Southwest CEO: ‘Number One Priority’ Is Controlling Costs
Photo Caption: Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly unveiled its Louisiana One aircraft on March 7, 2018. Kelly said the airline's number one priority now is cost-containment.
Skift Take
There's no way around it: Southwest's new emphasis on cost-containment, productivity gains, and other efficiencies doesn't provide an optimistic outlook for passenger experience. It should make Southwest a more profitable airline — if passengers go along for the ride.
Southwest Airlines department heads will have to trim their wish lists in 2019.
That's because after spending the past decade prioritizing revenue-generating initiatives such as revamping Rapid Rewards and deploying a new reservations system from Amadeus, Southwest Airlines will now make controlling costs its "number one priority."
Those are the new marching orders from Southwest CEO Gary Kelly as articulated during the company's third quarter earnings call Thursday. What that means is that some items or initiatives that the airline's executives "yearn for," may have to be deemphasized, and greater productivity will have to be achieved, said Kelly, without offering
