Innovation: Southwest Airlines
In the early 1970s, Southwest Airlines was a tiny Texas airline with four Boeing 737s. By 1972, the airline had already posted a $1.6m loss and had to sell one of its planes. Puzzling over how to cover their routes with only three aircraft, Bill Franklin, VP of Ground Operations, reasoned that if they could turn their planes quickly, they could keep their schedule. The industry average turnaround at the time was about one hour. Franklin was proposing ten minutes for Southwest to unload 137 passengers, clean/service/refuel the plane, and reload the next group. Sounded impossible, but it worked.
The team cooperated to turn the planes like an assembly line: when planes landed, staff would go row to row and take the people's luggage down. That way, when the door opened, they were ready to get off. New passengers would already be queuing outside on the tarmac, filing in as the other passengers filed out. Meanwhile, ground crews would scramble to unload trash and refuel. Even the pilots helped. This kind of innovative thinking – born of constraints – has kept the company profitable for the 46 years since.