Southwest is THE low cost airline. That's their secret sauce. Virgin is being "the best way to fly" or whatever. Southwest cares about nothing else.
They don't do assigned seating because they found that without assigned seats they were able to fill the planes faster, meaning less time at the gate meaning more time in the air, meaning more legs in a day, which makes them more financially efficient.
Back in the day they didn't pay travel agents the %15, and sold direct instead, etc.
Southwest treats their employees very well, and while there is occasionaly a union squabble of some sort or another, they have much less of a problem than other airlines. Why? Becuase its' cheaper to treat your employees well. Seriously.
This also means that customers are happier because employees are happier.
The attitude of a southwest steward compared to the big three (Delta, United, Continental) is radically different. The big three employees often give me attitude and seem to think that dealing with me is some sort of an imposition-- and so I am loathe to fly on them (it only takes a couple incidents.)
Awhile back southwest merged with a regional carrier (frontier? no, something else) but that carrier was known for a gimick where the employees would sing on landing or do the safety lecture in rhyme and the pilots would tell jokes. Southwest didn't change this practice, and it became optional and now it's not unusual to fly on SWA and have a landing limmerick.
Their ticker symbol is LUV.
Southwest flies into Midland instead of DFW. They fly into the older city airports, not the big fancy new airports. Why? Gate fees are a huge operating cost (basically a license for the local government to extort as much as they can from the airlines for the "priviledge" of providing air travel that boosts the cities tax revenues anyway) ... but soutwest doesn't pay to be in the glamorous locations. You may walk further to your gate and your airport may not be as nice, but it saves them, and -- here's the important thing-- they pass that savings along.
Southwest doesn't serve hot meals. They give you a bag of peanuts labeled "Frills".
They are one of those unique companies like Apple and Zappos and Crutchfield that really put the customer first, and were willing to go against convention to do it.
Nothing against Virgin- I think they're trying to do the same thing and taking the high end of the market, and I'd love to fly Virgin if they had ever had an option on a route I was going (they haven't yet, so I haven't flown Virgin yet.)
But Southwest filters everything they do thru their mantra. They are THE low cost airline. Does whatever help that? No? Then don't do it.
Southwest is a result of focus, and that is a useful lesson for every startup.
I hear the book written by Herb Kehler (sp?) is well worth reading (I think it's called "Nuts" or something like that.)
> Awhile back southwest merged with a regional carrier (frontier? no, something else) but that carrier was known for a gimick where the employees would sing on landing or do the safety lecture in rhyme and the pilots would tell jokes. Southwest didn't change this practice, and it became optional and now it's not unusual to fly on SWA and have a landing limmerick.
My guess is that you're thinking of PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines). They were the classic and original "funny" airline.
PSA didn't merge into Southwest, but Herb Kelleher did study them and use some of their ideas.
Southwest Airlines grew out of Air Southwest, an intrastate carrier that Herb Kelleher started to provide air service solely within Texas. (Why? To avoid FAA regulations.) They traditionally fly into smaller airports because it avoids higher fees and because the traffic level is lower so there is less time spent on the ground. Recently, Southwest merged with AirTran Airways. For what it's worth, the limericks and gags came from Southwest, not ATA. It's part of their culture.
Southwest does fly into Dallas, but they do so into Love Field (DAL). That's where their ticker symbol comes from; Dallas Love Field was their primary airport for years and still serves as the airport where they have almost complete control and their corporate HQ. They still fly from Love because DFW is almost completely controlled by American Airlines. Southwest was even the direct target of a law (the Wright Amendment) that artificially hobbled service at DAL--and the law only recently started to phase out of existence--because Braniff-now-American didn't want the competition. Neither did Fort Worth, because Dallas and Fort Worth went in together on the construction costs of Love and both were supposed to close their city-owned regional airports to commercial traffic. Fort Worth closed Meacham Field, Dallas didn't close Love Field. Fort Worth sued and lost, so Fort Worth-based Braniff, followed by Fort Worth-based American, lobbied for the law.
Southwest operates from Dallas Love Field (DAL) instead of DFW- almost all commercial flights at DAL are Southwest flights. Midland(MAF) is a city about 350 miles away that they also fly to.
Southwest merged with Airtran, not Frontier about 18 months ago- they are still in the process of integrating their routes and operations.
They don't do assigned seating because they found that without assigned seats they were able to fill the planes faster, meaning less time at the gate meaning more time in the air, meaning more legs in a day, which makes them more financially efficient.
Back in the day they didn't pay travel agents the %15, and sold direct instead, etc.
Southwest treats their employees very well, and while there is occasionaly a union squabble of some sort or another, they have much less of a problem than other airlines. Why? Becuase its' cheaper to treat your employees well. Seriously.
This also means that customers are happier because employees are happier.
The attitude of a southwest steward compared to the big three (Delta, United, Continental) is radically different. The big three employees often give me attitude and seem to think that dealing with me is some sort of an imposition-- and so I am loathe to fly on them (it only takes a couple incidents.)
Awhile back southwest merged with a regional carrier (frontier? no, something else) but that carrier was known for a gimick where the employees would sing on landing or do the safety lecture in rhyme and the pilots would tell jokes. Southwest didn't change this practice, and it became optional and now it's not unusual to fly on SWA and have a landing limmerick.
Their ticker symbol is LUV.
Southwest flies into Midland instead of DFW. They fly into the older city airports, not the big fancy new airports. Why? Gate fees are a huge operating cost (basically a license for the local government to extort as much as they can from the airlines for the "priviledge" of providing air travel that boosts the cities tax revenues anyway) ... but soutwest doesn't pay to be in the glamorous locations. You may walk further to your gate and your airport may not be as nice, but it saves them, and -- here's the important thing-- they pass that savings along.
Southwest doesn't serve hot meals. They give you a bag of peanuts labeled "Frills".
They are one of those unique companies like Apple and Zappos and Crutchfield that really put the customer first, and were willing to go against convention to do it.
Nothing against Virgin- I think they're trying to do the same thing and taking the high end of the market, and I'd love to fly Virgin if they had ever had an option on a route I was going (they haven't yet, so I haven't flown Virgin yet.)
But Southwest filters everything they do thru their mantra. They are THE low cost airline. Does whatever help that? No? Then don't do it.
Southwest is a result of focus, and that is a useful lesson for every startup.
I hear the book written by Herb Kehler (sp?) is well worth reading (I think it's called "Nuts" or something like that.)