Southwest Airlines Operations

Southwest Airlines:

This section intends to appraise and critique the nature and scope of airline operations. It will aim to discuss and analyse the operations an airline faces each day. It will segment the daily operations into pre-flight, in-flight and post flight operations.

The airline industry has endured a long and promising history of growth and success despite having to deal with certain circumstances that compromised passenger confidence, such as the 9/11 terror plot, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Chau and Kao, 2009)

The industry plays a major role in today's global economy. It is a primary component of the tourism industry and not to mention essential to the conduct of international business. It is a main contributor to one of the biggest industries in the world and airline revenues have reached figures of $12.9 Billion in 2006 (Rhoades, Tiernan and Waguespack, 2008)

The scope of airline operations includes schedule planning, flight operations, fuel and managerial purchasing, ground operations, in-flight services, and maintenance and engineering.

The operations process begins with the customer choosing a flight whether it is on the Internet or in the actual airport, to the minute they arrive at their desired destination.

The pre-flight processes include the customer booking their ticket, checking in any luggage, which they are given a receipt of, and finally they luggage is put onto the plane as the customers board. The in-flight processes involve activities, which help the plane actually take off, and in-flight services. The last process is the post-flight operations which, include the customers leaving the plane and wait for their luggage to be unloaded on the carousel (Johnson, Kumar and Lai, 2008)

Pre-Flight Operations: See Fig 1.

In-Flight Operations: See Fig 2.

Post-Flight Operations: See Fig 3.

Capacity and Cost Drivers of Operating an Airline:

Capacity must be made available to specific activities, jobs and tasks in any companies operations by scheduling people, equipment and facilities (Schroeder, 2007).

Scheduling plays a huge factor. A typical schedule will consist of the name of the airport the plane is at, the destination airport, departure time and arrival time (Rosenberg et al, 2000). Creating a schedule is driven largely by market considerations, and what the customers need and want (Rosenberg et al, 2000).

In relation to the case study, Southwest managed to create an efficient scheduling culture which prompted them to change and enhance the turnover between flights. Southwest finally got the turnover time to 10 minutes which allowed more trips to be made in a day, therefore a higher profit