Introduction
An airline company can be defined as an organization providing public service of air transportation on one or more routes to passengers and freight. Airlines vary widely in size, from small companies to huge multinational companies. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which they supply services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefits. Generally an airline must have an air operating certificate or license issued by a governmental aviation body.
History of airlines Airplanes were around the first few years of the 20th century. In 1925, the Air Mail Act facilitated the development of airline industry by allowing postmaster to contract with private airlines to deliver mail. Shortly
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Established airlines enjoyed an advantage over star ups, as new carriers found it difficult to break into exiting routes. (Harris, A.).
The Federal Aviation Agency, now known as the Federal Aviation Administration, was created in 1958 to manage safety operations. A 1981 air traffic controller’s strike brought a temporary setback to the growth, which continued throughout the 1980s. Major carriers such as Pan America and TWA, began to collapse in the wake of competition; such carriers disappeared completely following the Gulf war and recession of the early 1990s. In 2001, the industry faced another economic downturn, as business decreased while labor and fuel cost increased. The 9/11 events worsened the airline issues, which lead to a decline in customers and significantly higher operating costs. Loses continued for years; the industry as a whole did not return profitability until 2006. (Harris, A.).
NAICS Codes
According to the NAICS code data source, the code used to identify the U.S specific sub sector under the airline industry is 48111 (Scheduled Air Transportation). As officially defined by The United States Census Bureau, the industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing air transportation of passengers and/ or cargo over regular routes and on regular schedules.
Purpose of Industry Paper
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the airline industry by focusing on its structure, conduct and performance.
Body The airline industry is oligopoly
During the 1980s, the air express industry was a medium to attractive industry to already be a major player in, but not a very attractive industry to try and break into. The industry can be characterized by high rivalry from competitors who compete on the same services with very little differentiation, medium power from suppliers who supply the resources necessary to run the business, high buyer power because customers can basically find an equal service from any firm in the industry, low substitution threat from other means of shipping transportation, and low threat of new entrants due to the high initial capital outlay and need of management
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).
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
In 1967, the FAA was transferred to be under the newly created Department of Transportation. This is when the FAA was renamed the Federal Aviation Authority. At this point, the FAA no longer reported to the president, but now reported to the Secretary of Transportation. Also, the National Transportation Safety Board was created and it took over the CAB's role of investigation for accidents and the like.
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.
In the United States there are generally two types of airlines: "legacy carriers," which are defined as airlines that specifically operated interstate routes prior to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, and "low cost" airlines that compete solely on the basis of offering the lowest price per ticket within the market in which they are operating
The domestic US airline industry has been intensely competitive since it was deregulated in 1978. In a regulated environment, most of the cost increases were passed along to consumers under a fixed rate-of-return based pricing scheme. This allowed labor unions to acquire a lot of power and workers at the major incumbent carriers were overpaid. After deregulation, the incumbent carriers felt the most pain, and the floodgates had opened for newer more nimble carriers with lower cost structures to compete head-on with the established airlines. There were several bankruptcies followed by a wave of consolidation with the fittest carriers surviving and the rest being
At the onset of the airline industry in the United States, major network airlines were the sole providers of air travel. This multifaceted industry was a difficult industry to break into as a consequence of “sophisticated customer segmentation, hub-and spoke models and costly information systems for reservations, fare wars and intense competition” (Thompson 2008). Shrinkage in airline ticket prices augmented the demand for airline travel. Many markets were simply deserted or over-looked by major network airlines; this is a region a fresh “second tier of service providers” could enter into. This endeavor proved to provide a consumer savings of billions per year. Thus in June of 1971, after a tumultuous battle with other Texas-based
Although the airline industry is in the business to transport people from one place to another they could not function without those who keep the airplanes operating on schedule. The airline industry has become the major provider of public transportation for Americans traveling between the nation's cities. Scheduled airlines now account for 92%
Delta Air Lines’ long history of service actually began in agriculture, when the company was
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
3,4- The Airline industry and the market The airline industry is large, specially in the United States, mainly due to the “ Deregulation” of the industry. In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Board was created to control the growth of the air transportation industry. This board had the authority to control entry, exit, prices and methods of competition. In the late 1970 this structure was found inefficient and in 1978 deregulation took place. Due to the deregulation of the industry competition intensified, prices dropped, and the number of people travelling increased. Many new companies emerged and regional airlines saw deregulation as an opportunity to expand. Due to the rise in competition, by 1986 mergers started to take place and in 1987 64.8% of the market was controlled by the four largest airlines. The demand for air travel is determined mainly by price, studies revealed that half of the leisure travellers and on quarter of business travellers did not have a preference for a particular airline, which means that prices determined the
The year 20th century started with the airline reporting losses for the first time in 6 years during the year 2001.This was because of the attacks on the world trade center which forced the government to shut down the US airspace for 2 days. The following few years saw a lot of changes in terms of marketing techniques, new check in systems and also few code sharing with the regional carriers to enhance the airlines services. But the year 2005 started being a year that the airline would face what can be termed as the most difficult phase in their entire history. Delta filed chapter 11 for reorganization under the bankruptcy code.
An Airline is a business providing a system of scheduled air transport. Also called airway. Airline industry is the business of transporting paying passengers and freight by air along regularly scheduled
Deregulation of the airlines in 1978 forced the industry to rethink their business strategy in order to be successful during a period of widespread operating losses due to an economic recession, striking air traffic controllers and brutal price wars. The poster child for innovation during this period was Astro Airlines founded in 1980 by its charismatic leader, Arthur Burton. Enthusiasm, excitement and optimism were watch words used to describe the atmosphere at Astro Airlines in the initial years. This case analysis will discuss;