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Gate Turnaround at Southwest Airlines
Length:
11:44
Subject:
Process Times and their Impact on Capacity
Textbook Reference:
Chapter 4: Capacity Planning, page 158
Summary
Southwest Airlines (SWA) is one of the most successful airlines in the world. Its formula is simple:
get passengers to their destinations on time, at low prices, and in a friendly atmosphere. A key to
its success in keeping prices low is the short turnaround times it achieves at the gate. This video
shows the gate turnaround process and explains why it is so important to executing SWA’s
strategy. The video shows the turnaround process at Love Field in Dallas. Regardless of the airport,
SWA has a well-oiled, synchronized turnaround process. As soon as an aircraft calls “in range” at
one of Southwest’s airport locations, called a station, the local operations manager notifies the
ground operations team so that they can start mobilizing all the parties involved in servicing the
aircraft in preparation for its next departure.
Essay or Discussion Questions Based on the Video
1. How can capacity and utilization be measured at an airline such as Southwest Airlines?
• Nested processes, which support other processes, can have their own competitive
priorities. Here, the turnaround process has delivery speed as a priority, while the
“flight” process has low cost operations demanding high levels of utilization and on-
time delivery. To achieve the priority of delivery speed, the turnaround process must
have a sizeable capacity cushion.
2. Which factors can adversely impact turn-around times at Southwest Airlines?
• Because SWA relies on fast turnarounds, the turnaround process must have a relatively
large capacity cushion to accommodate variability in its daily operations, such as:
o weather delays (flights arriving late)
o unexpected maintenance issues at the gate can slow down the flow of operations
3. How does Southwest Airlines know they are achieving their goals?
• An important performance metric for any airline is annual revenue-passenger-miles
(RPMs). RPM is a function of the number and size of planes (long-term capacity
4. What are the important long-term issues relevant for managing capacity, revenue, and
customer satisfaction for Southwest Airlines?
• Even with the tightly managed operations Southwest Airlines enjoys, company
executives know that continued improvement is necessary if the company is to remain
profitable into the future. Company executives know they have achieved their goals
