After analyzing the two Southwest Airlines cases it was apparent of which strategy Southwest used in order to have an upper hand on its competitors. From the beginning, Southwest has maintained the same strategy and operating style that it maintains to the present. It concentrates on flying to airports that are underutilized and close to a metropolitan area—e.g., Love Field in Dallas, Hobby in Houston, San Jose and Oakland in the Bay Area, Midway in Chicago—although it does fly to major airports like LAX and SFO. The company also began flying fuel-efficient 737s, and now has over 200 of them, the only type of aircraft it flies. Southwest service involves frequent on-time departures as well as low cost fares. It emphasizes point-to-point routes, with no central hub and an average flight time of 65 minutes. This strategy is classified as the low cast strategy what managers do with this type of strategy is gain a competitive advantage by focusing the energy of all the organization’s departments or functions on driving the company’s costs down below the costs of its industry rivals such as Shuttle by
United and Morris Air. Consistent with its strategy of low costs, low fares, and frequent flights, Southwest also keeps its fares simple. Unlike other airlines that rely heavily on computers and artificial intelligence to maximize flight revenue, Southwest typically offers only two fares on a route, a regular coach fare (there is no first- or business-class) and an off-peak fare. It also tries to price all fares the same within a state (for instance, currently $69 to fly anywhere within California).
Southwest is not just a low fare/low cost carrier. It also emphasizes customer service. In fact, the word “Customer” is always capitalized in all Southwest ...