经济学人下载:微笑服务和免费花生

Southwest Airlines
美国西南航空公司

Smiles and free peanuts
微笑服务和免费花生

Jun 2nd 2011 | DALLAS | from the print edition

The secret of Southwest’s success
西南航空的制胜秘诀

ADVERTS from the early years of Southwest Airlines evoke a lost era. “Remember what it was like before Southwest Airlines?” asks a hostess in a 1972 television spot, wobbling across the tarmac in orange micro-shorts and white go-go boots. “You didn’t have hostesses in hot pants. Remember?” The airline had started up a year earlier, with three planes shuttling between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. It later acquired a ticker on the New York Stock Exchange—“LUV”—that fitted its perky image. On early flights, hostesses plied passengers with free cocktails.

西南航空早年的广告让我们回想起一个逝去的时代。在1972年的一期电视广告中，一位身穿橘色迷你短裤和白色齐膝长筒靴的空姐，扭动身姿走在铺有柏油碎石的飞机跑道上，说道“还记得西南航空出现前是个什么样子吗？那时是没有穿着热裤的空姐的，不是吗？”这家航空公司于1971年开始运营，当时拥有三架往返于达拉斯、休斯顿和圣安东尼奥之间的飞机。西南航空随后在纽约证券交易所上市，股票代号LUV，这也恰恰符合其富有朝气的形象。在该公司的早班飞机上，空姐们会殷勤的为乘客们提供免费鸡尾酒。

Forty years later, Southwest has become America’s largest low-cost carrier. That is a striking change. Southwest was for a long time the underdog of American aviation. During the 1980s it was downright frumpy, flying middle managers to Kansas City on bargain fares. But it has now developed a mix of low fares and friendly service that appeals to America’s vast herd of cattle-class commuters. RyanAir and EasyJet, two of Europe’s leading budget airlines, learned many of their tricks from Southwest.

四十年后，西南航空成为美国航空业巨头中票价最低的一家。它的蜕变是显著的。西南航空很长一段时间内都在美国航空业中处于劣势。20世纪80年代西南航空还相当落后，只是经营着一些通过廉价机票吸引中层经理们飞往堪萨斯城的业务，而现在该公司已经推出一系列价廉质优的服务，以吸引美国大批需经常乘坐经济舱往返的乘客。瑞安航空和易捷航空这两家欧洲领先的廉价航空公司也借鉴了西南航空不少的技巧。