Why Is Southwest Successful Fuel Hedging Program?

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

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 Co. is an airline company that offers air transportation services within the United States and in international markets. The company operates within the airline industry that is highly regulated, technology intensive, labor intensive, and highly competitive (Southwest Airlines, 2017). Southwest Airlines operates a service business whereby the company offers a point to point air transport service to its passengers. Other than passenger transport, the company offers transportation services for pets and unaccompanied minors. The flights offered include short haul and long haul between various destinations within the United States and internationally. In 2016, the company’s operating revenues from international operations amounted to $383 million. A unique feature of the Southwest Airlines is its cost structure whereby the company focuses on cost discipline and uses one aircraft type to minimize costs.

Southwest Airlines was formed in 1967 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher and started service in June of 1971. The airline is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and originally operated flights within the state of Texas. The company has since expanded and now operates flights from Dallas to almost all major cities in the United States and is considered the largest low-cost carrier in the country. “Southwest seeks to offer a travel product that is built around flights targeted to specific demographics and ticket pricing that is simplified so that passengers know

Southwest Airlines' successful and profitable business model has been driven by several strategies: high aircraft utilization; standard fleet; charismatic leadership; low fare carrier; excellent customer service practice; attractive frequent flier program; innovative and creative marketing program; performance focused organizational culture; strategic human resources management and a lean operations.

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 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.

• Offer low fares and still maintain a high-quality distinguished product that offers friendly service and a comfortable and entertaining flight experience.

Since 1973, Southwest has been profitable even year. Their strategy included many factors like offering no-frills, short-haul, high-frequency, point-to-point, and low-fair service. Using point-to-point because they acquired only one model of the plane then figured out the latest way to turn an airplane around, using less busy airports, alongside with no meals provided or assigned seating. Southwest also did not have an assigned seat for their passengers but rather given the boarding numbers at the gate eliminating the double-booked seats. Further through the case, it

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.

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.

Southwest Airline employees mainly belong to the Union and they are mainly full time workers. Since the Union has demand more services and benefits for their members, the company gain limited profit. To fix this the company should hire more part time workers instead of full time workers because they do not have to provide full benefits and instead focusing on gaining profit. And also, Southwest Airlines should make all flights within the states point-to-point flights, and give their employees a strict time lines to alleviate delays. This will keep an accurate time frame for customers. As far as the flight concerns, Southwest Airline has only one dependable

Southwest does not use the standard, traditional "hub and spoke" flight routing system, accepted by most of the major airlines, preferring instead the "Point to Point" system, performing more than 3,200 flights a day (most of them are direct flight).

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.

The short haul traveler is the backbone in which Southwest was built upon. The market for short distance airline flights was large enough to allow Southwest to maintain a