Southwest Airlines roots can be traced back to Texas in the 1960’s where a company by the name of Air Southwest Co. was created to provide interstate flights in Texas to avoid federal aviation laws. This technique of trying to avoid federal regulation was challenged when 3 other major airlines filed a lawsuit against Air Southwest Co.; later the state of Texas upheld Air Southwest Co. right to fly within the state of Texas and the Supreme Court decided not to review the case. (Southwest Airlines, n.d.) This was a challenging start for Southwest as it was being targeted right off the bat by some of its competitors. The company name was changed in the early 1970’s to Southwest Airlines Co. and a headquarters was established in Dallas, TX. The company’s main focus was interstate flights between the 3 major cities in Texas including Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. (Southwest Airlines, n.d.) Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher studied other airlines to try and figure out what culture he wanted to bring to Southwest Airlines. Herb Kelleher and President Lamar Muse ended up using a model copied almost word for word from an airline out of California called Pacific Southwest Airlines. (Southwest Airlines, n.d.) Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) motto was pretty simple as they wanted to also be known as the “The World’s Friendliest Airline” You could tell PSA wanted to be the friendliest airline by the big smiley face that was on the front of each of the companies Boeing 727 airplanes. (Pacific Southwest Airlines, n.d.) Kelleher and Muse saw the success that the culture brought to PSA and they wanted to bring that success to Southwest Airlines. Muse later confessed that creating the operations manual for Southwest Airlines was pr... ... middle of paper ... ...ed May 5, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/01/21/southwest-airlines-motivates-its-employees-with-a-purpose-bigger-than-a-paycheck/ Southwest Airlines. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 5, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines Pacific Southwest Airlines. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 6, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Southwest_Airlines Mouawad, Jad. (2010, November 20). Pushing 40, Southwest Is Still Playing the Rebel. The New York Times. Page BU1. Retrieved May 7, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/business/21south.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Southwest Airlines. (2014). Southwest Citizenship. Retrieved May 8, 2014 from http://www.southwest.com/citizenship/ Southwest Airlines. (2014). Ellen Torbet. Retrieved May 8, 2014 from http://swamedia.com/channels/Officer-Biographies/pages/ellen_torbert
If the short haul passenger was the backbone of Southwest Airlines success, then their 737s were the lifelines that supported it. By choosing the 737 as the airplane for all of Southwest's flights, the company saved time and resources in training its employees. The crew could be easily substituted for one another due to the extensive training on the 737. Low costs and, therefore, low fares are an enormous competitive advantage, when combined with their high-quality and loyal workforce. A very unique culture was found at Southwest Airlines among all of its employees.
Southwest Airlines operates in the American domestic market. It is well known for its growth over the years. Its mission is the dedication to the customer service of the highest quality that is delivered with a sense of friendliness, company spirit, personal pride and warmth, (Inkpen & Degroot, 2). The airline industry had general environmental factors that do impact it is several ways within the market.
Even though Southwest offers no-frills, there is still a high degree of customer satisfaction that continuously builds customer loyalty for the company. As mentioned, Southwest offers low prices on their airplane tickets. Also, Southwest is renowned in the airline industry for its short turnaround time on arrivals and departures. And since people's biggest concern nowadays is money and time, having low price airline tickets to cater their traveling needs in a shorter period of time will surely satisfy them. Moreover, aside from the low prices offered, what attracts to customers is Southwest’s way in dealing with them. The employees of the airline treat their customers well and really listen to their needs.
One of Southwest Airlines’ operations resources is their flight point-to-point service to maximize its operational efficiency and stay cost-effective, where its aim is to keep their aircrafts in the air more often to achieve better capacity utilization. Another resource that they have is the consistent aircrafts that they employ, in which they only use one type of aircraft , the Boeing 737 jets. By maintaining a single model fleet, it significantly simplifies scheduling, operations and flight maintenance. Then training costs for pilots, ground crew and mechanics are not as high, due to the fact that there's only a single aircraft to learn. This then makes the purchasing, provisioning, and other operations vastly simplified and thereby lowering costs. A third operations resource that they have is their airport operations that include the following: “Ramp Agents, Operations Agents, Customer Service Agents, Provisioning Agents and Cargo Agents” (Our People). Without them, a flight on Southwest would not go as smoothly as it does now. The last operations resource to consider is Online or E-tickets. This allows the customer to be able to find the flight they want in their own home without the hassle of booking through a travel agent, it is fast and convenient.
Since 1987, when the Department of Transportation began tracking Customer Satisfaction statistics, Southwest has consistently led the entire airline industry with the lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded. Many airlines have tried to copy Southwest’s business model, and the Culture of Southwest is admired and emulated by corporations and organizations in all walks of life. Always the innovator, Southwest pioneered Senior Fares, a same-day air freight delivery service, and Ticketless Travel. Southwest led the way with the first airline web page—southwest.com, DING, the first-ever direct link to Customer’s computer desktops that delivers live updates on the hottest deals, and the first airline corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest. Our Share the Spirit community programs make Southwest the hometown airline of every city we serve.
Southwest Airlines has been in business for more than thirty years. Presently, operating airplanes and flight services is very competitive, and in most cases, is not cost-effective industry; however, Southwest Airlines has been consistently profitable company, which is successfully designed with the intention of achieving high growth. According to an interview of Southwest Airlines former CEO, Herb Kelleher, when he visited Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, despite all airline industry challenges, the “low-fare airline has grown into the third largest in the world as measured by the number of passengers carried, and the largest with destinations exclusively in the United States” (2006). To the customers, Southwest Airlines is known by the low-fare service, short distance routes and high frequencies flights.
The airline industry has been full of competition for years. It takes determination, preparation, knowledge, and recourses to start an airline company, and that is just what happened forty-five years ago in Dallas Texas. Southwest airlines is an very successful airline company serving around 100 million customers annually (Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet). Many things stick out about Southwest such as their satellite-based WIFI and free luggage. These accommodations appeal to the customers. The company described its mission as “dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit” (About Southwest). But from a business standpoint it is necessary to look into
In the past when Southwest was unique in its approach to airline service, the company did not really have competitors within the airline industry (of course, Southwest had rivals, but the company managed to find its' place on the market). As one of the managers said, they were competing more with on-land transportation means (such as busses and trains) rather than with other airlines. From 1980s the situation in the airline industry started to become more unfavorable with companies loosing money and going bankrupt. At that time American airline companies realized that they can probably deal with these problems by copying the Southwest Airline's concept (as Southwest has been profitable in all years of its; operations). In the first part of 1990s two companies Continental and United launched their own low cost carriers and Southwest was concerned with the new competition. In fact these companies had plenty of time to analyze Southwest's model and they could copy their ...
The Southwest Airlines company and its culture is one that is often cited in today 's business classes. The airline is widely known to be “different” compared to many of its competitors, a result of its founding values and strong corporate culture. This culture developed early in Southwest’s history and was deeply entrenched due to the competitiveness of the airline industry, as well as due to some of the pressures experienced as a result regulatory issues and stiff competition.
Southwest Airlines is a fairly impressive organization. Throughout their history they have proven to be resilient. In their early days they had to ward off pressures that were placed on them from the more dominant airlines in their area. These airlines tried to force them out of business using regulatory pressures. The second impressive show of resiliency came when in the 1970’s the government tried to force southwest out of Love Field to the new Fort Worth airport that the government had invested in heavily. Another impressive feat of the airline is its can-do attitude. Throughout it’s history even when things were dire they still persevered. In my experience this is a monumental task as it is so easy to breed negativity instead of being positive about outcomes. Lastly, it is very impressive that Southwest was able, even in these trying times, to lower fairs and provide excellent customer service. Ideas such as their $10 fair Houston-> Dallas flight proved to be more successful than anticipated.
This chapter will focus on defining the creative marketing and organizational culture theories that correspond to the stated hypothesis. The necessities identified regarding these subjects will provide a clear understanding of what Southwest needs to address to regain its competitive advantage. A comparison of other organizations that also experienced marketing and/or cultural issues will be presented. This chapter will additionally compare the management strategies implemented by those businesses and their outcomes. Implementing comparable strategies will provide Southwest Airlines with the necessary strategic plan to reverse its current situation.
The mission of Southwest Airlines is a dedication to the highest quality of service delivered with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit (Mission…, 2007). The company also provides opportunities for learning and personal growth to each employee. Creativity and innovation is very important and highly encouraged, for the purposes of improving effectiveness. Employees are to be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that the employees are expected to share with the customer. Southwest Airlines was initially created to be a low-cost alternative to high price of intra-Texas air carriers (Freiberg, 1996). Southwest’s fares were originally supposed to compete with car and bus transportation. It was a little airline, and it would withstand the test of time. As a discount, no-frills airline, it would provide stiff competition for larger airlines. Their strategy was to operate at low cost, offering no food, no movies, no first class, and no reserved seats. They created their own market and provided increased turnaround times at the gate, by avoiding hub-and-spoke airports and opting for short-haul, direct flights. Through this market approach, Southwest has a majority of market share in the markets they serve.
Although Southwest Airlines Co. takes only the sixth place in the ranking of Forbes magazine[1], SWA is the world 's largest low-cost carrier, has become the biggest domestic airline in the United States, by number of travelers carried. More than 70 million passengers fly SWA ewery year to over 60 destinations around the continental United States. Passengers have found that Southwest 's affordable tickets create almost a new type of transportation, more in competition with the automobile than other airlines. The potential customers are ready to refuse in-board meals, baggage transfers, and other traditional additions for economically affordable tickets.
Founded by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher, Air Southwest Company was created in 1967 to fly within the state of Texas. On March 29th, 1971 Air Southwest Co. changed its name to Southwest Airlines Company with headquarters located in Dallas Texas. Today, Southwest Airlines serves over 94 destinations across the United States making it a major player in the domestic airline industry. Southwest ended the 2014 year by servicing 93 destinations within 40 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the five near international countries of; Mexico, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic. At the end of 2014 Southwest operated a total of 665 Boeing 737 after phasing out older AirTran models.
Company had a culture on not giving up through all the adversities the company faced. Strengthening of employees that is when they are motivates employees and is important part of the company. Finally cost awareness is when reduce price in every progression in the business. Southwest airlines are a strong culture company because of how they make the employees feel as part of family. This makes the employees to work hard for the success and that success they see the company as expert and personal