Operations Management at Southwest Airlines

Description
This is a presentation about the operations management at Southwest Airlines.

Operations Management At Southwest Airlines
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2/5/13

Background
Ø In 1967,Rolling King and Herb Kelleher Ø In 1982, “Just Say When” campaign Ø In 1987,Frequent flier programme,no. of

founded Southwest an intrastate airlines.

flights taken.
Ø In 1992,Southwest won the annual Triple

Crown Award.
Ø In 1996,SW started selling through Website

www.southwest.com

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Cont….
Ø In 2000,SW placed biggest aircraft order

ever,

Ø Ø Ø

delivery of 94 Boeing737. In 2001,sept terrorist attacks,SW managed to post a profit. In 2002,the worst year ever for the airlines industry ,SW posted its 30th consecutive profit. In 2003,SWAirlines was the 4th largest US airlines in terms of domestic customers carried. 2/5/13

Ø

Southwest’s Business Model
?Providing safe ?Reliable ?Short duration air service ?Lowest possible fair ?Quality service ?Point to Point ?Blanketing stratgy

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Key operation parameters of sw
§ Passenger Load factor-

is the percentage of a plane filled with paying passengers.
§

Revenue passenger miles-

One paying passenger flown one line Source:www.sout 2/5/13 hwest.com

Cont……
Ø

Aircraft Utilization-in hours and minutes in a day a plane is used

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Contd…….
Ø In2002,Sluggish

economy
Ø High energy prices Ø Tension in Gulf

spelled

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SW’s Top Ten Airport-Daily Departure
? Southwest

avoided congested airport.

? High employee

productivity.
? Reliable on time

performance.

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SW:Anatomy of a 15-minute Turnaround
7:55 Ground crew chat around gate position 8:03:30 Ground crew move to their vehicles 8:04 crew moves towards gate 8:06:30 Baggage unloaded, refueling

8:15 Jet way retracts 8:15:30 Pushbac k from backs

8:10 Boarding complete. ground crew leaves

8:08 Boarding call ,baggage loading, refueling complete

8:07 Passeng er off plane

8:18
Pushback disengages plane leaves for runway

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How SW strategy is Implemented No meal s

No site assig nme nts Passe nger relate d depar

Limite d Passe nger servic e Short hual,p oint to point High travel aircra ft utiliz atin

No bagg age trans fers
No connecti on with other airlines

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Very low ticke t price s

Activities
?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 travel agents

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Looking Ahead
?Increase more non stop flights ?Enrich operation system ?Include daily non stop flights in busy air

traffic route.

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Thanks
Click to edit Master subtitle style

2/5/13



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