Swot Analysis : Southwest Airlines

This document will be using Porter’s Five Forces Model and a Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) analysis to conduct an external analysis on Southwest Airlines.

Delta’s Management team is seeking to strengthen the company’s market and financial position by proposing to acquire American Airlines. An assessment of American Airlines business operations, its resources and environment will identify the company’s operational and financial strengths, weaknesses, possible opportunities and threats. This will enable Delta to recognize the best strategy to create the most effective synergy for this acquisition. Evaluating the SWOT analysis on American Airlines is a core requirement and a key step to assessing the feasibility of the acquisition; detecting its operational and financial factors could have a profound effect that can assist Delta in determining the strategic direction that would be advantageous to the company.

The Airline industry is a large and constantly growing industry. It facilitates economic growth, international investment and world trade and is therefore central to other industries as well for globalisation. There are various forces which lead to globalisation in airline industry. Key drivers of change are forces likely to affect the structure of an industry; sector or market. (1).

Referring to the SWOT analysis, we assume the most uncontrollable issue imposed on C.P. is the circumstance of fierce competition existing in the current airline industry. Consequently, as alternative submissions, the company should remain constantly advancing new strategies, namely acquisition and introducing of a budget confederate.

| Weakness * The number of cancelling flights is a little high * The customer service is bad because in some occasion the customer can’t found the delta representative in the airport. * Lack of online presence * In some aircrafts the seats are uncomfortable and narrow

There are many external factors that influence on emirates airline, which play an important term is airline those factors, are political, economic, social, technological, and legal factors. We will discuss each of them below through PEST analysis it is a useful tool that help to understand the industry situation as a whole.

In this assignment I was assigned the task of comparing 2 different airlines, one being a full service carrier and the other being a lost cost carrier, from United States of America, namely the Delta Airlines and South West Airlines. The points of comparison were market strategies, financial benefits, load factors, contrasting yield, revenues and passenger/cargo loads. The analysis was done on the business model and a long term strategy. Through this it would be known that which airline is performing better than the other. The disruption of air travel through various incidents like the terrorist attacks and global downturn, which can be considered as economic, political and social conditions, effect airlines adversely.

American airline industry is steadily growing at an extremely strong rate. This growth comes with a number economic and social advantage. This contributes a great deal to the international inventory. The US airline industry is a major economic aspect in both the outcome on other related industries like tourism and manufacturing of aircraft and its own terms of operation. The airline industry is receiving massive media attention unlike other industries through participating and making of government policies. As Hoffman and Bateson (2011) show the major competitors include Southwest Airlines, Delta Airline, and United Airline.

The long term affect that is going to have is that if there are not as

To formulate a strategy that will help Southwest Airlines maintain its competitive edge in the US airline industry.

Airlines Industry is large and growing, it is also the most fiercely competitive sector. It facilitates international trade, world economy growth, tourism and international investment. The airline industry has over time with the use of modern technology been able to take advantage of the short haul, high frequency and gained a competitive advantage over other forms of travel, such as buses and railroad travel. Additionally, the airline industry still holds the market for global travel at a low cost and convenient way to travel. The aviation industry gives a good contribution to the GDP which includes the following: airline services, general aviation, civil airport operations, aircraft manufacturing, and

US Airways completed a merger in December 2013 . This merger provided much needed cash infusion into American Airlines, enabling it to emergency from

Based on the case study, and on online and offline research into Southwest Airline’s current state, complete the following Tasks:

There have been few inventions to change how people live and experience the world considerably as the creation of the airplane. Today, traveling by air has become the norm and it would be difficult to imagine life without it. Air travel has improved the way people are able to conduct business by shortening travel time and changing their thought of distance. The companies within the airline industry exist in a very competitive market. One of those companies, Southwest Airlines, features low-fare, no-frills air service with frequent flights of mostly short routes. Costs are kept down by the exclusive use of Boeing 737 aircraft, which allows for low maintenance costs and quicker turnaround times for flights, and by an emphasis on ticketless travel (Encyclopedia Britannica). This paper will address two segments of the general environment and how they affect Southwest and the airline industry; evaluate how Southwest has addressed two forces of competition; predict what Southwest might do to improve its ability to addresses these forces; assess the external threats affecting Southwest; discuss Southwest’s greatest strengths and most significant weaknesses; determine Southwest’s resources, capabilities, and core competencies; and analyze their value chain.

This paper discusses the external economic factors affecting the strategic decision of airline industry and how this decision in turn, affect the market forecast of the aircraft manufacturing industry. Various business issues affect airlines operation either directly and indirectly, and