Low cost Airlines (Southwest Airlines) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Low cost Airlines (Southwest Airlines) - Essay Example This report will investigate the factors that have led to the survival and continuing success of Southwest Airlines, including the company’s financial planning, financial control, costing and the company’s efficient decision making process.The company has a unique business model of careful financial planning, control, efficient costing and a quick decision making process. Such unique business models have been known to ensure continued success in business organisations (Schein, E. H. 1980). Financial planning Southwest airlines is the only airline in the United States that has been consistently profitable for the past 3 decades, and this is mostly due to proper financial planning by the airline. The company’s financial planning model is a major reason why Southwest Airlines has remained profitable every year since its inception in the 1960s. In order to effectively carry out flight operations, an airline needs pilots, cabin crews planes that can take-off and land on the landing slots, and sales-point coordination. It is quite difficult to make these resources sustainable sources of competitiveness, as they are now much more accessible due to the development of the international markets. (Butler, G.F., and Keller, M.R. 2000). Southwest created an advantage by planning to price their fares at 60 percent below the prevailing air fares in the market. â€Å"When Southwest launched its Florida intra-state services in 1996, it offered some advanced purchase fares for as low as $29. Also, when the airline opened a Chicago-to-Cleveland route, its lowest unrestricted one-way fare was as low as $59, while those of other airlines were around $310.† (Doganis R. 2001). With this plan, the airline has been able to divert a substantial number of passengers from the road thus ensuring that the yields achieved are relatively high when measured in terms of revenue per passenger-kilometre because the fares are all point-to-point The airline’s fina ncial success comes from the company’s ability to operate at costs that are lower than the revenue generated by the airline’s operations. Although southwest’s unit revenues are not much lower than those of other competing airlines, operating on the same routes, southwest has enjoyed an advantage in the unit cost, by operating at cost levels that are as much as 40 percent below those of its major competitors. (Doganis R. 2001) Financial control Despite the economic downturn that has been experienced in the United States, Southwest Airlines has remained financially stable and ahead of its competitors in the industry. This is due to an adequate control of the company’s finances, as Southwest Airlines has been able to overcome the economic issues that have affected the airline industry. Southwest is one of the most successful airlines in the United States due to its ability to attract customers based on the exceptional services, low-fares, and the companyâ₠¬â„¢s ability to evolve and effect needed changes. â€Å"In recent years, the global price of oil has caused many airlines to collapse as airlines were forced to raise ticket prices and lose customers. Airlines were also hurt by low ridership rates.† (Bennett and Craun 1993) Southwest Airlines has been able to maintain financial control by increasing or decreasing the number of flights served per day, as against increasing the coat of travelling for their customers. As a result of this control, the customers reach their destinations on time, and without having to pay higher fares. Since low fares have become the airline’s selling point, decreasing the cost becomes a very important aspect of the company’s financial control. Southwest Airlines also tries to maintain financial control by simplifying its operating process and utilizing strategies like the maintenance of one type of aircraft, not serving meals on flights, using cash-register receipts as tickets, and not using a computer reservation system. Southwest airlines has been known to cuts flights with poor sales and

Is It Right to Act in One's Own Best Interest, Or to Obey the State Essay

Is It Right to Act in One's Own Best Interest, Or to Obey the State - Essay Example Socrates’ understanding of the legal obligations is based on the personal morality analogies. He argues that there are two key reasons why people are obliged to obey the law; the reasons are gratitude and contract. In gratitude, the law plays a role for us just like the role played by individuals whom we are mandated to be grateful. In contract, Socrates decided to obey all the laws (Green 1). Socrates applies the general moral principle or rule, which he and Crito (his friend) accept as valid after deep reflection. They agree that we are not supposed to harm others, we are supposed to honor our promises, and that we are supposed to respect or obey our teachers and parents. Socrates uses the principle in his case and argues that if he escapes he will do harm to the society, fail to honor a promise, and he will be disobeying or disrespecting his parents and teachers. He then concludes that it is his moral obligation to obey all the city’s laws despite the fact that the s entence and the conviction were wrong (Frankena 1). ... Therefore, if the law was part of the contract or the agreement, then based on the general theory, he was obliged to obey it (D’Amato 10). The moral commitment of Socrates to obey the laws necessarily entails giving a portion of his own ethical standards to the tribunal. However, his teachings taught that each individual was supposed to think for himself and discover what is morally right and what the truth is. Socrates was of the opinion that there are some immutable standards of wrong and right discoverable through the process of logical thinking. He further believed that no individual is supposed to follow (without careful consideration) the teachings of another individual even if everyone else accepted his teachings in the universe. Thus, one may argue that Socrates was inconsistent in submitting to the presentation of the law by the court of law. Socrates was not lured by the urgings of his friends to escape. His decision was based on his own path of behavior because he t hought it to be right. However, the path he chose to follow consisted of delegation of his part of his own set of ethics to Athens’ lawmaking authorities, such that they, and not him, decided that that the law sentencing him to death was morally just and right (D’Amato 12). Socrates Being Obliged to Follow the Law by the State The difference between justice and truth is a confusing concept that perhaps surrounds the manner in which Socrates’ sentencing proceeded. On one hand, following the law demands that the state is built on principles of justice in an attempt to introduce order in the society. Justice in law entails dedicating the interests of the society and its perceptions of the right