Report About Southwest Airlines Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Report About Southwest Airlines - Term Paper Example They had been able to initiate and survive piece wars but as they did forward buying of oil, they are currently at a disadvantage against the competitors. The legacy carriers are now able to offer same fares as SWA as the oil prices have reduced. This strategy of theirs has backfired and they can sustain by further reducing costs or increasing productivity. They have also been accused and penalized for violating safety norms but they have their own clarifications and justifications. SWA continues to be the best run airline but after being market leaders and retaining profits continuously for several years, they now to revise their strategy. Southwest Airlines (SWA) is a benchmark in the industry for continuously maintaining fastest turnarounds, excellent service at lowest fares, on-schedule flights and luggage arrivals, a highly motivated and unionized workforce. In fact the airline achieved success not from economies of scale but because of its workforce (Bacon, 2001). The airline could boast of the lowest operating-cost structure in the domestic airline industry as it consistently offered the lowest and simplest fares. Its strategy through out has been based on exemplary levels of service. The airline encourages leadership and individuality at all levels. It was recognized by the Fortune Magazine as one of the top ten businesses to work for in the US (Achtmeyer, 2002). The Wall Street Journal ranked it first among airlines for customer service satisfaction. SWA started its operations out of Texas in 1971 with three aircrafts and was doing much better than other airlines because of fewer regulations in Texas. SWA grew to be the fourth largest airline in the US and by 2002 had a fleet of 366 Boeing 737 jets. It had 35,000 employees in 2001 and generated total operating revenues of $5.6 billion from a passenger load factor of 68.1 percent. Southwest was the United States’ only major