Operations of Southwest Airlines

Operations Improvement

Southwest Airlines

By: Sahib Rizvi, Rafeh M. Baig

Company Overview:

The Golden Triangle, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, were booming with economic and population growth in the late 1960s. An entrepreneur by the name of Rollin King saw an opportunity for an intrastate airline due to the inconvenience and expense of ground travel between the cities. Teaming up with future CEO, Herb Kelleher they established Southwest Airlines. As a result, this small time airline blossomed into one of the most dominant Airlines in U.S history.

Southwest Airlines (Southwest) recently acquired AirTran Airways (AirTran) to expand in the air transportation industry. Their services as a whole are catered towards providing air transportation for passengers mainly within the United States. However, They have begin limited international routes with the acquisition of AirTran. Southwest provides their air travel service through a point-to-point service, and route structure allowing for direct non-stop routing. Meanwhile, AirTran operates through a hub-and-spoke network system with flights originating and terminating at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. AirTran continues to service cities within the United States as well as the Company’s international markets. The Company provides connection of the Southwest and AirTran networks enabling the customers to fly between combined Southwest and AirTran destinations.

The keys to success for Southwest being a low cost carrier are their point-to point networks, and no frills service. As a low cost airline, it generally offers lower fares and fewer amenities. This approach has been the key to Southwest’s success. Southwest airlines has used a effective and efficient operations strategy which has helped increase its revenue as well as being cost efficient. The airline began with one simple strategy: “If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get...