Southwest Airlines started its operations in Texas, United States in 1971, which then grew immensely by 1989. It was also the first airline to make the ground-breaking change in traveling by offering ticketless travel. Southwest started its international services in 2013 and has been continuously expanding its services to other countries since then. This year was counted as their 47th year in serving their consumers worldwide. With so many airlines running domestically and internationally, Southwest Airlines has been able to maintain their position within their customers throughout these years. There are certain factors that help them stand apart from their competitors.
First factor that counts as their competitive advantage is their customer service. Also stated on their website, their main focus has always been serving their customers and providing them world-class services. They also claim to provide these services at very fair prices and low fares to provide their consumers convenience an discounts while traveling. Moreover, they also claim to offer bag free travel to their customers by checking in two bags with no charges, thus providing more convenience to customers and adding up to their customer services.
Second factor that could be counted as their competitive advantage is their low-priced services. They claim to provide affordability to their customers by providing prices lower than other airlines domestically. This feature also adds up to their customer service features that they claim to provide to their valuable customers.
Another differentiation strategy that Southwest Airlines has been following is the Rapid Rewards program. Through this reward system, customers are able to add their rewards everyday as they travel through Southwest Airlines. Their rewards system is also designed in a way that it is as convenient and simple as it can get for their customers. This Rapid Rewards program has helped Southwest Airlines to expand their customer base and gain loyalty of their customers. Customers feel connected to the brand and thus remain loyal to it. This has also increased the revenues for Southwest Airlines over the years.
Another factor that adds up to the customer experience that they provide to their valuable customers is the flexibility in their policies. This flexibility is subject to the convenience of the customers and they try to change their policies for their customers whenever needed. This helps them maintain long-term relationships with their customers and thus decrease the possibility of customers shifting to other competitors. Also, when it comes to comparing Southwest Airlines with other Airline, this feature is very important for customers, thus is valued as their competitive advantage in the airline industry.
All these strategies along with the fact that Southwest always focus on long-term planning and always implements strategies keeping in view the opportunities that may come up in the future are the reasons why consumers trust Southwest Airlines and chose it instead of other airlines. These factors help Southwest Airlines grow each year in terms of its reach as well as market share.
References
About Rapid Rewards. Retrieved December 22, 2017, from https://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/about
Investopedia. (2015, June 10). How Is Southwest Different From Other Airlines? Retrieved December 22, 2017, from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/061015/how-southwest-different-other-airlines.asp
Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet. Retrieved December 22, 2017, from https://www.swamedia.com/channels/Corporate-Fact-Sheet/pages/corporate-fact-sheet