Business And Marketing Strategies Of Major Airways

Airlines are now able to expand their outreach directly to consumers through e-commerce. For example, airlines like Qantas are able to introduce ticketless travel through the use of technology (Thompson and Gamble, 2012).

Cooperation within alliances poses several challenges to managers: the size of the alliance, the need to intensify cooperation and the harmonization and standardization of common processes, and the search for synergies to reduce costs. However, in times of crisis, alliances do not necessarily prevent stiff competition between the partners. At present, five alliances – One World, Star, Wings, Sky Team and Qualiflyer stand out as the core groupings around which other airlines with strong regional networks will come together to form worldwide networks and can be described as global alliances. But they remain fragile creations subject to competing attractions and economic forces. Over the years, several companies have switched from one alliance to another. Austrian Airlines, for example, moved from the Qualiflyer to the Star alliance. Air France has recently floated the idea of creating a Mediterranean alliance with Alitalia and Iberia. To make this three-way deal possible, Iberia would have to leave the OneWorld alliance.

Another key success factor for Southwest has been the company approach toward innovation. In his interview, Herb Kelleher talked about encouragement and support to the employees and management out-of-the box thinking. The management welcomes new ideas from everyone at the company and takes in consideration all suggested improvements. The point of this exercise is to “never spoil an idea, because when you spoil an idea, you ensure that you’ll never get another one from that person” (Kelleher, 2006). As the result of the open communication channel between the managers, leaders and employees, Southwest was the first major airline to invent a Ticketless travel alternative, and offered Ticketless travel through the company’s website. “For 2005, 93% of Southwest’s customers chose the Ticketless travel option and apx. 65% of Southwest’s passenger revenues came through its Internet site” (TheStreet.com Ratings, 2009). Statisticaly, the cost per booking via company’s website is six time less than through a travel representative; therefore, booking through Internet turned to be a big money saver invention for the company.

American airline industry is steadily growing at an extremely strong rate. This growth comes with a number economic and social advantage. This contributes a great deal to the international inventory. The US airline industry is a major economic aspect in both the outcome on other related industries like tourism and manufacturing of aircraft and its own terms of operation. The airline industry is receiving massive media attention unlike other industries through participating and making of government policies. As Hoffman and Bateson (2011) show the major competitors include Southwest Airlines, Delta Airline, and United Airline.

Market structure can be defined as patterns of behaviour by enterprises in an effort to adjust to the markets in which they operate (buy or sell). Pricing strategies and collusive behaviour mergers are a few dimensions of market conduct. It is the industry norm for a legacy carrier to offer service to most popular destinations; Delta reducing routes to a similar schedule as the low-cost airlines is not an option in the multi-billion dollar industry. In order to gain market share from low-cost airlines, Delta must create a value proposition that differentiates itself from its competitors. Many customers will pay a premium if the level of service provided is higher than the low-cost, no-frills

The notion of flight – of traversing the vast highway of the skies – was once a dreamlike idea that was invigorated into reality in 1903, when Orville Wright piloted the first powered aircraft a mere twenty feet above the sandy shores of North Carolina. The subsequent century expanded upon his success, innovating airplanes and developing a booming industry founded upon air travel. It is thus valid to assume that, globally, we as a civilization have changed how we live and experience the world as a result of the airline industry - we are able to settle, travel, and conduct business in places once deemed remote and inaccessible, and our world is undoubtedly more interconnected. Traveling by air has become a commonplace service, altering our perception of distance and diminishing travel time, and the industry is continuously making efforts to improve and advance.

One of the world’s most competitive and prominent industries is the airlines industry. It generates huge amounts of income as well as employment each year. Some of the common names in US air travel service providers are Alaska, Northwest, Southwest, US airways, American etc.

What are the various kind of alliances that can be formed between two entities of the Civil Aviation sector, particularly with respect to airlines?

Fast, user-friendly online reservation system by facilitating e-ticketing and reducing staffing requirements at telephone reservation centers and airport counters. (Kuzmicki, 2009)

In today’s extremely competitive market environment, it’s almost close to impossible to without partners and this seems to have become a dominant feature in the airlines industry. Alliances are an immediate result of globalization, increased competition among the airline companies and most importantly due to customers increasingly demanding ‘from anywhere to anywhere’ service which is almost impossible for any airline to supply efficiently. As a result of which, airline companies across the world unite their various resources by entering into strategic airline alliances.

Airline suppliers expands drastically in their research and development in order to bring new levels of comfort and new fleets in order to boost sales. And again by bring in new fleets, it gives customer a sense of security. New developments made a huge impact on Singapore Airlines. Its carrier are the very few with younger fleets in the market and on top of that it’s the first to adopt new innovations such as reclining seats and seatback entertainment system with headsets.

Safety is the most important aspect of product quality for the consumer and unlike with other simply distinguishable products a flight safety is very difficult to observe or evaluate. In order to rectify the issue Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) substantially tightened safety requirements from a very beginning of deregulation. FAA has tightened requirements for pilot qualifications, crew training and increased maintenance requirements for large commuter aircrafts. All the safety precautions had a positive impact reducing more then half of accidents. Aircraft manufacturers purchased a complete accident indemnity before the actual

International mergers have been frustrated for years in the airline business where there are in excess of 200 national carriers conveying passengers across the world. Bans on foreign ownership and lingering government control over routes, flights and slots at major airports prevent international mergers and limit the ability of airlines to enter new markets. The incentive for mergers is to grow revenue and reduce costs to become even more competitive by reducing fares. This frustration has to a certain extent been overcome by super-alliances between national carriers operating out of international 'hubs' like Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo. Major airlines have grouped together with names like One World, Star, Delta and KLM/NW to sell tickets to a wider range of destinations without flying to more. They also draw on the 'spokes' of each member airline's associated companies operating out of other airports in the member's country to the hub. Partners in an alliance sell each other's flights, and even book blocks of seats on each other's aircraft.

In less than twenty years, the global industry has gone through tremendous change. Several airlines had gone out of business that had been on top of the industry for years. One of the remarkable changes had been airline alliances. The case focuses on the airline industry and how airlines are forming alliances and joint ventures. It then introduces the partner firms Air France KLM , and Delta . Air France KLM had over 25 collaborative agreements with other carriers and was a founding member of Skyteam, one of the leading airline groups. Air France KLM and Delta Airlines formed revenue

to match the current market needs more optimally than the competitors’ can (Ohlhorst 2013). Moreover, the company has completely revolutionized the air travel market through its Flight Efficiency Services (FES), using the Industrial Internet to help Air Asia achieve efficiency by implementing precision navigation services, flight data analytics fuel management services, and now using it to make changes to customer expectations. GE products are now making it a lead player in the Asia aviation market GE data-driven services. Also, proprietary technologies are being harnessed to identify ways to reduce operating costs, increase aircraft utilization and achieve significant savings throughout the Air Asia network.