Comprehensive Capstone Case Study

Southwest Airlines Company (LUV)  (Group 4).

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Southwest Airlines has reported a profit for 45 consecutive years. Southwest operates 706 Boeing 737 aircraft serving over 100 destinations in 40 states as of December 31, 2017. Southwest also flies to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 10 near-international    countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Turks, and Chaos.

Southwest only flies Boeing 737 planes and has kept this tradition for years, citing it is more efficient to only carry parts for one style of aircraft, only train pilots for one style of craft, and only have to hire engineers for one style of aircraft. Southwest is able to pass these savings right on to the consumer through relatively lower priced tickets. Surprising to some, Southwest was tabbed in 2017 as the largest U.S. carrier based on passengers boarding domestic flights in the U.S., with average flights lasting 2.0 hours and 754 miles.

Situation Analysis 

• The Environment – PESTLE Analysis
  1. Political environment
  2. Economic environment
  3. Social environment
  4. Technological environment
  5. Legal/Regulatory environment
  6. Environmental environment
• The Industry – Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
  1. Bargaining power of suppliers
  2. Threat of new entrant
  3. Rivalry among existing competitors
  4. Bargaining power of competitors
  5. Threat of substitutes

The document should be at least 10 pages of content APA format and at least 3 to 5 references. Please covers all the above mentioned points in the document.