Southwest Airlines

The Basic Story Regarding Southwest Airlines

How long can Southwest Airlines maintain its successful flight path now that Herb Kelleher has decided that it was time for him to leave the CEO cockpit? While he will remain for three years as Chairman of the Board, for the first time in Southwest history, a new person will be running the company. While most people think that Kelleher is a "good ole boy Texan," he was actually born and raised in Connecticut and went to Texas when he say the opportunity to start an intrastate airline.

Low costs and high spirits were two things that Kelleher always emphasized within Southwest Airlines. But the company's true success factor was its short haul, high frequency, low-fare strategy. There are those that say that airlines simply compete for the same passengers and the winner succeeds in stealing the most from other airlines. Not true with Southwest. They take people out of Greyhound buses and their own automobiles. Southwest occupies the nexus between two market spaces, the flying passenger who doesn't wish to pay for things that are not important, such as meals or reserved seating, and people who might otherwise consider driving to their destination. In doing this, the company has forged a unique culture. The question raised as of June 19, 2001 (see new CEO) is whether it can sustain this culture without its former folkloric CEO, Herb Kelleher.

Southewest Airlines and the Airline Industry

• Soutwest Web Page
  
• Testimony of Herb Kelleher
  
• Herb Kelleher: Chief Executive of the Year
  
• A Culture of Commitment
  
• Freiberg, Kevin and Jackie. NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. Austin: Bard Press, Inc. 1996. How the people of Southwest Airlines created, nurtured and sustained a very special culture radically different from most other companies.
• The Jack and Herb Show
  
• Southwest Tops List of Best Airlines
  

Airline Industry and Associations

• The Airline Industry
  
• Brief History of the US Airline Industry
  
• The Evolution of the Airline Industry
  
• Office of Airline Information
  
• Peterson, Barbara Sturgen and James Glab, Deregulation and the Shakeout in The Airlines Rapid Descent, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
• Petzinger, Jr., Thomas, Hard Landing: The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos,New York: Times Books, A Division of Ramdon House, 1995.
• Ott, James and Raymond E. Neidl, Airline Odyssey: The Airline's Turbulent Flight into the Future,New York: McGraw-Hill, Inv., 1995.
• Boeing Projection for Commercial Airlines
  
• AMR Corporation Web Page
  
• American Airlines Web Page
  
• British Airways Web Page Airline Industry Section
  
• Web pages for most US airlines
  
• Airline Quality Ratings
  
• 20th Anniversary of Airline Deregulation: Cause for Celebration, Not Re-Regulation
  
• Future of the US Airline Industry
  
• Aviation Week & Space Technology (good industry related publication)
  
• Air Transport Association
  
• U.S. Department of Transportation
  
• Bureau of Transportation Statistics
  
• Regionals Looking More Like Their Major Partners
  

Information Systems at Southwest Airlines and Other Airlines

• Case Study: Southwest Airlines and Information Systems
  
• Travel Agents Expect Southwest Airlines to Have Huge Impact
  
• Southwest Signs New Five Year Agreement (with SABRE)
  
• Southwest Pulls Plug on Travelocity
  
• Technology (big picture)
  
• Southwest Airlines Network Management System
  
• Yield Management in the Airline Industry
  
• Economics and the Airline Industry: The Impact of the Internet
  
• The SABRE Group (reservation system company)
  
• Worldspan (reservation system company)
  
• Galileo International (reservation system company)
  
• Amadeus Global Travel Distribution Company/System One (reservation system company)
  
• Abacus International (reservation system company)
  
• Electronic Intermediaries of the Airline Industry
  
• A Fast Takeoff for Airline Sites
  
• A CRS Lesson for All of Us
  

Key People within Southwest Airlines

• Herb Kelleher, Chairman of the Board and Founder. Former Chairman, President and CEO
  
• James Parker, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
  
• Colleen Barrett, President and Chief Operating Officer
• Robert W. Rapp, Vice President of Systems

Tips on Doing an Analysis Paper on Southwest Airlines

• Defining the industry is pretty obvious for Southwest. But, Contrast the difference of the business that Southwest Airlines is in with a carrier like American Airlines.
• Acknowledge the strategic significance of the industry. The airline industry within the U.S. is one of high visability to consumers as passengers and to businesses as an essential resource to provide access to national and international operations. It is safe to conclude that the airline industry plays a significant role as a strategic resource both economically and in times of national emergency. Who do you think flew the troops to the Gulf War?
• Provide a perspective of the historical financial performance of the industry. The airline industry has had a poor and even pathetic financial track record for many years. A few years of sound financial performance is often followed by disaster for various reasons. See the financial data on the Air Transportation Association web page. U.S. airlines lost more money during the early 1990s than they had ever made in their entire history.
• Pay particular attention to the impact of deregulation. Deregulation in 1978 was a significant historical event for U.S. airlines. Many of them were not prepared for deregulation and suffered significant financial losses when they had to compete on the basis of price and their routes were not protected by regulators.
• Are there evolving factors that will impact the airine industry in general and/or Southwest specifically that would challenge even an accomplished executive like Kelleher? Do these factors loom as a deterant to the future success of Southwest?

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