Environmental Analysis: Southwest Airlines

2415 words - 10 pages

Environmental Analysis

Environmental Analysis: Southwest Airlines Environmental Analysis: Southwest AirlineIntroductionSouthwest Airlines Co. began its operations in 1971 and has been serving the industry for the past 43 years now (Southwest Airlines, n.d.). It is the major domestic airline, and ranked number one in 2014 by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (United States Department of Transportation, 2014). Back in 1971 the airline began its services in Texas in the cities of Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. The company has been ranked as the nation's largest low cost carrier (Mergent, 2012). It offers the lowest fares, and has the lowest cost structure in the industry.Southwest Airlines Co. also acquired AirTran Holdings Inc. in 2011 and now owns AirTran Airways. The company has been ranked 9th among the 50 most admired companies in the world according to a survey by Fortune magazine (Fortune Magazine, 2013). Southwest uses the exchange symbol LUV on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).This paper will summarize an environmental scan of Southwest Airlines to include an analysis of the most important external environmental factors in the remote, industry, and external operating environments, the most important strengths and weaknesses of the organization, an assessment of the company's competitive position, and analyze the structure of the organization and how this affects organizational performance (University of Phoenix, 2013).Political FactorsThe Airline and Aviation industry underwent Governmental Regulations by the passage of the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and the simultaneous creation of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). This Act enabled the CAB to control the service fares, the entry of new airlines from the market and the exit of existing airlines from the same, and the assigning of air routes to different airlines. Then the Federal Aviation Act was passed in 1958 and led to the formation of the Federal Aviation Administration in August 1958. The rule making was shifted to the FAA and it had control of the air routes, the airline safety and air traffic controls.The Airline Deregulation Act was passed in 1978 and falls in the category of Federal Law. It eliminated the governmental authority over determination of service fares and control of routes and new airlines entry into/exist from the airline industry. As a result of the act, the CAB was dissolved in 1984. The FAA was not eliminated and it remained in control of airline safety and air traffic control (United States Government Accountability Office, 2006). This Amendment came into force in 1979 and comes within the category of federal law. It manages the air traffic at Dallas Airfield in Texas. Initially, this amendment posed such restrictions on nonstop flights that their routes got limited to Texas and its neighboring states only. However, the restrictions were taken off in 1997 and 2005. The Amendment was revoked in 2006 but some...

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1283 words - 5 pages environmental factors. Southwest Airlines business opened for operations in 1971, after Rollin King and Herb Kelleher raised enough capital to finance their plan. Their service model broke off from the typical large airline policies and procedures. The typical model had an airline that was “home based” from a hub and ran routes to and from that location. This model added cost that Southwest wanted to avoid, causing them to implement point-to-point flights

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620 words - 2 pages Airlines main focus is, Consumers, Employees, Community, the Environment, and Financial Viability, and is this order in which they stand by. All statements by the organization do not reflect on making a profit, but the happiness of the consumer, employees, communityand the giving back to the shareholders. Southwest strategic plan does interrelate with the goals, vision, mission, values statements.External Analysis, I do believe that Southwest

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2695 words - 11 pages EXECUTIVE SUMMARYSouthwest Airlines has come across some issues and the one with the most concern is expansion. Southwest must meet the current and forecasted demand, find sufficient facilities, keep their strategy coherent and consistent, and ensure that the entry into a new market is timely. These issues main constraint is finding facilities at a low cost to remain profitable. What has to be taken into account would be new construction costs

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2155 words - 9 pages : (RITA, n.d.) Southwest Airlines is the only airline company to get listed in the top 50 Fortune magazine as the most admired company (Southwest, 2014, p. 5). They have very strong customer base and customer satisfaction is also high. About 85% of the customers use southwest.com to book their tickets, it is number one airline site which is having an average of 9 million unique visitors per month and it is the first airline to get more than 5 million