Southwest Airlines Operations

Operations at Southwest Airlines

1. Presented By : Aamir Khan Operations Management at Southwest Airlines

2. INTRODUCTION SOUTHWEST AIRLINES, in 2003, was the 4 th largest airline in the US. The airline’s key features were: Short haul, low fare, high frequency and point to point carrier, which helped it to earn 30 straight profitable years. It was the first airline to introduce its homepage on internet. It had the best customer complaint record for past 12 years.

3. Background note

4. OPERATIONS Business Model of Southwest Airlines Short Duration Aims at great service at low cost

5. how it maintains low cost operation ? It tries and maintain operation simple Only uses Boeing 737 Does not provide seat numbers No meal is served during the journey Point to point short distance flight Uses secondary or small Airports

6. turnaround strategy Quick turnaround strategy. Reduction of turnaround time by excellent co-ordination Took a maximum of 25 minutes for turnaround, even though the security regulations had become stricter and airport congestion had worsened.

7. turnaround Example 8:07 Passenger off plane 8:06:30 Baggage unloaded, refueling 7:55 Ground crew chat around gate position 8:08 Boarding call ,baggage loading, refueling complete 8:03:30 Ground crew move to their vehicles 8:04 crew moves towards gate 8:15 Jet way retracts 8:10 Boarding complete. ground crew leaves 8:15:30 Pushback from backs 8:18 Pushback disengages plane leaves for runway

8. ROUTING After the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978, most airlines established the hub-and-spoke system. Due to its disadvantages, South-west went ahead with point to point flights between cities. This resulted in minimized delays and reduced trip time. In 2002, south-west served 338 non-stop city pairs, which meant 77% of its customers flew non-stop.

9. Use of smaller airports High Employee productivity. Saved an average of 15-25% of flight time. High asset utilization.

10. Ticketing In 1979, Southwest introduced self-ticketing. People could you credit cards, time was reduced to one-minute. In 1995, Southwest was the first major airline to introduce ticket less travel option. Customers use to get a confirmation number when they logged into the company’s site. They introduced Rapid rewards at the time of the reservation. Resulting in Best Customer service, best award redemption and Best Bonus promotion.

11. Boarding system To reduce check in time Computer generated baggage tags to electronically capture bags checked by customers. Southwest implemented self service boarding pass kiosks or rapid check in. In southwest one problem is that which make the process slow, the employee collecting the passes, had to read what was printed on the ticket instead of simply looking at the color of the plastic boarding pass. This slowed down the operation.

12. Flight services Southwest did not offer full cabin service and provided only coach class service to its passengers. Instead of other southwest provided other services like peanuts in place of meals. Extra seat in the empty space. Southwest avoided using bulky food and beverage carts that prevented customers from moving about the cabin.

13. Ticketing In 1979, Southwest introduced self-ticketing. People could you credit cards, time was reduced to one-minute. In 1995, Southwest was the first major airline to introduce ticket less travel option. Customers use to get a confirmation number when they logged into the company’s site. They introduced Rapid rewards at the time of the reservation. Resulting in Best Customer service, best award redemption and Best Bonus promotion.

14. Aircraft Standardization Concentrated on single Aircraft Model (Boeing 737) to simplify Operations Extensive training to staff Spares inventory management and record keeping became simpler Competitive advantage through fuel hedging and better deals from suppliers Efficient flight dispatch system

15. Looking aheAd Planned to add additional flights between Baltimore and Houston by 2004 Planned to connect new daily Non stop flights between various cities in 2004

16. THANK YOU ARRIVALS TIME TO TRAVEL