How the Macroeconomic Environment of the Airline Industry Affects the Strategic Decision of Boing vs Airbus

With only a few large companies across the globe (Boeing, MD, and Airbus), the commercial aircraft industry essentially exhibits the qualities of an oligopolistic competition with intense rivalry. Here is an analysis of competition in the commercial aircraft business using Porter’s Five Forces.

This report will be discussing strategic management to a company in the airline industry. This report will examine a chosen company’s strategic management and outline the stages. Strategic management is analyzing the situation facing the firm, also on the foundation of analysis formulating a strategy and lastly implementing strategy. Strategic management is the identification and the description of strategies that can be used by managers so as to attain better

The Airline industry is a large and constantly growing industry. It facilitates economic growth, international investment and world trade and is therefore central to other industries as well for globalisation. There are various forces which lead to globalisation in airline industry. Key drivers of change are forces likely to affect the structure of an industry; sector or market. (1).

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.

The airline business is an industry that is competitive and unique, focussing on consumer choice and the responsiveness of airlines to changes in the external business environment. For any airline, this environment can be very complex as it is ‘hard for them to fully understand and impossible for them to fully control’ (The Times, n.d. p1). Virgin Atlantic is an international airline that is based in the UK. It was started by the entrepreneur Richard Branson in 1982 and now flies to 30 destinations around the world (Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, 2011). By looking at

He challenged all stakeholders in the air transport value chain to keep pace with an aggressive agenda for industry change. After at least two years of lost growth, traffic is back to pre-September levels in most parts of the world. First quarter 2004 passenger traffic was 6.5% above the same period for 2001 while cargo volumes were 15.5% above 2001 levels. Firms in the commercial airline industry were studied to ascertain their use of strategic market planning. The results indicate strategic market planning and related techniques (Experience curve/cost analysis, portfolio analysis, investment opportunity analysis, and PIMS)

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

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.

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).

Airlines Industry is large and growing, it is also the most fiercely competitive sector. It facilitates international trade, world economy growth, tourism and international investment. The airline industry has over time with the use of modern technology been able to take advantage of the short haul, high frequency and gained a competitive advantage over other forms of travel, such as buses and railroad travel. Additionally, the airline industry still holds the market for global travel at a low cost and convenient way to travel. The aviation industry gives a good contribution to the GDP which includes the following: airline services, general aviation, civil airport operations, aircraft manufacturing, and

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).

In this paper I will be analyzing the airline industry using Porter’s Five Forces. Porter’s Five Forces is a business management tool that allows firms to possess a clearer perception of the forces that shape the competitive environment of an industry, and to better understand what these forces indicate about profitability with regard to the microenvironment. The forces include Competitors, Threat of Entry, Substitutes, Suppliers, and Customers. When firms are able to widen their conception of competition beyond their direct competitors, and consider the broader economic fundamentals of their industry, they are able to form better strategy to better optimize their profitability. The airline industry is one characterized by low

Lawton (2003) advances the argument that low-cost carriers (LCCs) were in a position to go on the offensive and aggressively exploit the changed industry climate after 9/11 by renegotiating labour contracts, by negotiating lower prices for new airplanes in what had suddenly become a buyer's market for new aircraft, and by pursuing aggressive pricing strategies to increase their market share relative to legacy carriers. Legacy carriers, being exposed to a significantly higher overhead burden, were forced into defensive strategies that provided them with little operational flexibility. These developments are difficult to observe in the airlines' accounting figures in the short term, but if they are perceived to change a firm's future cash flows they should be reflected in the market's valuation of the firm's stock.

Boeing’s 2004 sales were $52.5 billion from customers in 145 countries with 30% coming from international sales. Boeing has more than 159,000 employees in 48 states in the U.S. and 67 countries. Their future success is based on a three-pronged strategy of running healthy core businesses, leveraging strengths into new products and services, and opening new frontiers. Boeing has decided to take a different approach by focusing its strategy on the development of smaller, midsize aircrafts since they believe that airlines want the flexibility of using smaller airports and travel longer distances. Their future success is depended on the 787 Dreamliner. However, Boeing considers the introduction of the A350 as a sign of lost confidence in the A380

has a high sensitivity to the economic cycle (Doganis, 2006). The profit margins of the airline