Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Many athletes have to travel to events across the country, and Southwest likely is a leading choice if you’re thinking about flying.  The airline company has focused exclusively on travel within the United States, with great success as it’s one of the more reliable airline companies.

I recently caught up with Southwest to ask the company several questions regarding its business and flight information.  I normally fly Southwest out of the Oakland International Airport – just a couple of minutes away from Alameda – which is the company’s Bay Area hub.

The first question I had for Southwest was related to how the company has persevered.

“Through our route optimization program, we looked at our entire route schedule and identified flights that were not productive and replaced them with routes that were profitable and better met our customers’ needs,” said a Southwest spokesperson to Alameda Runners.  “Although many carriers began nickel and diming Customers to increase revenue in this tough economic environment, we stood in stark contrast from our competitors and did not add fees to check the first and second bags.”

The full interview is available after the jump.  If you hope to learn more about a company you may rely on for travel, then I recommend giving this interview a read.

Although most airlines have assigned seating when a traveler purchases an airline ticket, Southwest continues to have an open seating policy that customers have supported.

“Our open-seating policy continues to enable us to have the fastest ‘turns’ in the airline industry.  We actually conducted assigned seating boarding tests in 2006 and 2007 and found that open-seating was the quickest method (which, for us, this increased efficiency translates into low costs, low fares, and a better value for our Customers and our Shareholders).”

Some airlines have also decided to start charging travelers for each checked bag, which Southwest hasn’t done as of yet.

“We’re a firm believer of not charging Customers for something that should be free.  On Southwest, the first two checked bags are free.  Our Customers have recognized this, and we’ve seen a 1 percent domestic share shift, which means approximately $800 million of additional revenue.”

Some airlines have been forced to drop cities, though Southwest hasn’t had that problem.

“We haven’t dropped any cities and were actually able to add four cities (BOS, LGA, MKE, MSP) to the Southwest map in 2009 by optimizing our schedule.  Although our capacity was reduced by 8 percent in 2009 because of the tough economic environment, we were able to add these markets without growing our fleet through our schedule optimizer, which has helped us reduce flights that aren’t popular with our Customers and shift them to more productive flights.”

Southwest will also soon support Panama City Beach, Florida, with flights to and from the airport expected in May 2010.

Although the global economy remains turbulent, Southwest saw an increase in demand during Q3 and Q4 compared to the first two quarters of 2009.

“Our Bags Fly Free campaign along with introducing new Southwest products like Early Bird Check-In and P.A.W.S. helped us keep our 37-year profit streak intact.”

If you’re traveling to an event this spring, which airline will you choose?