Abstract
Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier in the United States based on the number of passengers carried domestically in a year. They are an economy airline, based in Dallas, Texas and according to Smart Brief, 2008, are also the most profitable; posting high profit margins for the 35th consecutive year. Given the hardships faced by like airlines in the last two years, Southwest Airlines no-frills approach to business is the ticket to success.
Overview
History
Southwest Airlines has been operating for more than 37 years and was a result of Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations, when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fare, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. What started as a small Texas airline has become one of the largest airlines in America, serving over 104 million passengers to 64 cities all across the country over 3,400 times a day. When the Department of Transportation began tracking Customer Satisfaction statistics in 1987, Southwest has consistently led the entire airline industry with the lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded (Southwest Airline, n.d.).
Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic carrier by total passengers, carrying over 101.9 million passengers in 2007 on over 1.1 million flights. Southwest thrives on maintaining low operating expenses, primarily through its extensive fuel hedging, which saved the company an estimated $791 million in fuel costs in 2007. Because of its low costs, Southwest has been able to re ...