Southwest history
...ers of southwest. Unlike most airlines, Southwest operates its own reservation system by offering customers paper-less tickets. These innovations decreased Southwest expenses and overhead costs. Southwest travel’s within the United States and serves about 60 cities in 30 states. Southwest capitalizes on the accessibility of small airports; avoid congestion at large hubs, and avoid direct competition with larger size airlines. Southwest has a fleet of about 375 aircraft all of the same type—Boeing 737. This was also another innovative decision that the company adopted. The decision to only house aircrafts of the same fleet cut costs that are associated with training and maintenance. From its humble beginning in Texas, serving as an intrastate airline within the state, Southwest has outgrown its services in the region and wants to expand more of its services in the eastern U.S. Because of cutbacks and layoffs, the opportunity is timely for Southwest airline to take advantage of hubs that have been abandoned by larger fleets and are rightly doing so. Southwest is 85% unionized and employs 33,705 employees. In over 33 years of business, Southwest employees had one strike. Employees own about 13% of the company. The company places strong emphasis on customer service and a sense of fun. Southwest has been known as the “LUV Airline.” More than 1000 married couple work for Southwest. Unlike its competitors, “love nests” are not encouraged and ...