EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Stagflation in US economy threatens outlook for the airline industry profitability. US airlines forecasting Q108 losses citing high fuel costs and a potential economic slowdown.
Other regions of the world will expand such as Asia, Middle East and Latin America.
Slowdown has already affected some US small-mid cap carriers with the recent onslaught of bankruptcies.
US majors are better armed to combating the effects of the sharp increase in jet fuel. Cost reduction initiatives have been announced.
Slowdown in the US economy is expected to accelerate consolidation talks between the majors.
Cash cushions at most US majors from a profitable 2007 will help them in the short-term. Financial
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Merged airlines will produce a combined cash balance of $7 billion upon consummation, the best cost structure and debt-to-income ratio in the industry, and access to financial markets.
The combined airline’s fleet will comprise 800 mainline aircraft and 600 regional aircraft. It will be the largest operator of A330s, B757s and B767s, a balance of Airbus and Boeing widebodies that is expected to continue going forward. Additional aircraft orders will not be made unless it makes fiscal sense and the merger is “about addition, not subtraction” and “is not predicated” on hub closures, involuntary furloughs or big capacity reductions.
Cash cushions at most US majors from a profitable 2007 will help them in the short-term. Financial impact of slowdown could be delayed to 2009.
Cash cushion helps big airlines for now
The nation’s biggest airlines have saved some $19B in cash as of the
The merger is expected to take a total of 5 years with an end result of a fleet of nearly one thousand planes covering more than 150 cities in United States with connecting flights to more than 30 countries around the world. All evidence indicates that a merger between Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airlines can be completed within 5 years and will be successful in helping the merged company become the industry leader in low-cost, high customer service airline carriers in North America. The minor obstacles such as redundant cities, a balloon payment owed by JetBlue, redundant Point of Sales Systems and baggage tracking systems, and a surplus of employees, is negligible and easily resolved during the 5-year merge period. A few decisions will still need to be made such as what to do about employee contracts being different between the two carriers and pension plans but the merger is being given a good to very good rating for its chances to succeed as
Although business leaders may not have a crystal ball to help them plan for the future, they do have access to a wide range of Federal Reserve publications that can help identify recent and current trends and what these economists believe will take place in the coming months. Given the lingering effects of the Great Recession of 2008 on the American economy today, identifying the future economic outlook for America using this type of freely available information therefore represents a timely and valuable enterprise. To this end, this paper provides a review of relevant publications to identify the Federal Reserve's current assessment of economic activity and financial markets, its current view about inflation and various monetary tools that have been used to stabilize the economic and prices in recent years. Finally, an analysis of the economic outlook for the next 12- to 18-month period is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.
Airlines took the various short-term measures that have been described above, but few changed their long term strategies. The network carriers did cut out some unprofitable routes, and reduced frequencies on others. The 11 September
The economic factors like slow economic growth, low disposable income, and fluctuation in the price of oil have been responsible for weak performance of Southwest Airlines. There are no adverse political effects. Southwest Airlines has been positively affected by the increase in consumer interest in leisure travel. The leisure segment is an important segment for low cost airlines. The net income has declined from $459 million in 2010 to $178 million in 2011.
The combined United Continental Holdings competes on the basis of having what it terms "the most comprehensive global route network", modern planes, and "an industry-leading loyalty program" (UnitedContinentalHoldings.com, 2012). The merger between two struggling airlines was announced in 2010, and the United brand is going to be the one that is most prominent going forward. There have recently been some minor implementation problems in unwinding the Continental name (Martin, 2012).
Working beneath the American Airlines name, a standout amongst the most perceived brands on the planet, the consolidated aircraft will have a vigorous worldwide system and a solid money related establishment. The merger will offer advantages to both carriers' clients, groups, workers, financial
Berry, S., & Jia, P. (2010, August). Tracing the Woes: An Empirical Analysis of the Airline Industry. American Economic Association, 2(3), 1-43. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25760397
Before making any recommendation regarding strategies, Shilling must finalize her opinion of how the economy and stock market will perform over the next few months. The date is July 2, 2007. Over the last six months the S&P 500 has ranged from 1374.12 to 1539.18, closing at 1503.35 at the end of June. Investors seem worried about an impending credit crunch, even though problems at two Bear Stearns hedge funds that own collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) based on subprime mortgage debt appear to be contained. The economy has slowed with consumer pessimism high, reflecting a weak housing market combined with credit worries. For the last two months personal income has declined after adjusting for inflation. The Federal Reserve has focused on rising inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy-setting arm, left interest rates unchanged in its June 27–28 meeting, keeping the Fed funds target level at 5.25% for the ninth time in the past twelve
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).
The following report of American Airlines and United Airlines, two American based airlines, analyzes and compares the composition of their respective fleets. These two air carriers are major airlines in the United States. Both airlines serve domestic and international flight, and since the year of 2006 have merged with other airlines. The report compares the aircraft inventory and age for American Airlines and United Airlines from the year 2006 until 2015, and incorporates the airlines that have merged with these in the time frame. The analysis utilizes data provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through their Airline Data Project, as well as data gathered by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Is the new merger between American and US Airways a good thing for consumers or will it lead to higher ticket prices and less chance for people to travel? The latest merger between US Airways and American Airlines now gives people basically just four companies to choose from for their airline travel. Is this fair or is it creating a monopoly?
The air craft production industry is one of the most volatile industries due to ever changing supply and demand and high research and development costs. As the air craft market changed moving towards more commercial demand and declining defense demand, it became in the best interest for Boeing and McDonnell Douglas to merge into one joint company making them the largest commercial and defense air craft production company. There can be quite a bit of issues concerning the merger of two companies; some concern what is in the best interest of one company and others may include the concern of not violating trade laws. The purpose of this paper was to describe the search and screen process and issues; specifically legal, financial, and operational status, discuss the valuation criteria, valuation and negotiation and bidding processes of the merger between McDonnell Douglas and Boeing.
Since the airline industry is a direct product of market conditions, it is greatly affected by all externalities. Many people noticed a decline in travel after the September 11th tragedy occurred due to safety concerns. When there is a huge increase in fares that definitely interferes with the demand for travel; it causes the price of tickets to continue to rise since a clear correlation between supply and demand exists. When the economy is doing well in terms of the employment rate, and when the dollar is strong people have the tendency to travel more (Jerram,1998).
Economy airlines suffer during down economies and reduce their orders, and the industry has become dependent on the Middle East and Asia in recent years to offset this (Crooks & Weitzman, 2010).
4. Several major airlines filed for bankruptcy. Many airlines significantly decreased their capacity, reduced their routes and postponed purchases of new aircraft. Some airlines reported a 50% reduction in routes and flight frequency. All these events provided opportunities for the low-cost carriers not only to increase the number of flights but also to introduce services on new routes.