From the Corner Office
Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines
Gary Kelly, CEO and vice-chairman of Southwest Airlines, was the featured speaker at yesterday’s special Greater Boston Chamber breakfast. Kelly focused his remarks on the continued success of Southwest Airlines (35 consecutive years and 68 straight quarters of profitability) amid ongoing airline industry turmoil. He touched on their long-standing business model, and secrets to the company’s success.
Southwest’s philosophy:
“You can save people money and make money at the same time.”
On Southwest’s secrets of success:
“We hire great people and treat them like family. We try our best to care for customers like they’re guests in our home. We keep our fares low and our operating costs lower and we do that by being safe, efficient and operationally excellent.”
On labor relations:
“We’ve never had a layoff. We’ve never had a paycut. We’ve never had a strike. People assume that we must not be unionized when we are probably the most unionized carrier in the U.S. It’s not about unions — it’s about people.”
On the economy:
“We are very well prepared for these tough times. We have lots of liquidity, very modest levels of debt, the lowest operating costs and, very importantly, we have the industry’s leading fuel hedge position. This year, our fuel hedging program will save us close to $1.5 billion. It’s a very significant aspect of our preparedness.”
On Southwest culture:
“There are some things we don’t want to change at Southwest. We are determined to maintain our soul. We’ll continue to expect that our people live in the Southwest way. We want them to have a warrior’s spirit, a servant’s heart and a humbling attitude.
bostonchamber.com.