Question

What are the key policies, procedures, operating practices, or core values underlying Southwest's efforts to implement and execute its low cost/no frills strategy?

Answer 1

Answer:-

Southwest put a lot of importance in the fair treatment of customers and had numerous policies for it. They completely modified the boarding process for equitable treatment and saving their time and efforts. For employees, they ensured hiring the ones who are fit for the culture and refrained from expanding where they couldn't find such employees. They maintained fun relationship both inside and outside the office. Their concept was One Organisation: One Family.

1. Low-cost: - Ticket fare structure is simple and very low as compared to other competitors. The lowest fares were usually nonrefundable but they offer future traveling facility with a change fee for present booked tickets. But other competitors such as US charge $100-175 dollars for flight changes.

2. One Type of aircraft: - They uses one type of aircraft in providing services that is Boeing 737s which is profitable in many ways it has low maintenance with high performance, low fuel consumption, minimize the size of spare parts inventories, and repair personals more over a strong relationship between the Boeing and southwest helps in buying the aircrafts at favorable prices.

3. Bags Fly Free: - Another service from southwest to satisfy the customers is free charge against bags and other packages of their customers. Southwest will not charge any amount on ticket for those bags. But some company’s charge additional fare such as fuel surcharge.

4. Ticketless travel: - Southwest is the first company to use E-ticketing processing in the form of online reservations. It helps in booking their tickets online without others involvement in processing their ticket, reducing commissions of mediators and helps in reducing of staff from reservation counters helps in lowering overall labor cost and ticket printing cost. In order to loss revenue southwest initiated special fare promotions when advance reservations were weak for particular weeks.

5. Route system: - Route system of southwest is simple but more effective. Southwest route system on flights between pairs of cities 150 to 700 miles apart that handled enough passenger traffic to offer a sizable number of daily flights. They also implemented a quick turnover of flights with boarding times ranging from 15-30 minutes to create more daily flights.

6. Flying in and out of medium sized cities: - Flying in and out of medium sized cities airports and airports near metropolitan cities for good customer experiences by avoiding high cost airports like Atlanta. This helps in on time performance with lowering fuel cost and to avoid the higher landing fees, terminal gate costs at such high-traffic airports.

7. No reserved policy: - No reserved seat policy for special persons shows that all are having equal right in traveling on aircraft. After introducing of online reservation portal southwest stopped the seat reserved policy completely for special persons. It helps in quick checking of passengers at terminal point.

8. No cleaning crew: - southwest doesn’t maintain any cleaning crew to clean the aircraft where Southwest flight attendants were responsible for cleaning up trash left by deplaning passengers.