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Operational Management at South

West Airlines

--------------- A Case Study---------------------

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In 1967,Rolling King and Herb Kelleher founded

Southwest an intrastate airlines.

In 1982, Just Say When campaign

In 1987,Frequent flier programme,no. of flightstaken.

In 1992,Southwest won the annual Triple Crown

Award.

In 1996,SW started selling through Websitewww.southwest.com

http://www.southwest.com/http://www.southwest.com/

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Providing safe travel

Reliable/Short duration air service

Lowest possible fare

Quality service/Point to Point

Blanket strategy

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Passenger Load factor-

It is the percentage of

a plane filled withpaying

passengers.

Revenue passenger

/miles -One paying passengerflown one line

62

64

66

68

70

72

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Passenger Load Factor

%

0

20000

40000

60000

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Revenue passenger miles

million

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Aircraft Utilization-in hours and minutes in a

day an aircraft is used.

01,000

2,000

3,000

Average Daily Passengers

passengers

11:02

11:09

11:16

11:24

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Aircraft Utilizatin

hr:min

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Southwest avoided congested airport.

High employee productivity.

Reliable on time performance.

80 86

117 122130

141 150171 180

020

406080

100120140160180200

No

.ofDaily

Flights

Airports

Daily Departure

No od Daily flights

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Passenge

r related

departur

e

Very

lowticket

prices

No site

assignments

No

baggage

transfers

No

connection

with otherairlines

No

meals

Short

haul,

point to

point

Limited

passenger

service

High

aircraft

utlzn

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Standardized fleet of 737 aircrafts

Southwest the low fare airlines

High level of Employee Stock Ownership

Flexible Union contracts/High compensation of

employees.

15-minute gate turnaround/Limited use of travel

agents

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Increase more non stop flights

Enrich operation system

Include daily non stop flights in busy air

traffic route.

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