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The Good Guys
Cheap Charlie · December 4, 2000

I love a cheap success story. When Freddie Laker took off across the Atlantic with his low fares, it changed the airline world. But eventually Freddie Laker and his airline went bankrupt. He was driven out of existence by his competitors.

It was enough to make me cry.

It was an ugly story. Every anti-competitive action that the major airlines could take was employed. In almost every other business environment, these activities would have been termed unfair and monopolistic.

Business school textbooks are filled with these stories of bigger companies squeezing out competitors by lowering prices on one route and raising them on another to make up the difference. In the case of Laker Airways, the squeeze was employed by all majors, domestic and international, to make sure he didn't succeed.

All governments, on both sides of the Atlantic, stood still. No one raised a hand. No one put out a hand to help. He eventually sank. A good guy disappeared from out travel radar screen.

The only other airline to have such an impact - actually a far greater impact in terms of domestic travel - has been Southwest Airlines. Here is an amazing story where the airline with the lowest prices, makes the biggest profits.

It burns the major airlines. American, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental, US Airways and virtually every other scheduled airline have excuses galore.

They have losses galore.

They don't get it. It's the price stupid. It's customer service. It's taking care of your employees so that they can take care of us.

The major airlines are facing one employee headache after another. The only people making money seem to be the executives - a fact not lost on the rank and file. We read the newspaper headlines day after day, week after week, month after month ... pilots' strike here, flight attendants' strike there, mechanics strike here and baggage handlers' strike there. It seems never to end.

Now think back on the last time you heard about a strike at Southwest Airlines.

You can't remember a time, can you? They believe in taking care of the people who will be taking care of us.

Besides taking care of their employees, the Southwest executives have aimed their bargain fares at airports where the major airlines don't have the plane power to blow them off the runways. They go where the major airlines aren't providing service but where their marketing research shows there are customers who want to fly.

This selective aim for Southwest operations has kept most of the major airlines in the back seat and has allowed Southwest to flourish rather than spend its resources fighting well-heeled competitors.

The system works. thank heavens. Because of Southwest Airlines here in New England, where I live, airfares have remained relatively stable even in Boston. The pressure of nearby Manchester, NH, and Providence, RI, keep the major airlines from going wild with increases in fares to anywhere Southwest flies.

Nationally, the story is the same. New England is one of the last regions of the country to benefit from the "Southwest Effect." But overall, even the Department of Transportation acknowledges that Southwest keeps prices down in airports and in surrounding airports they serve.

Every Southwest employee serves an average of almost 2,500 passengers a year, almost double their nearest competitor. Southwest is the only airline to make a profit every year for the past 25 years. Southwest stock seems to double while other major airlines, such as American and Delta, see-saw without moving ahead.

Even Wall Street brokers and analysts who crave first class amenities when they fly, may buy their tickets and collect frequent flyer miles on American, United or Delta, but when it comes to investing their money and recommending airline stock to their clients, they endorse Southwest Airlines all the way to the bank.

When you have the choice, choose the airline that is on your side when it comes to fair pricing, on-time departures and arrivals, fewest lost bags and the least complaints - Southwest Airlines.

In the airline world the only vote that counts is the vote with your airline travel dollar. Use it.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.