Southwest had a plan to expand into an untapped market at LaGuardia airport. Southwest had to incorporate marketing and operations while relying heavily on the IT department to communicate the changes that would be forthcoming. In 2005, Southwest saw an opportunity to join a code-share experience in LaGuardia NY. Codesharing involves working with an existing airline to offer alternative routes to different locations through another airline. In 2004, ATA Airlines filed for bankruptcy ( Heskett, J.& Sasser, W., 2013)., which allowed for Southwest to capitalize on services that would no longer be available. Both departments had to work closely together because promotions, marketing and IT announced and offered the new destinations while maintaining low fares was a hit. To do this, it knew it had to have new systems and processes that would enable it to change both the network and various operating practices (Heskett, J. & Sasser, W., 2013). Revenues went up and customers satisfaction was stronger than ever. As a result of this, Southwest has continually grown and is now considered one of the most profitable airlines.

Communications played an important role in the success of growth with the LaGuardia expansion. Internal communication system among different functions of the departments allows organizations to attain a set of organizational goals (Hindi et al.,2004). Even though there were multiple departments working together as a whole, management still had to oversee and control the policies and procedures that were needed for the overall success. The main aim of interdepartmental communication in an organization is basically about connecting people in the organization for better organizational outcomes (Gondal, U. & Shabbaz, M. 2012). Southwest has always included their employees in the process, placing emphasis on customer relations and as a result, the expansion was a success.

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