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This case details the history of Southwest Airlines from its inception in 1971 until 2004. The case provides details of Southwest's business model and reasons for its success. It ends with a description of the company's competitive pressures in 2004. The case can be used for a course in service operations or strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the success of Southwest Airlines in the USA

The paper outlines the history of Southwest since 1967 and how the airline set new standards in customer service and employee satisfaction while recording records of unbroken profitability.

Southwest understands its market and has consistently implemented a strategy that has proven successful in capturing that market in the face of stiff competition.

The paper offers insights into how anyone can emulate the success of Southwest – if one is willing to invest the time, effort, and energy necessary to ensure that mission, goals, processes, policies and people are all aligned.

The foundation blocks for quality in a customer service organization are management commitment, customer focus, and employee involvement; operational and administrative aspects are built on these basic issues. This article presents a detailed analysis of how a major customer service organization was built to succeed and continues to improve by applying quality management principles. The example presented is Southwest Airlines, whose employees see themselves not as an airline with great customer service but as a great customer service organization that happens to be an airline. This case study is examined within the framework of the model used by the Canada Awards for Excellence, the internationally recognized quality award program in Canada for more than ten years.

The attached paper describes the keys to success for Southwest Airlines, including its approach to quality management. Southwest did not implement a formalized “quality management program.” Numerous companies in the USA have implemented formalized “quality management programs” and they failed because they were “programs of the month.” Implementing “quality” throughout a company is not the result of a formalized program but requires a cultural change in the way daily activities are conducted. The requirement of “doing it right the first time” must be integrated into the daily activities or culture of the company. The chairman of the board and president of a company must establish the tone for quality in not only what they communicate but also in their daily actions. Quality must be ingrained in the overall business model and strategies of a company. Southwest is very effective in integrating the importance of quality in its overall business model, strategic plan and its daily operational activities. Southwest did not engage outside consultants to develop a “quality program” but its style, culture and emphasis on quality were implemented in Southwest’s daily activities by Herb Kelleher, Chairman of the Board, and his management team.

In an era in which adapting to change means survival, it is important to study what successful organizations have done. While the airline industry in the USA has not made thriving financial headlines, one small company has been able to satisfy its customers completely and achieve a place among the Fortune 500 in a relatively short period of time. In three steps, this article examines what Southwest Airlines has done to reach this level of achievement and maintain its excellent employee and customer relations. First, the company is defined as “excellent” according to the criteria established by Peters and Waterman. Second, management‐employee relations, organizational training and strong leadership are identified as the sources of employee motivation. Third, loss of strong leadership and organizational structure are discussed as possible future problems influencing motivation and service. The article closes by pointing to Southwest Airline’s concept of service as the true source of motivation and excellence.

The past several years have seen dramatic increases in oil prices, which have adversely impacted airlines, with the average price of jet fuel increasing from $1.34 per gallon between 1995 and 2005 to $2.81 per gallon between 2006 and 2009. As a partial response to these increases in costs, many airlines have introduced fees for services that were previously provided to their customers free of charge. One such charge is a fee on checked baggage, which most airlines introduced in 2008. These charges have been successful in increasing airline revenues, so successful that many airlines have increased their fees multiple times over the past two years. Baggage fees have also enabled airlines to avoid dramatic increases in their airfares, which may result in significantly fewer customers, as these additional fees generate revenues, but since they are not collected when passengers book their tickets, the cost of air travel on these airlines appears lower than it actually is. The most notable exception to this pattern of charging baggage fees is Southwest Airlines, which has launched a “Bags Fly Free” advertising campaign in an attempt to differentiate their product from that of fee charging airlines. In this chapter, we use a spatial autoregressive model to analyze what impact the increase in fuel costs, and the introduction of baggage fees have had on ticket prices. Our results suggest that increases in jet fuel prices are passed along to travelers in the form of higher ticket prices but that baggage fees actually reduce ticket prices, as airlines may substitute baggage fee revenue for ticket revenue to become more competitive on their airfare. We also find that Southwest Airlines has increased their ticket prices on routes in which they compete with fee charging firms, leveraging their “Bags Fly Free” product differentiation to increase their revenues.

Southwest is the world’s fourth largest airline and has consistently been one of the most admired organisations in the USA. Its founder and Chairman Emeritus, Herb Kelleher, attributes much of this success to the use of strategic principles. This gives a guiding framework for employees within the company but allows them leeway to make their own decisions. The result is greater employee engagement, a more efficient organisation that is adapting to the needs of its major stakeholders and greater customer satisfaction.

The article analysis of the use of the strategic principle methodology at Southwest Airlines. It focuses on the position of Southwest as “THE low fare” airline and the use of humour and different working practices within the airline.

The article shows that If this can be done in an industry as heavily regulated as aviation, it can be applied with the same success to many other business sectors and organisations.

The paper aims to contrast the approaches to human‐resource management taken by two low‐cost airlines – Ryanair in Europe and Southwest in the USA.

The paper considers the similarities between the two airlines before explaining that Southwest puts much more emphasis than Ryanair on the importance of treating its employees well. It examines what this means in terms of recruitment, recognition and reward.

The paper explores in particular the role of Southwest Airlines operations agents and finds that they are prepared and able to work anywhere – in the departure hall, at the gate, in the baggage hall, on the tarmac or aboard the aircraft – to help to ensure that flights leave on time.

The paper argues the case for putting employees first, on the basis that you treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers.

Illustrates that there is evidently no single answer for success in the low‐cost airline sector – and so plenty to challenge the aspiring aviation entrepreneur.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of the issues US airlines are facing to control costs and improve operations.

A detailed comparison of two major airlines (American Airlines and Southwest Airlines) is performed to identify key differences and to confirm the areas on which airlines need to focus improvement efforts. Cause and effect diagrams are used to identify the factors triggering the issues. Process analysis is also used to offer improvements to reduce costs and improve customer service. Analysis is based on publicly available airline and industry information.

Revenue, costs, growing economic concerns and an extremely competitive environment are the major areas on which airlines need to focus to be successful. Recommendations are offered in these areas. Owing to the impact of the internet and travel consolidators such as Expedia, revenue increases are challenging, but suggestions are tendered to improve this area.

The study may cause airline management to consider the operational improvement possibilities that are still available within their industry. Be they major network carriers or growing low cost carriers, potential opportunities are identified for improved operational profitability, while maintaining and enhancing customer service. The use of process analysis can provide insights into the inefficiencies which exist within current processes and place more emphasis on demand pull type processes which require forecasting operational schedules.

The basic assumption in strategic management is that consistently high performing companies are able to adapt effectively to external shocks. While adaptation of allocation of resources and its constraints have been investigated, it is important to also consider the allocation of attention. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the differences in the patterns in the allocation of resources and attention in a comparative case study with focus on Southwest Airlines. This study illustrates that the comparison of the patterns of allocation of resource and attention is very promising for the explanation of consistent superior performance.

This paper analyzes Federal Aviation Administration and American Transport Association data in order to determine actual resource allocation. Moreover, textual analysis of annual reports serves as basis for examining the patterns of allocation of attention.

The results of this paper reveal a striking divergence of allocation of resources and attention (particularly attention to differentiation) for Southwest Airlines – the consistently high performing firm in the US airline industry.

The major limitation of the current study is the fact that it is a single industry study. It would be very interesting to replicate this study in other industries.

This study shows the importance of allocation of attention for firm performance. This is particularly relevant for resource intensive industries such as the airline industry where organizational inertia makes it hard to move resources fast. Yet, attention appears to have a great potential for firm performance and can be changed more easily.

Despite great interest in allocation of resources and attention in strategy research, authors rarely combine these two perspectives. Nadkarni and Barr present a notable exception. Yet, the latter authors focus on one specific aspect of adaptation of strategic actions, i.e. the timeliness of response. The present study takes a more comprehensive view of adaptation, e.g. the respective changes in slopes of adaptation.