Case Study Of Southwest Airlines

Introduction of Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines were founded by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King on the fifteenth of March in the year 1967. At that time, it was called Air Southwest. The name Southwest Airlines was given on the eighteenth of July in the year 1971. Today Southwest Airlines Company is the biggest low-cost carrier in the world and is a major airline in America with its headquarters situated at Dallas in Texas in the United States of America. It has also got other operational bases located in various parts of America like Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Phoenix, Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Oakland.

History of Southwest Airlines

The rise of the Southwest Airlines Company to its current heights is quite a story. The Company started operating as intrastate airline services working only in the state of Texas with its Operational bases located only in Dallas Love Field, Houston, and San Antonio in Texas. Since 1971, the airlines are operating regular flights from Dallas Love Fields to the other two bases. In the year 1975, the Southwest Airlines Company started to operate in other cities in Texas as well as the states located nearby in the year 1979. In the year 1990, the company extended its services to the Southeast and the East.

Destinations of Southwest Airlines

Considering the recent years, Southwest Airlines Company controls and operates in more than forty different states in the United States and also has its services extended to Columbia, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean Islands, and Puerto Rico. Since 2018, Southwest Airlines Company is carrying the largest number of domestic passengers in the United States of America. It operates its Services to a hundred and two destinations across America and other countries mentioned before. Recently, in the year 2019, the Company has extended its services to Honolulu in March, Maui in April, Kailua-Kona in May, and Lihue in November and in the month of January in the year 2020; it expanded its services to Hilo. Unlike other major Airlines Companies who prefer to use the hub and spoke system of transport, the Southwest Airlines prefer the point to point method of transport and in their base cities; they have a rolling hub system to go together with it.

Passenger Experiences of Southwest Airlines

The Southwest Airlines Company is the largest user of Boeing 737 jetliners in the world. Currently, they are using seven hundred and fifty-two of them and on average; they operate six flights every day. For a brief period of time from 1979 to 1987, they used Boeing 727-200s.

On one hand, all other United States flight services charge separate fees for luggage that have been checked in, but Southwest Airlines continues its tradition of offering two free checked-in luggage bags for each person boarding the flights. Like all other flights, Southwest Airlines does not charge any money for cancellation or changing flights.

Upon cancellation, the travel credit is returned to the passenger and can be used by the passenger for any booking in any other flights of Southwest Airlines or Southwest Vacations for a year from the date of purchase of the ticket.

Upon changing of flights, there are no additional costs charged, even if the cancellation is done ten minutes before the departure of the flight. But, if the passenger has boarded an expensive flight, then the person has to pay the extra fare and if the new flight is cheaper, then, the difference is credited.

They serve their passengers with free non-alcoholic drinks and alcoholic drinks are charged from six to seven dollars. On special occasions like Valentine’s Day and Halloween, the passengers are offered free alcoholic beverages if their age is above twenty-one. There are free Nabisco snacks offered to every flight passengers on most of the Southwest Airlines flights.

There is also a program called Rapid Reward for regular passengers in which the winners are eligible to receive free beverages and snacks with their tickets. This is the best way or attracting customers and retaining old ones. One of the best features of the southwest airlines is its colorful boarding announcements and songs which never fail to amaze people.

It is one of the best airlines in the United States as it has the lowest number of complaints from the customers.

Some other features of the airline company include free Wi-Fi, free movies, live television, free streaming music, and free app messaging services.

Accidents of Southwest Airlines

There are very few misfortunes that the company’s airline services have witnessed. This includes the death of three passengers due to accidental death in flight. The other one was injured while trying to break into the cockpit of the aircraft and the last one was the death of a non-passenger on grounds.

The other accident that has been suffered by the airlines includes the loosing of the hull. Due to such fewer accidents, the airline is considered to be the safest amongst the 10 safest airlines of all time.

There are certain minor controversies in the airline company as well which included, miscommunication between the customers and the pilots, but those are minute ones that are worth neglecting.

Author Bio: Ricky is an academic consultant who has recently joined Myassignmenthelp as a subject matter expert. His work as an SME is to provide My assignment help review to students with necessary guidance. Besides being a marketing guru, he loves to paint and travel.