tang, 2012).

Southwest Airlines has recently acquired AirTran Airways, which was a global company, this acquisition it put Southwest in a great spot to expand to the global market. Southwest is integrating the AirTran Airways international stops in Aruba, Jamaica, the Bahamas with their original domestic stops in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Orlando starting July 1st 2014 according to an article in US Today. Next they are looking to service 6 Latin American destinations including Belize City, Cancun, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and San Jose del Cabo/ Los Cabos starting in October 2015 (Zacks Equity Research, 1-2). These Latin American destinations are strategic because they are close to Southwest’s headquarters in Dallas TX, and they are prime vacation spots (Jones, 3). This will give more people a cheaper way to vacation, and bring more people into these

Southwest Airlines Co. began its operations in 1971 and has been serving the industry for the past 43 years now (Southwest Airlines, n.d.). It is the major domestic airline, and ranked number one in 2014 by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (United States Department of Transportation, 2014). Back in 1971 the airline began its services in Texas in the cities of Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. The company has been ranked as the nation's largest low cost carrier (Mergent, 2012). It offers the lowest fares, and has the lowest cost structure 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

Southwest began in 1971 with three planes serving only three cities in Texas, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Those three planes were Boeing 737s, and they were one of

The Southwest Airlines was established in 1967 by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King and adopted its current name in 1971. The airline company is a best known for its lowest prices in the airline industry. To better understand the strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats of the company if through the S.W.O. T. analysis. The strengths and weaknesses are internal factors while opportunities and threats are external factors.

Southwest Airlines was originally named Air Southwest. It was started on March 15, 1967, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. Southwest Airlines is an American low fare airline based in Dallas, Texas. It is also the largest airline in the United States by number of passengers carried domestically in a year and the third largest airline in the world by number of passengers carried. Southwest is also one the most profitable airlines in the world posting a profit for 34 consecutive years.

This Power Point presentation discusses the various factors that present challenges for new competition entrance in the airline industry. In terms of the Porter's Five Forces evaluation, this document is a good starting point for determining the types of factors that would effect new competition. It is not a credible source of information on Southwest Airlines, but it gives an overview of the types of factors that would affect new competition.

Southwest Airlines was incorporated in 1971 and started its operations with three Boeing 737 aircrafts for three cities of Texas, namely Huston, Dallas and San Antonio. Southwest Airlines earned six Triple Crown awards for the month in the years 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996. It is making profit for last thirty two consecutive years (Carter, Rogers, & Siskins, 2004).Moreover Southwest Airlines is a success story of point to point low cost carrier of United States covering 97 destinations in 42 states with a fleet of 550 Boeing 737 aircrafts and operating 3200 daily flights. Acquisition of AirTran Airways in the year 2011 was also a landmark achievement for the airline. However Southwest Airlines does not offer the traditional services of food on board and special lounges on the airports, none the less it is well placed in the aviation industry (Southwest Airlines). The business is well known for their strategy and approach in hiring capable employees as well as

The airline business is a highly competitive industry. According to Morningstar article Southwest Airlines Co Analyst Report, the airline industry has many barriers to entry, which creates an intense industry rivalry. This claim is backed up by the text Attention All Passengers by William J. McGee, which states “Air travel has become a commodity, and the airlines themselves an oligopoly.” (McGee) Therefore, a sustainable cost advantage is the only way to survive in this cutthroat industry. (Dihora) Furthermore, the same Morningstar article claims that the airline industry is not growing. This is because the top four airline carriers control approximately 80% of the domestic market in 2015. This can be compared with results from the year 2000, when around 9 carriers controlled as much. (Dihora) This statistic shows that the number of organizations in the market is in fact

Southwest Airlines has been around for forty-five years now. I have personally flown with them many times in my traveling within the states and even to other countries. Southwest's based out of Dallas, Texas, where it began with only one Boeing 737 going to three different cities. The company has grown tremendously in every way. Now with over 500 Boeing 737's Southwest Airlines sends its planes all over the states and even other countries. It was the first airline that offered ticket-less boarding and travel across the states. In May 2003 Southwest Airlines was given the top-dog spot in the monthly domestic originating passenger ranking list. International travel within Southwest Airlines includes flights to Nassau, Bahamas Montagu Bay, Jamaica;

Competitive rivalry: Airline industry can be characterized as imperfect oligopoly. There are several big airlines that dominate in long-distance flights and several smaller airlines compete for short-distance flights. The competition and price sensitive buyers lower the returns airlines receive. This market situation is favorable for a company like JetBlue, which differentiated itself by comfort at low price, but this can be easily duplicated by other companies.

Based on my analysis of the case, I discover that one of the biggest problems facing by the Southwest is the dilemma that whether they should maintain their focus on short-haul flight or they should alter their strategy to generate more revenue. To be more specific, can Southwest continue to be profitable under stiff competition if they stick with their initial focus. Southwest usually flies mainly to uncongested airports with less competitions; nevertheless, as they gradually expand to more busy areas, they are confronting with more competitors. If they provide short-haul flight service only, there is not much room for them to earn profits. Besides, another problem that Southwest facing is how they can reduce cost since their operating costs continue to rise. Labor and fuel are inevitable for Southwest’s operation. However, as the cost of both continues to grow, Southwest’s cost advantage comparing with other airlines will get narrower,