Southwest Airlines was established in 1967 as a low-cost airline operating just in the state of Texas. Today, Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic carrier in the United States employing more than 46,000 employees and operating 3,600 flights per day (Southwest, 2014). Southwest is also the largest operator of Boeing 737 aircraft in the world with over 680 in service operating an average of six flights per day each (Southwest, 2014). Under its original name, Air Southwest Company, Southwest Airlines was founded by a group of Texas investors that put together $560,000, to form a small airline to serve the cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. By the summer of 1971, operating under Southwest Air, the airline owned three aircraft
Using high level aircraft and employee productivity with minimizing cost by reducing aircraft turnaround time at the gate, Southwest was able to generate an operating revenue of 17.7 billion dollars and an average passenger load of 80.1 percent (Southwest, 2014). A major contributor to the airline’s success is fuel hedging. Fuel hedging is a contractual tool used to mitigate rising fuel costs. Fuel hedging allows Southwest to establish a fixed or capped cost, via a commodity swap or option. When buying a fuel swap, if the price of fuel drops, then the company will be forced to pay the above market rate. When purchasing a fuel call option and the price increases, the company will receive a return that offsets their actual costs. Some fuel call options require an upfront cost. In the previous scenario, if the cost of fuel decreases the company will not receive a return on the option, but will benefit from buying fuel at the lower cost. Southwest Airlines has leveraged this technique and in doing so avoids high fuel costs; drastically important to a company whose annual fuel consumption in 2012 topped approximately 1.9 Billion gallons (Southwest,
Braniff, Trans-Texas and Continental Airlines all pursued legal action against the airline over interstate service within Texas. Three years later, Southwest was victorious when the Texas Supreme Court upheld their right to fly within Texas. The decision became final after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case without comment. During the early 1960s, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth jointly found a new location for a major airport due to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA), determination that Love Field in Dallas and Fort Worth’s Greater Southwest International Airport was unsuitable for future air traffic demands. Both cities had to resolve this issue due to the FAA refusing to provide continued Federal funding for the airports. The ending result, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) which opened to commercial traffic in 1974. All airlines agreed to relocate to DFW. Southwest Airlines insisted this would affect their business model with being far removed from Dallas’ downtown area. Southwest filed suit to remain at Love Field, and in 1973 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Southwest as long as the airport remained
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.)
Despite its growing domestic network, the company didn’t offer international flights until July 2014, and even then, it only offered limited destinations (“Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet,” n.d.). Furthermore, the company’s reliance on a single aircraft is cause for concern. Southwest Airlines was also weak with technology utilization initially but has since turned this into an asset, as described later. Finally, the company has a limitation with providing customer perks due to its low-cost operations (Ross & Beath,
Having a low cost of operations is one of the contributing factors to Southwest Airlines’ financial success. Such low cost model of the corporation is brought about by an effective strategy. Southwest uses only one type of aircraft – the fuel-efficient Boeing 737. This tactic keeps training and maintenance costs down. Moreover, the no-frills approach to customer service contributed to the low cost of operations for Southwest.
More than 37 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right. What began as a small Texas airline has grown to become one of the largest airlines in America. Today, Southwest Airlines flies over 104 million passengers a year to 64 great cities all across the country, and we do it more than 3,400 times a day.
Southwest Airlines is competing with "Shuttle by United" head to head in about 9 routes. United has just announced that it is discontinuing its Oakland - Ontario route and hiking the fares in all the 14 routes by $10, which calculated to be 14.5% increase in the fare. Southwest has to respond effectively to these unexpected developments and has to act accordingly while maintaining their current low fare image and increasing their daily operating profits. We have considered the elasticity of the market to be 1.15.
Pricing. Their pricing strategy is based off their market position as a budget airline. Positioning their company as a budget airline, Southwest can maintain and keep their lower price points compared to their competitors. For Southwest to maintain sustainability as a market leader, they must effectively utilize their resources to reduce their cost of operations. By only operating one type of aircraft, short non-stop flights, point to point routes, and flying into less crowded secondary airports, this has allowed Southwest Airlines to keep their price points down while simultaneously reducing their planes turnaround time.
In the airline industry, Southwest Airlines is considered a true innovator. By shaking up the rules of flying and improving upon inefficient industry norms, Southwest has quickly grown by leaps and bounds. From the very start, Southwest Airlines' goals were to make a profit, achieve job security for every employee, and make flying affordable for more people (Southwest,2007). Southwest has not strayed from these goals. It does not buy huge aircrafts, fly international routes or try to go head to head with the major carriers; and thanks to a great planning, Southwest airlines has become the most successful airline company in the U.S., if not the world.
Before to select the proper alternative, three alternatives were analysed and evaluated under four decisions criteria: customer experience, cost, growth rate / market penetration and ease to implementation (See Exhibit 2: Factor Analysis). Between all the alternatives, it was suggested that Southwest Airlines enters to New York City by bidding the slots and gates at the LGA (See Exhibit 3: Alternatives Analysis). This alternative sustains the challenge of changing the customer experience which means adding more flights from and to the East; furthermore, entering to new markets will reinforce “the power of the network” through LGA. At the same time, this decision will allow signing more code-sharing agreements with other airlines flying to international destinations and offer new products and services to LUV customers as loyalty rewards, in-flight internet, onboard duty-free purchases, etc.; as a result of this, it will increase passenger’s insights and experiences by flying with Southwest Airlines. Nevertheless, there is potential risk by selecting this alternative, in the recent years the energy prices has had a huge increase affecting costs, fares and even capacity needed, however Southwest Airlines has been able to hedge fuel for decad...
Southwest has done what others in its industry seem to struggle to do, which is to make flying fun. This has been the cornerstone for how the Southwest operates, thinks, and plans. Many of the policies, procedures, and practices Southwest has used are aimed directly at providing patrons with a unique, fun, and enjoyable experience. This value and the effort Southwest has made to place customers at the forefront of its plans and strategy, has paid off as the company is one of the most popular and well-respected in the transportation industry.
Southwest Arilines has been facing direct competition in 9 routes of the intra-Califonia market with United Airlines and their "Shuttle By United." Shuttle By United was designed to be a high-frequency, low fare, minimal amenity, short-haul flight operation initially serving destinations in California and adjacent states who's intent wsa to "match Southwest's strategy." In the four months since Shuttle By United's inception competition has been fierce resulteing in Southwest and United slashing prices and envoking a merkteting blitz in this 9 route area. Recent news highlighted that Shuttle By United intended to discontinue some service (perticularly the Oakland-Ontraio route) and raise fares $10.00 per ticket. Southwest's respons to this and the coninued threat of losing market share to United should be:
Southwest Airlines strategy of focusing on short haul passenger and providing rates as low as one third of their competitors, they have seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Market share for top city pairs on Southwest's schedule has reached 80% to 85%. Maintaining the largest fleet of 737's in the world and utilizing point-to-point versus the hub-and-spoke method of connection philosophy allowed Southwest to provide their service to more people at a lower cost. By putting the employee first, Southwest has found the key to success in the airline business. A happy worker is a more productive one as well as a better service provider. Southwest will continue to reserve their growth in the future by entering select markets only after careful market research.
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.
The low cost and no frills strategy is make travel affordable at low cost. The company only operates one type of aircraft which is Boeing 737 to help maintenance cost low. Southwest was the first airline to use E-ticketing in this way customer can reserve spot and buy ticket on their web and allow less expense in printing tickets. Medium measured airports which allowed them to produce better time performance and less fuel costs so plane do not have to wait in the line at the runway. The core value of the company of “LUV and fun” makes the company great place to work that gives customer with a great experience.
Another internal challenge for Southwest Airlines is the conflicting management style and business operation with AirTran. On top of that, the external challenges such as the increase of competitions and gas prices are some of issues f...
The company’s cost leadership strategy of keeping their fares low to ensure frequent and convenient travel along with its playful, fun poking advertising, exciting promotional ways, and various vibrant ways of operation enabled the company to expand exuded its effect on both customer and competitors, thus lowering the prices in the new market. This is the ‘Southwest