OPPOSITE The latest cor-
porate livery of Southwest
Airlines is demonstrated
well by this 737-700 that
is taxiing to the departure
runway at Los Angeles
International Airport.
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
BASTIAN DINGhttp://www.airlinerworld.com 95One of the carrier’s early
737 MAX 8s lines up on the
runway ready to depart,
with five other 737s in the
background, four of which
still carry the airline’s previ-
ous livery.Southwest’s COO believes
the airline could add
another 50 or more destina-
tions to its network over the
next 20 years which would
require 500 more aero-
planes for its fleet.tickets two or three months ahead that
you might have a change in your plans,
and we don’t want to charge a couple
of hundred dollars should this happen.
We feel that package actually wins us
customers, and they fly with us
exclusively because of that.”
Creating a choice for the customer
is key to ancillary services offered by
the airline, designed to enhance their
experience by buying a product from
Southwest.
“We’ve a Business Select product,
where customers pay to be among the
first 15 people that board the aeroplane.
It’s kind of a premium product that
gives you a free drink on board, choice
of seat, more Rapid Rewards points,”
says van de Ven. “We’ve got an Early
Bird product where you get an earlier
boarding position. In the fourth
quarter of last year [4Q17] both Business
Select and Early Bird productscontributed nearly $100m of additional
revenue. That’s probably our biggest
ancillary revenue item, but what we
really feel like is that our ‘no bag fees’
and ‘no change fees’ are as big a
revenue boost for us. We think we
make more money doing that than if
we unbundled those things.”Evolving the Network
For network and traffic development,
like many airlines, Southwest’s plan
involves a mix of increased frequencies
and new destinations. It serves
approximately 100 destinations and,
this year, the focus is on developing the
extended range capabilities needed to
fly to Hawaii.
“We hope to launch services to the
central Pacific archipelago before the
end of the year, but if not this year,
maybe next,” van de Ven confirms.
“With Hawaii and other markets out“We want to offer you
an everyday low fare
for flying thousands of
miles away.”
Mike van de Ven
Southwest Airlines COO