Things that are quite impressive about Southwest Airlines include:
1. The Southwest Airlines Way.
2. Elastic Pricing.
3. Safely, efficiently and operationally excellence while keeping operating cost and fares lower than anybody else.
4. “Employee first, Customer Second” attitude. This attitude is rarely seen elsewhere in industry.
Without any doubts, Southwest Airlines (SWA) deserves very high grades in terms of crafting their Company’s strategy. Their company strategy not only make them survive among big and strong competitors, but also in one of the most turbulent times of Airline Industry post 9-11. Southwest Airlines management is considered to be the most dynamic at times. The policies introduced by SWA management is considered to be intuitive and effective by many industrial analysts (Zellner).
Positives for the strategy:
1. Lowest flight turnaround time.
2. Hedging of airline fuel, which helped SWA to save more money on fuel and be profitable when other airlines are losing money.
3. No formal hierarchy, only 4 levels between the front line employees and Vice Presidents. Autonomy given to the employees to make decisions and be accountable for the actions taken.
4. SWA operates only one type of plane, the Boeing 737, to minimize the size of spare part inventory, simplify training on maintenance and repair personnel,
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Kelleher said: "Gary Kelly is one of our brightest stars, well respected throughout the industry and well known, over more than a decade, to the media, analyst, and investor communities for his excellence. As part of our Board's succession planning, we had already focused on Gary as Jim Parker's successor, and that process has simply been accelerated by Jim's personal decision to retire. Under Gary's leadership, Southwest has achieved the strongest balance sheet in the American airline industry; the best fuel hedging position in our industry; and tremendous progress in technology” (Southwest Press Release, July