Question

What do you think of Southwest airlines International efforts? What changes should they make?

Answer 1

I believe there international strategy is pretty robust as of now. Till 2014, Southwest was only focused on domestic market, i.e., US market because of the Wright clause. After it expiration Southwest has started to focus on expanding internationally. The good thing about them is that they are taking it slowly and not going all out at it. Yes, it won't lead to slower growth rate initially, but it would help southwest to get a strong hold of each and every market it enters.

Currently Southwest is operating in around 50 cities across the world, with most of them located in S.America, Caribbean and Mexico. Southwest is also, because of its dominant position in Dallas, operating from 4 of the 5 terminals of the new international concourse at Fort Lauderdale's Airport. Along with this Southwest has recently opened up a new international terminal at the Houston Hobby Airport. All this clearly suggests that they are very proactive about their international plans. Coupled with its positioning as the low cost carrier, Southwest, I believe, is destined for greater things internationally as well. What I expect in recent future (next 8-10 years) is Southwest really dominating the S.American markets and the Caribbean market.

I would not like to make a lot of changes to their strategy as they are expanding cautiously (not blindly to any place) along with being proactive in its efforts. One possible thing that I would like to add to their strategy is some focus on the emerging markets like China, India, few economies of Africa etc. This is because these economies are going to drive the global market after few years, and having a strong presence over there would certainly help Southwest in the longer run. Yes, Southwest is trying to cover the markets that are close to US currently, but delaying its entry in markets such as China and India could lead to a big time opportunity lost.