Available Now! Labor Productivity Benchmarks And Vertical Gap Analysis On Southwest Airlines Co.

Released today by ICON Financial Advisory Services, LLC (IFAS), a Registered Investment Adviser (CRD # 119-292): Two of the most comprehensive studies to date on labor productivity and vertical gap analysis benchmarks for Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV).

According to Aaron Freeman, President of IFAS, "With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of barriers to entry, it becomes all the more important to benchmark a company's financial indicators on a worldwide basis. World stock markets have recently witnessed a return to fundamental financial analysis. " The goal of the reports is to assist consultants, financial managers, strategic planners, and corporate officers in gauging certain indicators of Southwest Airlines Co.'s financial and human resource structure.

Drawing on the expertise of Professor Philip M. Parker of INSEAD (Fontainbleau, France and Singapore), IFAS has benchmarked Southwest Airlines Co. against competing firms in the Scheduled Air Transportation and Courier Services industry worldwide--going beyond traditional methods of company benchmarking. The results are two specialized reports: (1) global financial benchmarks using common-size statement ratios (vertical analysis), and (2) labor productivity and utilization measures collected across borders.

Coverage reports, financial ratios and labor productivity ratios, are available for Southwest Airlines Co. Each report reveals productivity and industry ranks for Southwest Airlines Co. in the Scheduled Air Transportation and Courier Services industry. Reports for the following and many other Scheduled Air Transportation and Courier Services companies are available now:

Airborne Inc., AirNet Systems Inc., Alaska Air Group Inc., America West Holdings Corp., British Airways PLC, China Airlines, CNF Inc., Continental Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., FEDEX Corp., Japan Airlines Co. Ltd., KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES, LAN CHILE SA, Lauda Air Luftfahrt AG, Midwest Express Holdings Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp., Qantas Airways Ltd., SKYWEST INC., Southwest Airlines Co., UAL Corp., US Airways Group Inc., and WestJet Airlines Ltd.

The vertical analysis deals with questions like: How has Southwest Airlines Co.'s asset structure varied compared to global benchmarks for the Scheduled Air Transportation and Courier Services industry? Does it generally hold more cash and other short-term assets, or does it tend to concentrate its assets in physical plant and equipment? On the liability side, does Southwest Airlines Co. typically have a higher percent of payables compared to the benchmarks, or does it hold a higher concentration of long-term debt? Does Southwest Airlines Co. have a relatively higher cost of goods sold, operating costs, or income taxes compared to global benchmarks? Have Southwest Airlines Co.'s returns on equity been higher or its profit margins greater?

While the labor productivity analysis answers the following: What has been the ratio of short-term and long-term assets to employee? What are typical capital-labor ratios? What are the average sales and net profits per employee compared to global benchmarks?

Freeman notes, "We are intrigued by the wide variations in basic financial and productivity measures between Southwest Airlines Co. and other Scheduled Air Transportation and Courier Services companies. The Gross Profit Margin, for example, varied from 92.51 to (0.80). We see this type of variation in the 100 or so ratios that we estimate."

Methodology: Uncovering Gaps

Most vertical analyses merely focus on benchmarking against domestic ratios, often published by government agencies or commercial sources. In contrast, IFAS calculates thousands of industry norms by looking at firms at the global level, pooling statistics on tens of thousands of companies across over 40 countries, and applying a seven-stage methodology: (1) identification of industry classifications, (2) firm-level data collection and aggregation, (3) standardization of raw statistics, (4) filtering outliers, (5) calculation of global norms, (6) projection of deviations and gaps, and (7) projection of ranks and percentiles. For each part of the financial statement, the larger structural differences and gaps between Southwest Airlines Co.. and the global benchmarks are provided with summary tables of ranks and percentiles.

Previously available only through booksellers such as Hoovers, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble, two studies are now available direct from the publisher at a 50% discount off the cover price. This special offer includes Vertical Analysis and International Financial Benchmarks and Labor Productivity, Utilization and Global Benchmarks at $99.95 each. Contact Dannielle Andrews for more information.

About IFAS

IFAS assists managers with global benchmarking, gap analysis, and productivity studies. Clients can create their own benchmarks by choosing their competitors from among over 20,000 companies.