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External Forces Shaping The Future Of The Airline Industry Essay

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External Forces Shaping The Future Of The Airline Industry

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to inform airline executives about the external forces affecting their industry and what they can do to keep up with the changing business atmosphere. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 had a grueling effect on the economy, and while most industries are almost back to their pre-9/11 financial status, the airline industry is lucky to break-even. This report will explain three leading trends that are forcing the airline industry to re-think their stance on strategic planning. The first trend discussed will illustrate the effect that online booking has had on the way airlines do business. The second trend will describe how …show more content…

For someone to classify as overweight, the person has to have a Body Mass Index over 25; to be obese a person has to have a Body Mass Index over 30 (American Obesity Association 2004).
Decline in Business Travel
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. economy has been in a struggle to recover from the damage that was caused. Corporations, in particular, took action by cutting their travel budgets in order to save money. The budget-cutting forced them to become much more cost-conscious, prompting them to look for other means of meeting instead of traveling. The way that corporations are dealing with this is by taking advantage of the new technologies that are available, such as videoconferencing. Another popular technology that is catching on is web casting--the transmission of audio and video to personal computers via the Internet (Caplan 2001). Frost and Sullivan, a consulting firm that specializes in high technology, estimated that in 2003, the web casting business would see revenues of up to $533 million (Lollis 2003). One U.S. corporation has already eliminated 20-70% of air travel due to new technologies such as videoconferencing (Hughes 1993). Also, videoconferencing could replace 13-23% of business-related travel by 2010.

ANALYSIS This section of the report will discuss how each trend mentioned will affect the airline industry. It will also

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