Taking A Look At Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines has been known as one of the best airlines in the United States. It has been able to preserve a prominent position in the aviation industry with having a consistency in profitability for over 41 years. This is mostly because of the unique strategies Southwest adopted. They adopted to have a low-fare cost, no frills, but yet an excellent customer service. Southwest is not just a great company without flaws; it’s flawed just as the other airlines. Its increase in Cost Per Available Seat Mile (CASM) has affected them. CASM is a common unit of measurement used to compare the efficiency of various airlines, "generally, the lower the CASM, the more profitable and efficient the air carrier." Since Southwest just concentrated on

This was possible because Southwest’s effective strategy of using one single type of aircraft – the fuel-efficient Boeing 737. This approach favored Southwest in costs because their cost of training and maintenance were low. Moreover, they’re able to offer low-cost fares as long as their operations costs are still low. But with this, they had to adopt the no-frills approach, which means no luxury on board, no meals services, and no first class. This was okay because they served on short-haul trips so individuals would prefer to purchase a low-cost ticket, sacrificing luxury, but yet to receive excellent customer service. Southwest primary focus to customer satisfaction, since they offer cheap tickets and people buy they must at least give them something to it which in their view is excellent customer service. Also, Southwest is known for its short turnaround time on arrivals and departures. Southwest recognizes that the primary concerns for individuals are money and type. Therefore, they offer cheap tickets to solve their money matter, and they offer short turnaround time to address their time issue. So they are technically meeting the basic needs of people, which is why people keep choosing Southwest

At times some customers will have a preference in flying with modern planes and in this situation Southwest would be limited and patronizing their rival air service provider. But on the positive side, Boeing is safe in staying updated and remains competitive in the design market of aircraft. Another slight issue is that Southwest is planning in introducing long-haul trips which will put Southwest Airlines in a healthy competition with the big three, United, Delta, and American. They still plan on providing low-cost fares, which might bring them profits because customers will purchase the cheaper tickets but I am not sure how they will strategize with their no-frills approach since they will be working with long trips and customers might want a light meal. With the recent merger of Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airlines, Southwest also faced a few cultural differences. The way both airlines exercise their managements skills are different and did have a minimal merger turbulence, but overall Southwest pulled off one of the smoothest airline mergers in history while capitalizing on the growth provided by acquiring another carrier. With the acquisition of AirTran, it gave Southwest entry to South America, which are international