Comprehensive Case Analysis Southwest Airlines: What¡¦s Next? April 11‚ 2000 They Took a Great Idea and Made It Fly Southwest Airlines Company is a domestic airline that provides primarily short-haul‚ high-frequency‚ point-point‚ low-fare service to 53 airports in 52 cities in26 states throughout the United States. Southwest focuses primarily on point-to-point service‚ providing more direct nonstop routes for short-haul customers and‚ therefore‚ minimizing connections‚ delays and total
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Executive Summary The strategy of Southwest Airlines (SWA) has remained the same‚ which is to give customers low-cost‚ point-to-point airfare‚ with excellent customer service. This simple strategy has resulted in SWA posting profits for 30 consecutive years. While other airlines are downsizing‚ SWA is showing slow steady growth. This performance is evident throughout their SEC Filings. First we will look at SWA’s ROI and ROE compared to the rest of the industry. Two thousand and one and 2002 were
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Southwest Airlines’ Seven Secrets for Success What’s the airline-industry jargon for unconventional wisdom? Southwest Airlines. By some estimates‚ the country’s major carriers have consumed perhaps $100 billion in capital during the past decade‚ but Southwest Airlines continues to be profitable. It’s been in the black for 33 consecutive years and‚ last week‚ for the 127th consecutive quarter‚ it paid a modest dividend. Its balance sheet‚ with about $3 billion in cash on hand and $600 million
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Executive Summary Southwest Airlines is one of the most profitable airlines in the airline industry. During turbulent economic times Southwest has managed to continue strong revenue growth in a disastrous environment and has operated profitably for 39 consecutive years (Mintzmyer‚ 2012). Southwest Airlines has capitalized on the company’s strength of being the top low cost carrier by offering a simple and efficient business plan that prides itself on customer service. Southwest utilizes only the
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2002‚ Southwest Airlines stock returned more for their shareholders than any other stock in the same time period (Collins‚ 2006‚ Hospital Strategy IV: Southwest Airlines and thinking outside the box). Many companies have begun to take notice of the Southwest model; a model that allows Southwest to thrive while many of its contemporaries are faced with financial difficulties. The success of Southwest Airlines can be attributed to their structure. This structure has made it possible for Southwest Airlines
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way to understand the external factors which Southwest Airlines is dealing with. Firstly the demographical factor that influence strategies of Southwest Airlines. The aging population in the United States is a big issue. It is known that older people‚ does not prefer to travel by plane‚ not for the short or long-haul. They are still too conservative and rather take a bus‚ train or drive themselves to the places they want to be. Because Southwest Airlines is very customer orientated they are providing
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Executive Summary As Southwest continues expanding‚ it is important that they maintain the low cost structure that has made them so successful historically. As larger and more congested destinations are added to Southwest’s routes‚ they must focus on customer service as the on-time arrivals and other metrics are certain to deteriorate. Additionally‚ in order to protect from volatile fuel prices‚ it would be prudent to expand the fuel-efficiency of the fleet by capitalizing on Boeing’s most
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The airline industry is a tough place to make money because of its price sensitive customers‚ too many competitors‚ high capital intensity and boom-or-bust cyclicality. Even though with all these factors‚ Herb Kelleher‚ the cofounder and chairman of Southwest Airlines‚ created the sort of value that any company leader would envy. Herb Kelleher embraced servant-leadership as his style. Servant-leaders put their people above themselves‚ care about their employees‚ humble and empower their people. These
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Southwest Airlines corporate philosophy can be credited to one of the founders Herb Kelleher. It is an airline company with a unique culture “goofiness”‚ which keeps the morale of its employees high (Smith‚ 2004)‚ and is a company that welcomes fun‚ dedication‚ and effort. Southwest believes that a happy employee will create a happy customer‚ and will create loyal customers. Mr. Kelleher effectively implemented its style‚ culture and emphasis on quality in the daily actives at Southwest (Smith
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Case Study 1 – Southwest Airlines 1. To what do you attribute the success of Southwest Airlines? The success of Southwest Airlines was mainly attributed to their innovative high-volume‚ low-margin business model‚ which included cutting flight prices dramatically‚ using their fleet at maximum capacity‚ and entertaining marketing gimmicks. Southwest’s flight structure took advantage of low-density airports and underserved areas and was comprised of a two-tiered pricing structure that books
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