Lufthansa: Going Global, but How to Manage Complexity

In today’s world the Prisoners’ Dilemma is a common phenomenon in business, politics and in social life as well. This paper will analyze a real life example. It will describe the airplane manufacturing industry and their two giant manufacturers: Airbus and Boeing. The two companies find themselves in a business environment where both parties take the others decision into consideration and act in respect of those. The companies can have two choices: to cooperate with each other for higher

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).

First, the organization can deliberate on the procurement of other minor aircraft to strengthen its position in target markets to further conquer more market shares, e.g., it may invest or acquire local carriers and further upgrade their whole deal flights. As such, clients can select its subsidiary local auxiliaries or via utilization as reciprocal. The Dragonair is a fabulous example demonstrated by its actions. Accordingly, clients will be availed to possess the capacity to choose to agilely orchestrate their routes with Cathay Pacific Airways at all levels arranging from provincial to worldwide.

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 “ Battle Of The Air” has been used to describe current situation in the airline industry. The emergence of “ No Frills “ discount carriers such as Air Asia, Mahlindo, Firefly have threatened the survival of the traditional giants such as MAS, SIA, Thai Airways in the APAC regions and even the Big Boys across the continents such as United, Delta, Continental, Luftansa, Emirates and US Airway ( Myron J.Smith, 2012 ) face competition

Cooperation within alliances poses several challenges to managers: the size of the alliance, the need to intensify cooperation and the harmonization and standardization of common processes, and the search for synergies to reduce costs. However, in times of crisis, alliances do not necessarily prevent stiff competition between the partners. At present, five alliances – One World, Star, Wings, Sky Team and Qualiflyer stand out as the core groupings around which other airlines with strong regional networks will come together to form worldwide networks and can be described as global alliances. But they remain fragile creations subject to competing attractions and economic forces. Over the years, several companies have switched from one alliance to another. Austrian Airlines, for example, moved from the Qualiflyer to the Star alliance. Air France has recently floated the idea of creating a Mediterranean alliance with Alitalia and Iberia. To make this three-way deal possible, Iberia would have to leave the OneWorld alliance.

In today’s business industry, the globalization process has become an important aspect and fundamental force. The elements that contribute to globalization is the environment, culture, regulation and technology and production. While the advancements globalization has increased greatly, so has the advancements in airline industry with their aircraft (Shevell, 1999). Globalization also provides a great amount of potential profits to nations and their corporations (Button, 2008). Air transportation has evolved into a major industry (Kroo, 1999). The airline industry’s continuously grows and is facilitated through its international investment, tourism, world trade and economic growth (Kroo, 1999).

Global airline alliances in another issue included in Virgin’s external environment. Alliances benefit airlines in many ways as they enable them more market access, convergence of technologies and even help overcome legal barriers (Anon., 2009). One weakness for Virgin therefore is not being part of an alliance such as Oneworld Alliance (Anon., 2009), in order to take full advantage of its potential Virgin should look into adjusting their market strategy and look into joining an alliance, if not form its own.

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

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

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 2003, Lufthansa was facing intense competition from low-cost airline on short-haul domestic flights. In the fight for domination in the German skies, Lufthansa intend to match the low-cost rivals by expanding its own network of cut-price domestic and European services.

The strategic alliance between Qantas and Emirates was a result of a careful analysis of the airline industry and its involving competitors.

Competing through alliances in the airline industry: The AIR FRANCE- KLM/DELTA AIR LINES JOINT VENTURE

In the past few years, the commercial air carriers have formed strategic alliances with each other which were not possible before this due to the previous regulations.