Delta Airlines Case Study

Delta Airlines in a major American airline company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company was founded on May 30, 1924. They operate as an extensive domestic and international network. Delta currently operates a fleet of more than 700 aircraft and they employ approximately 80,000 people. In 2011 they were the world’s largest airline in terms of fleet size. Delta Airlines is a very successful company. Part of what makes them so successful is expansion, making good decisions in route selection and hubs location, being service oriented, having a strong operation management, being reactive in terms of prices, and offering low fares.

What makes Delta airlines unique is their participation within charitable groups. The employees at Delta Airlines list as one of the top donors of blood to the American Red Cross (Delta, 2016). The employees of Delta also partnered up with a Humanitarian group to help build homes for families as well as volunteered their time through community sponsored events that Delta has had. United way has also been funded by Delta (Delta, 2016). These are just some of the charitable things that Delta has contributed to. Their client base it simple; meaning there client based is for anyone who chooses to use their services. They have a variety of options for their customers when purchasing tickets such as flying economy class, business class and or first class. Each class comes with a certain advantage such as flying first class, you have more seat space and along with accelerated check in and baggage handling. Delta Airlines like others have many competitors. One of their main competitors who is trying to thrive within the industry is

Delta airlines offer very comprehensive products and services including, Baggage services, check-in,ecertificate programs, In-flight services, pet care, and services for a person with special needs.

Delta’s Top Managerial needs to implement a strategy that will help eliminating the weaknesses of the company to improve its overall performance or the company will simply decide to continue its current operations without making no changes. If it decides to proceed to no change, then it will have chosen a stability strategy that is the most

Technological advancements, mergers and acquisitions, volatility in crude oil prices, currency depreciation, ground staff management and baggage handling are the major external factors for Delta Air Lines. The Monroe oil refinery purchased by Delta Air Lines provides an opportunity for the company to deal with the volatility in crude oil prices. Presently Delta Airline is over dependent on the North American markets, which had experienced a major hit during the recession in 2008.

C.E. Woolman, the first leader of Delta Air Lines, believed that the company should take care of its employees so that, in return they would take care of customers. At the root of this care included effectively communicating with his teams and empowering them to make the right decisions. As Debra Nelson and James Quick reference in Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World, and You, (2013, p. 283) “…communication, especially between managers and employees, is a critical foundation for effective performance in organizations…this is especially critical when leaders are articulating vision and achieving buy-in from employees.” The buy-in that Woolman received from his employees stemmed from his intentional engagement with them and expectation to provide the best customer service in the airline industry. Throughout its history, Delta has deliberately engaged its employees and has modeled a human resource management (HRM) system, which is the “term increasingly used to refer to the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of an organization’s employees” (Sims, 2002, p. 2). The HRM system at Delta has impacted its organizational structure, corporate communications, and shared decision making.

This report provides an examinaion of the current structure, performance, stragergy and management of Delta Airlines, along with an industry analysis of the airline industry. The report uses current and past financial and statistical data for the company along with other up to date material to determine Delta's current market position and future potential.

Delta “focuses on shifting their cost structure from fixed to variable costs as much as possible.” (https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/delta-airlines-flying-high-in-a-competitive-industry/) Delta also understands the importance the importance of delivering top notch customer service to appeal to their principal demographic, business travelers. They have incorporated a training work-shop so employees have a better understanding of how to solve travel disruptions that customers deal with. Employees also learn how to help insure that baggage performance is up to par with a low amount of mishandled bags reports from customers. Delta has done this by incorporating a way for customers to track their bags using a mobile app. In the Business Travel News Delta has been ranked #1 by corporate flyers for four years in a row. I believe the business level strategies that Delta has incorporated have been a good choice for their business. Their strategies have helped them to gain a competitive advantage from customer service and great operating cost flexibility.

With Delta Airlines being one of the most successful airlines in the industry it currently has its

Strategies. Delta Airlines generic strategy is that of differentiation which the company has exhibited through a unique wide-ranging flight service and brand legacy (Selvaggio par. 3). Customer service is distinguished through first-class offer and frequent flyer rewards. The other airlines which merged with Delta, U.S. Airways, United and Northwest, have all recognized the unique selling proposition of Delta (Mutzabaugh par. 15). Delta’s competitive strategies cover customer satisfaction and rewards, employee retention and rewards and marketing and promotion. Industry ranking in terms

From the humble financial portfolio as a crop dusting outfit in the mid twentieth century, to the multi-billion dollar portfolio of a major airline in the twenty first century, Delta Air Lines has risen as a successful business. The airline industry is directly affected by outside economic conditions and is also cyclical in nature. These factors make it very difficult for airlines to make predictions to stay financially afloat. Delta has ridden the bumpy path of the last twenty years and managed to survive. In the past twenty years there has been many events that

New technology: Internet (60% of seats were booked on-line), paperless operation, computerized, Reservation operation (not using call center)

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.

As with all airlines, Delta’s recent performance has been significantly impacted by industry shifts and external events. Terrorist attacks and escalating costs have significantly impacted Delta’s profitability in recent history (Rivkin 4). The company has also been losing valuable market share to the low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines throughout the southeast and specifically in the lucrative Florida market (Rivkin 8). JetBlue also began encroaching on key Delta routes, and this seems only likely to increase (Rivkin 9). Despite this, Delta has still performed better than any other legacy carrier (Rivkin 8). Still, recent history has brought several changes to this legacy carrier, and the company has turned its attention towards new competitive strategies.

Upon review on a profile of a successful company we see Southwest Airlines as a prime example. Their ability to recognize weakness in their management system and adjust strategies has allowed them to emerge as a leader in the US airline industry. Southwest is the largest US low fare carrier with low fare rates, no additional fees and excellent customer service. Southwest Airlines currently has one of the most innovative management practices in the US to date. A review of the critical elements of Southwest Airlines proves to be effective and innovative.