Budgeting in the Airline Industry in the Current Scenario

This is an analysis of the Airline Industry in Europe. The paper will cover the current market situation, including financials and market volume. Following this will be a Five Forces analysis on the factors that affect industry competition. The paper will conclude with key insights into the profitability of the industry and a SWOT analysis of one of the industry’s best performers and what rivals and possible future entrants can learn from their success.

Based on these factors, we can conclude that with the strict safety and operational rules and regulations imposed by the regulators in current political environment, stiff competition from the budget “ No Frills” carriers, the evolution of the passenger profile and airline accidents ( missing planes / air plane crashes and environmental progresses have affected the viability and profitability of the global airline industry.

Rising fuel prices has a huge impact on the airline industry. In an article published by the New York Times in 2007, oil prices were hovering ‘near $100 a barrel’ which caused the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to ‘slash’ their predicted profits for 2008 from ‘$7.8 billion to $5 billion’ (Clark, 2007). In 2008 high fuel prices were ‘dominant factor’ in the losses that faced the industry, and continued to same effect in 2009 (Dunn, 2009). Diagram 2 shows how fuel price has increased and fallen over the last 5 years.

The risk of entry into the airline industry by potential competitors is low due to the “liberalization of market access, a result of globalization. According to the IATA (International Air Transport Association), about 1,300 new airlines were established in the last 40 years,” (Cederholm, 2016). The cost structure of businesses in an industry is a determinant of rivalry. In the Airlines Industry, fixed costs are high, because before the organization can make any sales, they must invest in air crafts, fuel and service employees. These items come attached with hefty price tags. Industries that require such enormous amounts of start-up capital as predicted by many analysts

The purpose of this memorandum is to address the profitability issues at Continental Airlines and to estimate the costs for 2009 to forecast the future outlook of the company. To address these issues, I used regression analysis to observe what effect the 11% reduction in flying capacity would have on the firm’s future operating costs. I also used the results from the regression analysis to verify the costs that, if reduced, would further comply with the implementation of cost-cutting initiatives and operational efficiencies that the company is striving for. Lastly, I consolidated the data to forecast Continental’s financial outlook for 2009, then provided insight

In this assignment I was assigned the task of comparing 2 different airlines, one being a full service carrier and the other being a lost cost carrier, from United States of America, namely the Delta Airlines and South West Airlines. The points of comparison were market strategies, financial benefits, load factors, contrasting yield, revenues and passenger/cargo loads. The analysis was done on the business model and a long term strategy. Through this it would be known that which airline is performing better than the other. The disruption of air travel through various incidents like the terrorist attacks and global downturn, which can be considered as economic, political and social conditions, effect airlines adversely.

The University of Sydney Faculty of Economics and Business Leadership and Policy Seminar Series Sydney, Australia 23 February 2010

his case article summarizes two case series. Each case series includes three subcases and has an associated teaching note. These six short cases introduce many of the concepts that underlie the practice of airline revenue

1. There are a few trends in the US airline industry. One is consolidation, wherein existing players merge in an attempt to lower their costs and generate operating synergies. The most recent major merger was the United Continental merger, which is still an ongoing affair, but has created the largest airline in the United States by market share (Martin, 2012). Another trend is towards low-cost carriers. In the US, Southwest has been a long-running success and JetBlue a strong new competitor, but in other countries this business model has proven exceptionally successful. The third major trend is the upward trend in jet fuel prices, and the increasing importance that this puts on hedging fuel prices and capacity management (Hinton, 2011).

Fuel has consistently been one of the largest expense categories for domestic airlines, ranking second only to personnel expenses. During 2003, fuel costs represented, on average, over 16% of the total operating expenses for all U.S. domestic airlines studied by Richard Cobbs and Alex Wolf (2004). Moreover, airlines are generally unable to increase fares to offset any significant increase in fuel costs. From 2001 to 2003, these same airlines experienced a 25.9% compound annual increase in jet fuel costs while average airline pricing decreased by 0.1%, as measured by revenue per available seat mile (Cobbs and Wolf, 2004). Jet fuel costs have substantially risen over the past several years putting consistent pressure on airlines to maintain positive cash flows. Any saving in fuel costs works out to profit earned.

Cost of fuel is also one of Air Canada’s largest operation costs items. Fuel prices have and may continue to fluctuate widely depending on many factors and, therefore Air Canada cannot accurately predict fuel prices. Due to the competitive nature of the airline industry, Air Canada may not be able to pass an increase in fuel prices to its customers by increasing its fares. In addition, Air Canada may be unable to appropriately or sufficiently hedge the risks associated with fluctuations in fuel prices. Furthermore, the impact of lower jet fuel prices could be offset by increased price competition, resulting in decreased revenues. Significant fluctuations in fuel prices could have a potential negative effect on Air Canada.

Airlines aren’t the only companies that hedge their required fuel. But airlines’ sensitivity to fuel costs can be more obvious to consumers, who often feel it in the form of higher ticket prices and international fuel surcharges when oil prices rise.

A drop in fares has been the best result of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. It has been the impetus for the increase in the number of flights, which in turn has spurred a drive for greater safety in airlines. But with the current airline market, this development has given us one negative. Since ticket prices have dropped to new lows, the realities of an industry which operates on such economies of scale dictates that only a few competitors have the capacity to operate within the market. This is not the desired effect of either political side on this issue, but it is an economic necessity with the environment that has been created, very similar to that of public utilities and phone companies.

This paper will review the case study of Delta Airlines which was suffering like all its competitors with rising fuel costs which averaged anywhere between 30 to 50 percent of its total operating costs. This paper will answer six questions which will help identify what the company did to handle the high cost of fuel. The questions that I will answer will include the following.

This paper discusses the external economic factors affecting the strategic decision of airline industry and how this decision in turn, affect the market forecast of the aircraft manufacturing industry. Various business issues affect airlines operation either directly and indirectly, and