SOUTHWEST AIRLINES, America’s largest discount carrier (and its second-largest domestic airline in market share, just behind Delta Air Lines) has long been a subject of interest for business travellers. What’s the secret to the carrier’s continued success? Last July, The Economist speculated that Southwest’s secret is that its “staff… affect a madcap jollity reminiscent of British holiday camps in the 1970s.”  That’s part of the story. But Southwest is also innovative and nimble, and willing to go against the grain. As the print paper noted last year, Southwest doesn’t charge baggage fees. The airline was an early adopter of jet fuel price-hedging. Southwest’s commitment to a single type of plane—the Boeing 737—has played a big part in its success.

While other airline fleets can employ 10 or more types of aircraft, Southwest uses just one, the Boeing 737. As V.P. of ground operations Chris Wahlenmaier explains “We only need to train our mechanics on one type of airplane. We only need extra parts inventory for that one type of airplane. If we have to swap a plane out at the last minute for maintenance, the fleet is totally interchangeable—all our on-board crews and ground crews are already familiar with it. And there are no challenges in how and where we can park our planes on the ground,since they’re all the same size and shape.”...article

Former CEO Colleen Barrett with female pilots… article