Case analysis:South West airlines

Executive Summary
The Leader is one of the most important parts of any company. Southwest Airlines Inc. has a great leader his name is Herb Kelleher, he is the legend in airline industry. Even the fact that he was not the founder of Southwest airlines; he is the spirit of the company. Southwest Airlines were established in 1966 by Rollin King in Texas. He visited Herb Keller in his law office with his idea, to establish low cost low fare airlines. The Airlines started to operate in “golden triangle” which consists of three cities Austin, Huston, and San Antonio. The company chooses this triangle because it was interstate and the distance was good enough for flights. The company wanted people to change their habits and they want them to start using air traveling. The company knew about the minuses of the airlines business in the United States. A lot of the airports were located to far from the downtown and the checking time took too much time in the big airports. Therefore the Southwest Airlines focused on the smaller airports which are closer to cities. For example in Dallas the company did not use the big modern airport which was 30 minutes drive from the downtown but they chose the Dallas Love Field Airport which was only 10 minutes drives from the downtown. By doing this kind of action they shorten the time which was needed by the passengers to get from one town to another (Thompson, & Strickland, 2003).



The other thing which differentiates them from the competitors was the frequency of the flight. The company offered flights more often which were appreciated by the customers. Also Southwest airlines are known as “on time” they won several awards because of their quality services, speed, and because they were mostly on time everywhere. This fact is very important because some people especially businessman can not afford to be late at their destination because they have busy schedule.



Southwest Airlines are well as low cost airlines. If someone expects to get meal while flying with Southwest he or she is wrong. This airline does not offer meal on any of their flights. The only things you can get are raisons or peanuts and of course non alcoholic beverages. The company does not have such a great prices just because of meals but because of their idea to have only kind of aircrafts, Boeing 737. By this step they save money on buying too many additional service parts for their aircraft. They also do not need that many technicians specialist like other airlines which has several types of airplanes. The other thing which also saved a lot of money was their fast, 10 minutes turns. During those 10 minutes the crew was able to unload and load luggage, load galley, clean the cabin, and check the airplane before next take off. This was far below industry average which was around 40 minutes. The employees also enjoy this kind of challenge and they are proud to be in such a team (Thompson, & Strickland, 2003).

Analysis
The terrorist attacks changed a lot of things in Airline business. First of all people are less interested in using airlines for their traveling. After the attacks the most of the aircrafts were only sixty percent full which significantly lowers the revenues of the airlines. People are simply afraid to fly and the airlines should encourage those afraid people to fly again. Airlines should invest more money into security of the airplane. For example they should make the carbine of the pilot unreachable for other people in case of kidnapping a airplane. This step can be done by the company which is creating the aircrafts, in case of Southwest Airlines it is Boeing Company. Also crew members should be trained for special situations so they will know how to react on special situation. This straining can be implemented in to the training for the new stuff. After implementing those security things the Southwest should tell the people, customers, what they did in order to achieve more securable traveling. By this step they will show to the public that the safety is number one for them.



After the terrorists attacks in 2001 in United States many companies in Airline industry went downsizing. The Southwest did very good that they did not follow their competitors. The Southwest has very good relationship with their employees. Kelleher was building this trust for years and such a lay off will damage the good company name. The employees are loyal to the company and this will be great advantages for next few years. Once the employee feel secure about his job he perform much better than the person which is afraid about the loosing his or her job. The employees are loyal to the company so company does not have to increase their salaries and they can save a lot of money on wages. After attacks the revenues of the Southwest went rapidly down and the employees will understand that company can not afford to increase the salaries in next few years. That money can be used on security trainings and new cabins for the pilots that were mentioned before.



By the new safety procedures at the airport the time for checking in is getting longer. The Southwest is focused on speed, the fast transportation made them number one on the market. Now they can loose their attractiveness for short flight since the check in for the flights is much longer than before. The company can do two things, they should more focus on the small airports were safety procedures did not prolong the checking time significantly, or they can hire extra security people. The first solution is very risky because they can loose some of the costumers who are comfortable with middle size airports. Also they will loose the customers who are using Southwest just to catch other flights. For this category of customers it will be very uncomfortable and time consuming to travel from one airport to another. If the company would like to do this step the company must be very careful especially while choosing alternative airports. The second solution of this problem, hire extra security people, will directly solve this problem. Those people should be directly hired by Southwest Airlines. They should be at checking terminals and help the customers to get faster trough the control or Southwest can create special security terminals for their passengers and there will be more security people to serve them. The Airlines should cooperate with the head of each airport and they should try to solve this problem. The fast interstate transportation will be past if the security procedures do not speed up.



There is also one problem which does not have anything common with terrorist attacks. The name of the problem is “Who will be the new leader?”. Herb Kelleher is getting old, more over he had cancer. He will not be forever with the company and the company should fine someone like him who will lead the company. The strong leader is necessary especially in those hard times which are now in the airline industry. It will be very hard for the management to find someone like Herb Kelleher because he is the spirit of the company. He knows more 1500 of the employees by name, which is incredible because some of the top managers do not know even the name of their secretary. Kelleher is live legend and hero for the employees of Southwest and therefore the company must be very careful about the new leader. The company should choose someone who will encourage people to work harder and be more loyal to the company than ever before because now the company needs the support of the all employees of Southwest Airlines.

Synopsis
All in all, the company should know pay more attention to security than ever before because the security of the passengers is becoming number one issue in the world. They should invest money in to the existing plane and into staff training as well. After encouraging the people to flight again the revenues should go up again and therefore downsizing is not the solution of the problem. Moreover the employees are very loyal to the company and company should take care of them in this difficult time which is now in airline business. If the employees will feel secure they will work harder in order to help the company to overcome this hard time.



Also the company should not forget about their competitive advantages. The advantage of the Southwest airlines is time. They always spend less time on everything like the companies in the industry. Therefore the relocation to the smaller airports is good idea. The help which is needed at the security checks will speed up all the operation at the airport. As a result of those steps Southwest Airlines do not loose the “thing”, which is loved by their passengers.



The name of the Herb Kelleher was mentioned several times in this case analysis. He was really good leader who knew how to socialize with the employees. The company has great people in the management and the one of them who will be the new leader will have a hard job in being leader. It is very hard to became a leader of the group if the leader before was such a great and strong person.