SouthWest Airlines Co.: Company Strategy & Performance Analysis

Southwest Airlines operates as a freight and passenger airline enterprise that provides scheduled air transportation services in the US and near-international markets. The company also offers point-to-point flight services for its customers. Southwest Airlines operates several fleets of aircraft including Boeing 737s and Boeing 704s. It has on offer a supply chain of travel services to its passengers such as air, hotel, cruise and vacation packages.

MarketLine Premium’s company strategy reports provide in-depth coverage of the performance and strategies of the world’s leading airline companies. The reports detail company operations in key geographies as well as a comprehensive analysis of each company’s growth strategy and financial performance. Furthermore, the reports allow benchmarking company performance through the provision of key performance indicators including: number of seats sold, number of seats available, number of passenger kilometres available, number of revenue generating passenger kilometres available, load factor and revenue per passenger.

Key Highlights

The company registered a growth in its revenue passenger miles

Southwest Airlines’ available seat miles were recorded at 148.5 billion in 2016, as compared to 140.5 billion in 2015, indicating a y-o-y growth of 6.0%. The increasing initiatives to expand its route network and schedule optimization efforts through the addition of new market itineraries have allowed the company to improve its average seat miles. The company’s revenue passenger miles increased from 117.5 billion in 2015 to 124.8 million in 2016, an increase of 6.2% on a y-o-y basis.

The company registered a growth in its revenue passenger miles

Southwest Airlines’ average seats per aircraft were recorded at 149 in 2016, as compared to 146 in 2015, indicating a y-o-y growth of 2.1%. In addition, the company plans to grow its capacity approximately by 3.5% in 2017, and split two-thirds to its domestic network and the remainder to the international segment.

Southwest airlines invests in aircraft modernization to increase the fleet

The company used its extra revenue generated in 2015 to speed up its plan for fleet size growth and renewal in 2016. The extra revenue generated in 2015 was driven by the previous fleet transformation initiatives of the company coupled with lower fuel prices.

Scope

– Company Snapshot detail key indicators and rankings of SouthWest Airlines Co. in terms of revenue, net income and operating income, number of seats sold, number of seats available, number of passenger kilometres available, number of revenue generating passenger kilometres available, load factor and revenue per passenger in the company’s key markets.

– Company SWOT Analysis outlines SouthWest Airlines Co.’s Strengths and Weaknesses, and weighs up Opportunities and Threats facing the company.

– Growth Strategies understand SouthWest Airlines Co.’s corporate goals and strategic initiatives and evaluate their outcomes.

– Company Performance and Competitive Landscape analyse the company’s performance by business segments such as operating revenues, passenger and freight besides peer comparison on parameters such as revenue and number of seats sold.

– Key Developments – showcase SouthWest Airlines Co.’s significant recent corporate events, changes or initiatives.

– ICT Spending Prediction Understand how the company allocates its ICT budget across the core areas of enterprise ICT spend, namely hardware, software, IT services, communications and consulting.

Reasons to buy

- How does SouthWest Airlines Co. ranks among peers in terms of revenue and number of seats sold globally?

- What are SouthWest Airlines Co.’s main growth strategies and how successful has the company been at implementing them?

- How has the company performed since 2014 in terms of its segments passenger and freight?

- How has SouthWest Airlines Co. performed in comparison to competitors such as Air France KLM SA, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, United Continental Holdings Inc., Delta Airlines Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc.?

- What are SouthWest Airlines Co.’s strengths and weaknesses and what opportunities and threats does it face?

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