Jetstar Task and Environmental Competitive Analyisis

Cowper-Smith & de Grosbois (2011, p.59) stated that airlines are not currently focusing enough on their social responsibilities, an area in which Qantas should look to be at the head of their industry. The way in which Qantas operates can have monumental impacts not only on their customers but to the environment itself. Planes although a current need in society also come with a heavy amount of baggage which influences the environment. Aircraft noise, impact on local air quality are just some of the by-products of aircraft travel (Goodman, 2009 p.14). The most discussed and criticised issue within aircraft travel in the modern climate however, is the affect that it has on the environment. This is due to amount of emissions in which are consumed through aircraft travel. Shell aviation the “leading global supplier of world-class aviation fuel and lubricants” supplies almost 7000 aircrafts with fuel each day, refuelling a plane every 12 seconds. Qantas airlines should be knowledgeable on how much fuel they are using and the type of fuel they are using. Pollution resulting from greenhouse gasses and emissions can result in horrific consequences for the environment. Examples of costs that Qantas may endure from its impact on the environment could be adding to the growing concern of global warming throughout the world (Kolstad, 1996 p.1). This is leading to issues such as sea level rising, melting of snow and ice and changes to plant growth and nutrition

The airline industry is one of the largest global industries in the world. Airline companies in the airline industry have gone through challenging obstacles in the past decade. Many changes have occurred within the industry and increased regulations have driven up cost for the industry. The attacks on 9/11 left the industry in shock when planes were used in terrorist attacks in the United States. These attacks changed the mentality of the industry and shifted the focus towards safety. Safety was also a major concern in the industry with the breakout of SARS in 2003 and the H1N1 flu in 2009. The airlines had to ensure that public health and safety of the travelers were

JetBlue Airways, the latest entrant in the airlines industry has gone through the initial stages (entrepreneurial and collectivity) of the organizational life cycle rapidly under the successful leadership of David Neelman. JetBlue Airways is currently in the formalization stage of the life cycle where in it needs to create procedures and control systems to effectively manage its growth. Also as it proceeds to grow further to reach the elaboration stage, JetBlue needs to continue to align itself with the environment in order to maintain its sustained growth.

The figure obviously had not return to pre-crisis level. Moreover, recent commodity prices had fallen significantly which will affect Australia’s short and long term economy.

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).

Qantas is Australia’s largest domestic and international airline. Although Qantas is primarily a passenger airline, air freight is also an integral part of its core business. Other Qantas operations include catering, tourism and E-commerce devoted to transport and travel. In order to have an effective business and operations process, a company, like Qantas must be aware of the influences that can affect it. By being aware of the influences it enables the business to make decision and choices that can get the most out of each influence, by doing this it can assist the business in its endeavours for 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

Flight Centre describes itself as a global discount flight specialist. Taking into consideration the relative size of the Australian and international operations as well as the availability of information on global environment and competitive factors, for this analysis, it is more appropriate to consider the Flight Centre’s industry environment as “The Australian international and domestic airline

The Australian aviation industry faced toughest operating environment in the past 2 years driven by increased capacity in the domestic and global market, weak consumer sentiments after repetitive plane crashes, the ever rising and unstable oil prices and the economic uncertainty prevailing due to global economic crisis. Qantas introduced transformations in the form of maximising cost reduction, right-sizing fleet and network by reducing the staff, working existing assets harder, deferring growth, aligning capital expenditure to financial performance and accelerating simplification which are hard yet necessary precautions to be maintained for a profitable and sustainable future (Anon., 2014, p. 5). Qantas recorded $204 millions of benefits in the second half of 2013/14 due to the transformations even though Qantas recorded a loss of $646 million loss before tax, associated with an increase in fuel price by $253 million compared to 2012/13 and revenue decline of $550 million. Demand reduced drastically in the domestic market with decrease in consumer spending as an impact of low business activity in mining and government sectors (Anon., 2014, p. 6). Qantas introduced leaner, focussed and sustainable transformation reducing unit cost by 3%, and only if there is relative international and domestic capacity growth,

Since the 1980s the situation in the civil aviation industry has changed dramatically, and although the government still retains some form of in-direct control over the aviation sector and the ‘former’ national airlines in specific, issues related to economization and efficiency of the business enterprise take primacy in dictating strategic and operational decisions of the airline operators. This shift in the approach to the regulation of the aviation sector around the globe has also greatly influenced issues related to workforce organization in this industry, especially in the Western world.

Launched just 8 years ago, today, the Jetstar Group consists of a network of value-based air carriers that deliver high quality air passenger services for budget-minded travelers across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region. Beginning with just 400 employees, the company currently employs more than 7,000 people and carries about 20 million passengers a year. To gain some insights into how the Jetstar Group achieved this impressive growth in such a short amount of time, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning the air passenger industry in general and the business strategy used by the Jetstar Group in particular. A summary of the research and recommendations for this company are provided in the paper's conclusion.

The purpose of this report is to examine Virgin Blue’s external environment followed by its impacts to the organization as well as how management functions could help overcome the external environment for the organization to compete properly in the domestic airline market.

Jetstar Airways is an Australian low-cost airline headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.[3][4] It is a subsidiary of Qantas, created in response to the threat posed by low-cost airline Virgin Blue (now known as Virgin Australia). The airline operates an extensive domestic network as well as regional and international services from its main base at Melbourne Airport,[5] using a mixed fleet of Airbus A320 family and Airbus A330 aircraft. Parent company Qantas also has stakes in sister companies Jetstar Asia Airways and Valuair in Singapore, Jetstar Pacific Airlines in Vietnam and the new Japanese carrier Jetstar Japan. Jetstar shares its parent's strong competition with Australia's biggest low-cost carrier Virgin Australia. Both Tiger

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).

The price of fuel is now the greatest cost for many airlines. An upward spike can destabilize the business model.