Jet Blue - Case Study

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the airline industry experienced losses from 2001 to 2004. In 2005, the industry was profitable for the first time in four years and stayed profitable through 2007. The economic and financial crisis in 2008 took a toll on the industry, causing a few airlines to file bankruptcy. The improvement of the economy in 2009 and 2010 helped the industry get back to profitability. Airlines were using tactics to increase revenues, including charging baggage fees, charging for food and drinks on board, and some airlines charged additional fees for seats with more leg-room. The large increases in revenues helped to offset the higher fuel costs, helping the companies achieve profitability.

However, despite the correct decision to privatize, the company continued to have troubles. The financials of the newly privatized airline were unreflective of the successful stock offerings. “Air Canada reported losses of C$74 million in 1990 and C$218 million in 1991, and it reported that it had nearly two million fewer passengers in 1991 than in the previous year.” These failures were blamed on the effects of the economic recession and the decrease in travel due to the war in the Persian Gulf. However, it was clear that competition with international carriers was a major cause. To elaborate, the airline industry is considered to be a cyclical industry, meaning that it is directly affected by the business cycle. As such, during times of

The airlines can be affected if the fuel price will rise, for example due to inflation during economic crisis, the rate of the currency can fall and that can cause the fuel prices to go up. In this case the airlines have to raise their flight prices and that wold affect customers in negative way. They will reduce the spending power and this would cause the cuts to the airline companies profits. (Tiernan & Morley, 2013).

Although there was a deregulation of the airline industry, the one significant component that did not change was the infrastructure of the airline industry. Constrained by the limitations of the airports and the air traffic control system, airlines did not see significant increases in profits despite the large growth and operations. As the airlines increased the number of flights and structure, the air traffic control system did not experience the same increase. Because the ATC system was still controlled and owned by the government, growth was, and continues to be slow.

The Air Transportation Stabilization Board was created in the weeks following the attacks. The board was authorized to give faltering airlines up to $10 billion in government backed loans. Despite this government funded measure, several prominent airlines declared bankruptcy. At the same time that the industry was facing this large-scale drop in the number of passengers, low-cost carriers grew significantly and air fares decreased. As a result of the massive financial losses due to lack of passenger demand, canceled flights and increased expenditures for

September 11, 2001, was a horrific event that rocked the world and the way people viewed the safety of airline travel. The airline industry was hit the hardest after that day and it was uncertain if they could regain their customer’s

I would characterize the U.S. airline industry in the early 1990’s as a steak being trimmed of all its fat, the economic climate created a financial calamity of bankruptcies and collapse by major airlines, which in turn created opportunity for smaller more efficient carriers with cost advantages to enter a near oligopoly industry. The economic distress the airlines industry encountered was spawned from recession and a doubling of fuel prices during the Gulf War in 1991. Fuel, the second largest cost to the industry, an uncontrollable cost that raised havoc on this industry,

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

The airline sector had already been suffering a slowdown as a result of lower economic growth and cutbacks in business travel. Then, at the moment the

A drop in fares has been the best result of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. It has been the impetus for the increase in the number of flights, which in turn has spurred a drive for greater safety in airlines. But with the current airline market, this development has given us one negative. Since ticket prices have dropped to new lows, the realities of an industry which operates on such economies of scale dictates that only a few competitors have the capacity to operate within the market. This is not the desired effect of either political side on this issue, but it is an economic necessity with the environment that has been created, very similar to that of public utilities and phone companies.

Airlines must operate within a low-margin, high-fixed-cost environment, making profitability particularly sensitive to decreases in volume, either from environmental factors (e.g., the September 11,2001 attacks) or from competition. Moreover, the airline business is labor-intensive. Labor costs as a percentage of revenues ranges from a low of about 25 percent for the low-fare airlines to almost 50

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 purpose of this paper is to evaluate the business strategy of JetBlue Airways. JetBlue was founded by David Neeleman in 2000 and quickly became one of the largest discount airlines in the United States. It was started in the east coast primarily and expanded throughout the country and entered the international market soon after that. JetBlue received the “#1 Airline Brand” rating10 even while keeping its advertising costs significantly lower than Southwest Airlines. Jet Blue’s talent in formulating and executing effective strategies has enabled the company to rapidly grow in the domestic and international market base.

The current global economic crisis has changed the way aviation industry goes about its business. It has brought about a boom in low-cost carriers, which has made travelling by air cheaper for the masses. Services offered by airlines and airports are also of higher standards to make people want to travel by air.

The established major airlines, with the exception of those that were failing, shared in the traffic growth, but the new entrants made substantial inroads into market share. Between 1978 and 1986, the share of total traffic of incumbent trunk airlines declined from 94 percent to 77 percent.