In 1967 Southwest Airlines was a vision by and investment adviser Rollin Kind and his lawyer Herb Kelleher, they wanted to start a different kind of airline. Rollin King already had a small charter that ran between the smaller Texas cities. This new airline at first was to fly between the three largest cities in Texas, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The company was first names Air Southwest Company, it later received its name of Southwest Airlines. The next year in 1968 the Texas Aeronautical Commission approved their planed to fly between the three major cities. In the next couple of years the company went off to a flying start by the next couple of years it had acquired four planes and employed about 200 people. In the first year of operation the company lost over $3.7 million dollars. It wasn’t until the next year and a half that it was able to turn a profit and ever since then has been doing tremendous.
Herb Kelleher, who in 1982 took over as President, CEO, and Chairman of the board. He was well respected in his position focusing on employee and customer satisfaction.
By 1978 Southwest was the most profitable airline in the industry, and had already carried its 5 millionth passenger. The stock for Southwest was now listed in the New York Stock Exchange as “LUV.” By 1996 the market had added Florida and California to expand in their services. By the year 1999, in the summer Southwest has now acquired 55 cities and 29 states that they operate out of, they fly more than 2400 flight a day. Recently, last year in October Southwest was able to fly into Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, with this, it makes them the 5th largest in the industry.
The Business plan on Continental Airlines Strategy Costs Company
1. Continental Airlines, like other companies in the airline industry, is a volatile organization. However, Continental has many strengths that have allowed it to prevail through tough times and avoid complete ruin. The CEO of Continental Airlines played an important role in reviving the company. His "Go Forward Plan" vocalized the strategy of the company and focused on every aspect of the ...
External Threats
The greatest potential threats to Southwest, were to be new low-cost entrants to the industry. Some of these start-ups were initiated by major airlines sucha s Delta Express, U.S airway’s Metro Jet and Shuttle by United. These units sought to replicate Southwest’s short-haul routes, low cost practices and fares. Other threats that Southwest faces is that other airlines have the capabilities to fly into and out of more cities and bigger airports.
Southwest does not offer frequent flier mile programs that allow their customers to accumulate points and then qualify for free tickets to their destination.
Now with acquiring service to Buffalo-Niagara area, Southwest could offer in-flight meals, or perhaps a movie, or something along those lines to accommodate the length of the flight.
Southwest could look into getting the bigger jets, and while in this venture could look into flying overseas.
Terrorists threats since September 11, has influenced many flights and the airline industry as a whole.
External Opportunities
For this company many opportunities arise, in growth and profitability. Southwest Airlines could look at expanding the target market into overseas and into other parts of the United States. As of now Southwest is mainly targeted towards the Southwest part of the country. Southwest being that their profitability has been increasing could provide a separate market segment in the east coast. This would be beneficial now that the economy is in the shape that it is in to be aggressively looking into this now. Many of Southwest’s competitors are losing markets and employees this offers already trained personnel available to utilize if obtaining new jets that have the capacity to carry more passengers and fly longer distances, and or other customer services.
Southwest has already been introduced into the New York and Florida market, so using this as a strong foundation could be a good base to grow on. This could be a start into expansion in to the east coast.
The Term Paper on “Ryanair –”Southwest” of European airlines
The objective of my report is to analyze the external environment in “Ryanair-‘Southwest” of European airlines” case, which is very important factor for the firm’s formulated effective strategy. The external environment consists of a wide array of economic and sociopolitical factors. It is the specific market arenas that the organization has chosen in its strategy; it ...
Another opportunity that could be looked upon is the over seas market with many of their competitors out of the game now with the economy this is a good opportunity from them to take a stab at this market.
