Aricle Example about Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Co. is the largest low-cost carrier in the United States, and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

The airline was established in 1967, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. Southwest begins flying within the state of Texas (between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) with three Boeing 737 aircraft. Today Southwest operates nearly 400 Boeing 737 aircraft to 59 U. S.

cities. Southwest has the lowest operating cost structure in the domestic airline industry and consistently offers the lowest and simplest fares. Southwest also has one of the best overall customer service records.Moreover, It is one of the few airlines with no layoffs aimed a travel slump created by the slow economy and the threat of terrorism.

Southwest offers types of products and services which include; air transportation, mobile access, shuttle service, priority boarding, early bird check-in, and pet allowance. Southwest has pioneered in Senior Fares, a same-day air freight delivery service, Fun Fares, and Ticketless Travel. Southwest was the first airline with web page- southwest. com, DING! The first-ever direct link to Customer’s computer desktops that delivers live updates on ticket deals, and the first airline corporate blog.

A timeline of key dates in Southwest Airlines history: 1971 - Southwest begins flying between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The idea for the airline was hatched over drinks by San Antonio lawyer Herb Kelleher and one of his clients, Rollin King, who ran a small charter service in Texas. 1972 - Southwest was forced to sell one of its four planes to meet payroll. Employees made up for the lost jet by turning planes around and starting the next flight in 10 minutes. 1973 - Southwest makes money, starting a string of 36 straight profitable years.

1974 - A new Flight Attendant uniform is introduced—the Company's third -- a play of white polka dots on orange for blouse with rust shade of orange hot pants and aviator jacket – to become effective. 1975 - Southwest places fifth Boeing 737 into service. 1976 - Sixth Boeing 737 is placed into service. 1977 - Flight Attendants sport a new look for "spreading LUV all over Texas.

" The new uniforms feature a 1977 version of hot pants—none cuffed, front zippered, and fitted at the waist for a sleek look. For summer, Southwest is introducing an overalls-styled outfit combining a miniskirt or bib-like top of denim satin polyester.1978 - Herb Kelleher becomes interim CEO for several months, and gets the job full-time in 1981. 1979 - Southwest begins service in New Orleans. Until Congress deregulated the airline industry (in 1978), Southwest couldn't fly beyond Texas. 1980 - Southwest announces the highest passenger traffic in its history with a 22.

8% increase to 498,083 passengers in April 1980, compared to 405,664 passengers in April 1979. 1981 - "Loving You Is What We Do" is the theme of a multi-media advertising campaign launching Southwest's second decade of service.1982 - Expands service to California. 1983 - Southwest begins retrofitting the fleet with new, shiny interiors of leather and warm earth tones.

1984 - Houston Pilot Base opens- its first crew base outside of Dallas 1985 - Begins service at Chicago's Midway Airport. Acquires a competitor, Muse Air. 1987 - Southwest first began to offer a frequent-flyer program , calling it The Company Club. Unlike competitor's programs which were based on miles flown, The Company Club credited for trips flown regardless of distance 1988 - Ticket By Mail is born.

1989 - Annual revenue passes $1 billion. 1990 - Southwest accepts delivery of the newest, most technologically advanced, and quietest aircraft in the world today—the Boeing 737-500. 1991 - "Friends Fly Free" is introduced. Every full-fare Customer, age 18 or older, can take along a friend of any age absolutely free.

1992 - Became the nation's first and only airline to be rated number one in all three major performance categories by the DOT for a record-setting five times in one year. 1993 - Expands to the East Coast with service at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.Acquires Morris Air to expand into the Pacific Northwest. 1994 - Currently distributing famous in flight peanut snacks with a new label: FRILLS. The airline meal in a nutshell.

1995 - Omaha service begins. 1996 - Expands to Florida. Renames its frequent flyer program Rapid Rewards. 1997 - Official name of website becomes southwest. com. 1998 - Announces "Kids Fly Free" vacation program with Disneyland.

FORTUNE magazine names Southwest Airlines "The Best Company to Work For in America. " 1999 - Begins service at Long Island MacArthur Airport but avoids more congested New York City airports.2000 - Southwest Airlines comes to the rescue of company travel planners with a tool that assists the company travel managers in booking and tracking trips made through southwest. com without added fees.

2001 - Kelleher steps down as CEO, replaced by general counsel James Parker, but remains chairman. Kelleher's former legal assistant, Colleen Barrett, is named president. 2002 - Begins phasing out plastic reusable boarding passes. New rules after the 2001 terror attacks required boarding passes with passenger's name.2003 - Southwest's first nonstop transcontinental flights begin with a flight between BWI and SJC. 2004 - Gary Kelly replaces Parker, who became entangled in difficult labor negotiations with the flight attendants' union.

2005 - Begins selling travel to Hawaii and other places aboard partner ATA Airlines. 2006 - Congress votes to repeal a law in 2014 that prevents Southwest from operating long flights from its home base at Dallas Love Field. 2007 - Southwest carries the most Customers for the third consecutive month. In addition, Southwest establishes a Safety commitment.2008 - The Federal Aviation Administration proposes a $10. 2 million civil penalty against Southwest for using planes that hadn't been inspected for fuselage cracks.

Several planes were later found to have cracks. After negotiations, the penalty is reduced to $7. 5 million. At the annual shareholder meeting, Kelleher steps down as chairman. 2009 - Southwest launches service in Minneapolis and announces plans to expand to New York's LaGuardia Airport, Boston's Logan Airport, and Milwaukee. 2010 - 29 hospitals around the country have participated in Southwest’s Medical Transportation Grant for the year.

Southwest began adding in-flight Wi-Fi Internet connectivity via Row 44's satellite-broadband to its aircrafts. 2011 - Southwest Airlines significantly upgrades its award-winning corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest, which began in April 2006 as one of the world's first Company blogs. Also, Southwest Airlines Cargo is recognized for excellence in Air Cargo World's annual Air Cargo Excellence (ACE) Survey as the winner of the "up to 199,999 tones" category. Vision of Southwest Airline To provide the best service and lowest fares to the short haul, frequent-flying, point-to- point, non-interlining traveler.Mission of Southwest Airline The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

To Employees We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.Corporate Culture Southwest’s corporate strategy is to focus on obtaining more of the low-fare market of the airline industry rather than to enter into other aspects of the airline industry. The business level strategy is to continue focusing on the current customer market, that which is looking for a low-cost airline to get them to their destination at a reasonable price. Southwest is only looking to improve its services to make each customer’s experience the best it can be.

Southwest is traded publicly under the symbol “LUV” on NYSE. What is LUV?Southwest has been in LUV with its Customers from the very beginning. Therefore, it's fitting that we began service to San Antonio and Houston from Love Field in Dallas on June 18, 1971. As their Company and Customers grew, their LUV grew too! With the prettiest Flight Attendants serving "Love Bites" on its planes, and determined Employees issuing tickets from its "Love Machines," they changed the face of the airline industry throughout the 1970s. Then in 1977, its stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "LUV.

"Over the ensuing years, our LUV has spread from coast to coast and border to border thanks to its hardworking Employees and their LUV for Customer Service. Some Southwest aircraft feature special liveries. Southwest gives these aircraft special names, usually ending in "One" including flying killer whales one, Lone star one- painted like Texas flag- Arizona one- The flag of the state of Arizona -and Slam Dunk one, symbolizing the airline’s partnership with the NBA , and etc. Southwest's original primary livery was desert gold, red and orange, with pinstripes of white separating each section of color.Southwest airline began with a simple strategy; “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 goodtime doing it, people will fly your airline.

” This approach has been the key to Southwest’s success. Southwest Airlines' Secrets for Success One Plane Fits All Unlike the network carriers and their commuter surrogates, which operate all manner of regional jets, turboprops, and narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, Southwest flies just one plane type, the Boeing 737 series.That saves Southwest millions in maintenance costs; in addition, this simplifies pilots, flight attendants and mechanic training process and also management can substitute aircraft, reschedule flight crews, or transfer mechanics quickly. It also gives the airline unique flexibility to move its 527 aircraft throughout the route network without costly disruptions and reconfigurations.

Point-to-Point Flying Network carriers rely on a hub-and-spoke system, which laboriously collects passengers from "spoke" cities, flies them to a central "hub" airport, and then redistributes them to other spokes. Not Southwest.Most of its flying is nonstop between two points. That minimizes the time that planes sit on the ground at crowded, delay-prone hubs and allows the average Southwest aircraft to be in the air for more than an hour longer each day than a similarly sized jet flown by a network carrier. Southwest avoids the hub-and-spoke strategy also pays dividends in on-time operations and has extremely fast turnover service.

According to Flight Stats, Southwest's 78 percent on-time performance in June is eight percentage points higher than the industry average and higher than that of any of its major competitors.Simple In-Flight Service Business travelers haven't always loved Southwest's simple service, but it's looking better and better as competitors cut back. There is just one class of service, a decent coach cabin that is slightly more spacious than those of Southwest's competitors. There are no assigned seats (passengers are assigned to one of three groups A, B, C and a number when they check in; the number refers to where they stand in line at the gate) There have never been meals, just beverages and snacks.Keeping it basic allows Southwest to unload a flight, clean and restock the plane, and board another flight full of passengers in as little as 20 minutes compared with as much as 90 minutes on a network airline. Airline efficiency experts say that the savings allow each Southwest jet to fly an extra flight per day.

Extra flights mean extra revenue. No Frills, No Fees As other carriers have rushed to remove perks and pile on fees and restrictions, Southwest has kept its customer proposition streamlined and transparent. The airline only sells one-way fares and only in a few price "buckets."That not only keeps costs down—complex fare structures are expensive to manage—it convinces fliers that they are getting value for money.

Prices are all-inclusive too. Southwest doesn't have fuel surcharges, doesn't charge for standby travel or ticket changes, and continues to permit travelers to check two pieces of luggage free. And since every seat on every flight is virtually identical, travelers know exactly what they will get when they make a purchase. A Relatively Happy Workforce Network carriers have railed for decades about the power of their employee unions.

Southwest is the most unionized carrier in the nation. The airline says that 87 percent of its employees belong to a union. Southwest has never had a strike, there is healthy relationship between employees and management, and now that the network carriers have whacked away at salaries and benefits, Southwest staffers are generally the highest paid in the industry. But since Southwest has about 30 percent fewer employees per aircraft than its network competitors, it has the lowest non-fuel C.

A. S. M. (cost per available seat mile) of any of the major carriers.Online advertisement Online advertisement has been a successful endeavor for Southwest Airlines. Southwest.

com is the most-visited airline site on the web. More than half of Southwest passengers check in to their flights online. The homepage of the website is very easy to use because of its logical layout. “Click n’ Save” is a way for Southwest. com to provide information about car rentals, hotel offers, cruises, and vacation packages right on the website.

“Ding! ” is the first ever-downloadable discount update that is available directly on a customer’s desktop.