Alaska Airlines Case Analysis

Danville Airlines has created an ethical and legal dilemma by not being accurate, precise and clear on how they are doing medical testing, causing undue stress and potentially career-ending circumstances for David Reiger, one of their best pilots. What Danville did was illegal and unethical due to negligence. David Reiger has every right to sue them to continue flying, and the medical evidence suggests that the Huntington's disease gene can be dormant for decades before being active and changing a person's nervous system (Darden, 2004). The company has violated the 1974 Privacy Act, the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. As is best practice with the nascent, emerging field of genetic testing, Danville did not warn Reiger of the testing taking place, did not get his permission, and didn't even have a process in place for dealing with pilots, whom the traveling public relies on for safe transport, when they are tested positive for these types of diseases (Murry, Wimbush, Dalton, 2001). Clearly Reiger would win any lawsuit, the collateral damage to Danville being the lack of oversight and gross negligence in managing health screening.

1. United Airlines is owned by the UAL Corporation and was incorporated on December 30, 1968. The actual company was formed may years before this actually in 1925 and was a private mail carrying service between Pasco, Washington, and Elko, Nevada, and from these humble beginnings they formed a were able to start a company that would come to be a global leader in the airline service. From the 1960’s to the 1980’s the company had 6 different presidents and started to expand and venture into different aspects of business other then airlines and were unable to have any success. These companies that they purchased were not a success and were later resold.

Air Canada has been in the business of air transport for an extended period of time. Due to the experience and the exposure of the carrier in the field, it has made a commendable progress through many strategies as well as customer proximity. One of the approaches taken by the airline involves the identification as well as an implementation of cost reduction initiatives in a bid to increase revenue from its operations (Air Canada, 2016). It is also attempting to connect with the existing carriers across the world to connect the current customers to the international world. This approach has been adopted to increase its competitive advantage over other existing airlines.

In 1967, KLM had moved their airport to Schiphol, Netherlands with improvements to the length of the runway and the airport infrastructure. The 1970’s introduced the new generation aircrafts called wide-bodies. KLM found this as an opportunity to increase their transportation services by purchasing the new Boeing 707. This aircraft has the capability to fit over 500 passengers. This aircraft was the start of mass transportation for KLM as they are able to fly more passengers than before. In 1989, for the first time in the history of air transport, an alliance was reached: KLM and the US carrier Northwest Airlines merged to offer their customers convenient access to both their networks. A first “open skies” agreement was reached in 1991 between the Netherlands and the United States, allowing for all KLM and Northwest Airlines flights between Europe and the United States to be operated on a joint-venture basis starting in 1993 (History, n.d.). After that, KLM began mergers with other airlines such as NLM Cityhopper and Netherlines for domestic and international routes.

Alaskan Airlines is a company that is known for their innovations and leadership within in the aviation industry. Alaskan Airlines is easily identifiable because of the smiling Eskimo on the tail of

pilots, and new next generation aircraft acquisitions to carry the airline proudly into the next 75

In between other revolutionary marketing programs, in 1981, American introduced the AADVANTAGE travel awards program to reward frequent flyers. On May 19, 1982, the company had a reorganization plan and a new holding company called AMR Corporation, which became the parent company of American Airlines. This reorganization brought to the company new frontiers. A year after AMR Services was formed as a subsidiary to provide aviation services to the other airlines, and AMR Consulting group which would provide consulting services in airline related business. Since 1990 American airlines has conquered most of its objectives, some of them are: the expansion of its routes all over the planet, the creation of a world wide web site for the convenience of its passengers and formed a customer-driven global alliance named “one world” with other airlines designing a raised standard of global air travel.

The Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors – Since the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 over 1,300 new airlines have opened for business. However, most now are bankrupt or merged with the other carriers to stay workable. The established giants were Delta (merged with Northwest), American Airlines (merged with U.S. Airways), United Airlines (merged with Continental), and now Alaska Airlines (merged with Virgin America). Now the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are posing a massive threat which includes Southwest Airlines (merged with Air Tran), and JetBlue.

Northern Air Cargo is Alaska’s largest scheduled all cargo airline, and America’s largest continuing airline. They maintain these titles through a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft, operating out of Anchorage, AK. This company faces many challenges each year, one in particular happens on a daily basis. turbulence.

At the onset of the airline industry in the United States, major network airlines were the sole providers of air travel. This multifaceted industry was a difficult industry to break into as a consequence of “sophisticated customer segmentation, hub-and spoke models and costly information systems for reservations, fare wars and intense competition” (Thompson 2008). Shrinkage in airline ticket prices augmented the demand for airline travel. Many markets were simply deserted or over-looked by major network airlines; this is a region a fresh “second tier of service providers” could enter into. This endeavor proved to provide a consumer savings of billions per year. Thus in June of 1971, after a tumultuous battle with other Texas-based

The airline industry can be considered an imperfect oligopoly. There are several large carriers that dominate long distance flights, and many small carriers that compete for short distance flights. Competition is fierce, and the return for most carriers is very low. Some airlines are trying to differentiate themselves, like JetBlue for example, by offering superior services at low prices. Other low cost airlines, like Southwest, offer low costs with no frills. Most airlines offer a frequent flyer programs in order to develop brand loyalty. In recent years there has also been several alliances formed between airlines. These alliances enable

Research topic: Southwest Airlines Company is looking to establish a global presence in either Vietnam or Spain. This research paper is to help analyze both countries and to determine which of the two countries Southwest Airlines Company should enter. The second purpose of this research paper is to determine how Southwest Airlines Company should enter the country. This paper proposes to answer four questions: Who is Southwest Airlines Company? What does Southwest Airlines Company do? Which country should Southwest Airlines Company enter; Vietnam, or Spain? How should Southwest enter that country; by investing in a facility, marketing products, or joint venture? The participants are students of Mount Washington College, Global Issues: Business, Government, & Society course BADM364, team B. Team B members are: Kyle Forbes, Adam Paquette, Nina Scarpino, Louie E. Watson, and Cheryl Kessler. Research methods applied include research and discussion to compare and analyze findings to determine which country makes the best fit for Southwest Airlines Co. global business strategy. The data analysis will compare each country’s history, economy, politics, government, culture, demographics, infrastructure, how business is done, and how Southwest has done business in

Southwest Airlines provides short haul, high frequency, point-to-point, low-fare services to and from 58 cities across the United States. The company is known for its low-cost fares and superior customer service in the airline industry. The company was started in 1971 with a motto still lived by today, "If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline." This motto has been effective for the company because they recently reported their 58th straight quarterly profit.

With 1988 operating income of $801 million on a revenue of $8.55 billion, American Airlines, Inc. (American), principal subsidiary of Dallas/Fort Worth-based AMR Corporation, was the largest airline in the United States. At year-end 1988 American operated 468 aircraft on 2,200 flights daily to 151 destinations in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, France, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela, and West Germany.

Southwest was one of the most fuel sophistry airlines, but the continuing uprising fuel costs made the airline improve the fuel efficiency of its fleet by purchasing new Boeing 737-700s. They chose to purchase instead of rent to improve cash reserves and have less debt to total capitalization compared to other