Southwest airlines company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Southwest airlines company - Case Study Example Analysis 16 6. Improvement due to the initiatives 17 7. Alignment of initiatives towards strategic management 18 7.1 Towards Customer 18 7.2 Towards Environment 19 7.3 Towards Operations 19 8. Comparison with other organizations 20 Reference 22 1. Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines officially started operating in Dallas 42 years ago. After they took off the first flight, there was a radical change in the ways the Americans used to fly. Southwest ruled the skies by introducing low fare travel, offering free whisky on board, go-go boots and undergoing rigorous expansion. The vision of the company was to provide the business people with a more efficient and faster way to travel at a much lower cost and rendering the personable service with smile and warmth. Southwest airlines have dealt in more domestic passengers than any other airlines. The company has grown with leaps and bounds and evolved as a strong organization but has retained the original vision. The company continues to pro vide low fare, excellent customer service and convenient flight schedules. The company has changed their products and services in order to cater to the changing taste of the customers. Not only the travelling habits of the customers have changed but also the short haul travel has declined. As a response to this the company has upgraded their fleet by refurbishing cabins and adding on board access to live Television and Wi-Fi. Apart from this the company has also introduced a series of new, sleek Boeing 737-800 aircraft to the convoy of longer flights. The company has acquired Air-Tran Airways and have undertaken the task of integrating the two airlines in order to form a bigger and stronger organization. Apart from this the company has also renewed their â€Å"Rapid Rewards Frequent Flyer program†. The management of the company has equipping the airline for international services and AirTran is providing the start to the company for offering its services to the destinations l ike Caribbean and Mexico. The company looks for innovative ways to provide the customers with more value and choices. Southwest Airlines has always been pioneer in providing better and new ways to fly. The airline has always provided low cost, friendly and reliable ways to provide value to the customers (Kelly, 2013). 2. Measurement and Control System The airline is leading amongst the major low cost airlines operating in the industry. The company has been affirming their position as low-fare not by harassing, annoying or making the customers expectation trivial but by launching ‘No Change Fees and Bags Fly Free campaign’. They are ranked first in Customer satisfaction by US Department of Transportation and ranked fourth in the Fortune 2011 list as the most admired company. To reach such a position the company has to follow several measures both in financial performance and customer satisfaction. Apart from this the company also uses the environment control system (Sout hwest Airlines, 2010). 2.1 Financial Measures The financial statement of the Southwest Airlines is prepared according to the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) followed in United States of America. The financial statement under GAAP requires reclassification and adjustment of unrealized non-cash items. This is important as a result of accounting obligation and selection under accounting declaration regarding hedging and derivative instruments. The company also provides