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... offering that traveler – new aircraft, attractive hostesses, low fares, fast ticketing, and inexpensive, exotically named drinks. Whereas the competition used traditional, handwritten airline tickets, Southwest counter staff shortened ticket purchases, using a machine to print out tickets and a pedal-operated tape recorder to enter names on the passenger list as they checked in. Surveys of Southwest’s passengers departing from Houston revealed that a substantial percentage would have preferred using the William P. Hobby Airport rather than the new Houston Intercontinental Airport. Between October 1971 and April 1972, average passenger loads system wide increased from 18.4 passengers per flight to 26.7 passengers, still below the number necessary to cover the rising total costs per trip. The volume of traffic during the late morning and early afternoon could not support flights at hourly intervals. Conforming to Houston passenger preference Southwest gradually shifted its operations to Hobby Airport and abandoned Houston Intercontinental. When Southwest Airline announced a $20 ticket, Braniff and TI announced $20 fares on both routes. Braniff’s advertising stressed frequent, convenient service “every hour on the hour,” “hot and cold towels” to freshen up with, “beverage discount coupons” and “peace of mind” phone calls at the boarding gate; it also announced increased service between Dallas and San Antonio to compete Southwest. Southwest countered with advertising headlined “The Other Airlines May Have Met Our Price But You Can’t Buy Love.” Advertising and promotions continued regularly both on television and with frequent publicity events, usually featuring Southwest hostesses. A direct mail campaign targeted 36,000 influential business executives in Southwest’s service areas. Each received a personalized letter from Muse describing Southwest’s service and enclosing a voucher worth half the cost of a round trip ticket. The outcome was that Southwest would be a big competitor between airline market, and successful step to introduce who Southwest was. It contributed to increased transportation revenues. After a year in business Southwest did not established a riders ship sufficient to sustain operations. By mid-1972 Southwest was in financial jeopardy. Management had no choice but to sell one of Southwest’s four planes, representing a 25% capacity reduction. To avoid losing existing routes, Southwest made efforts to reduce their airplanes’ turnaround time to around 10 minutes by utilizing pilots and management supervisors in baggage handling and ticketing. This resulted with Southwest discovering its competitive advantage. This advantage, combined with the healthy U. S. economy, helped to boost the Company’s revenue and earnings. How did Southwest and its competitors define service quality? How did their definitions influence customers' expectations of the service each provided? Which of the three was best able to gain advantage from how it defined quality? Be sure to support your answers. Southwest Airlines is a major domestic airline that provides short-haul, high frequency, point-to-point, and low fare service. The first with approximately 80% to 90% market share in their top 100 city-pair markets and in the aggregate, 60% to 65% of total market share. Southwest became profitable after one-and-half year of operations. Southwest’s strategy is to keep costs low while providing efficient service to its customers. Southwest Airlines has brought many innovations to air travel since its first Boeing 737 left the tarmac, in 1971. Its no-seat-assignment boarding process, for example, provides efficiency on the ground, helping Southwest achieve quick turnaround and a superior on-time record. Another innovation and boon to efficiency was Southwest's introduction of ticketless travel, system wide. Southwest Airlines has made its Web site-southw...