Porter's 5 Forces on Airline Industry

This document will be using Porter’s Five Forces Model and a Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) analysis to conduct an external analysis on Southwest Airlines.

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).

In order to determine whether the Five Forces are still applicable, this part will analyse Industry in general concerning structural changes due to Digitalization. Because of Digitalization, another two forces significantly affect the competition which are Globalization and Deregulation. The impact of Globalization on the Industry structure is the customers gain benefit as comparing global prices become much easier and faster in from the Globalization process (Dalken, 2014).

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.

A. Describe the environment, as viewed by Michael Porter’s model of competitive forces, that Valuejet was trying to compete in. consider competition, suppliers, customers, new entrants, substitute products? The five competitive forces that shape strategy are competition, suppliers, customers, new entrants, substitute products. Michael E. Porter demonstrates how the five competitive forces can be used in any industry. The results from all five forces not only look at the narrow aspect of competition rivals but as well as broader aspect of competitive interaction within an industry. These five competitive forces can also be used in the case of Valuejet. Competition within the airline industry is highly

Power rests with the suppliers in the form of price and quality of supplies. Suppliers can increase the price or lower the quality of their goods and services. The power of supplier in the Indian airline industry is immense because of the three major inputs from the supplier are all affected by the external environment. These 3 factors and the power of supplier for each component is explained below.

The Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors – Since the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 over 1,300 new airlines have opened for business. However, most now are bankrupt or merged with the other carriers to stay workable. The established giants were Delta (merged with Northwest), American Airlines (merged with U.S. Airways), United Airlines (merged with Continental), and now Alaska Airlines (merged with Virgin America). Now the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are posing a massive threat which includes Southwest Airlines (merged with Air Tran), and JetBlue.

Understanding the adversarial nature of the airline industry is very important in helping us understand and evaluate British Airways' current position in the industry and how Porter's Five Forces Model can assist the company in increasing its profitability by making better strategic decisions.

The main reason for the low-cost subsidiaries’ failure is the airlines’ corporate strategy. By launching a LCC as a unit inside the same corporate structure (e.g., single scheduling and pricing centre for United Airlines’ and Shuttle’s low–cost flights), traditional airlines limited the LCC’s flexibility and independence. By building a low-cost carrier on top of a traditional carrier cost-structure, the parent company was also tempted to think low-cost when setting ticket prices, but not trying (or being able) to reduce traditionally high costs: the airline had now two unsustainable business models instead of one!

The Airline Industry is in an interesting situation. Simply adding a low cost alternative is not enough in the industry. The Internet has made the power of buyers grow with the transparency of ticket prices. This is not something that will change any time soon. Because of this profitability is predominately reserved for low-cost yet distinctive carriers. No consumer wants to ride what they consider a “lesser” airline. Airlines need a way to distinguish themselves from one another while also acknowledging the increased power of buyers.

The implications of this analysis are that the focus on the Chinese market is justified. The Chinese air travel industry is booming, and indeed this is fueled by that country's rapid growth and the increased demand for

Buyers have more power when they are large-volume buyers, the product is a significant aspect of the buyer's costs or purchases, the products are standard within an industry, there are few switching costs, the buyers earn low profits, potential for backward integration of the buyer group exists, the product is not essential to the buyer's product, and the buyer has full disclosure about supply, demand, prices, and

For example, Boeing and Airbus supply most commercial aircraft. The concentration within the suppliers segment of the industry makes it very difficult for competitors to exercise leverage over another supplier and obtain lower prices. The power of the supplier is one key in prohibiting the ability of competitors to earn higher profits.

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

The bargaining power of buyers is affected by the concentration and number of consumers, when buyer power is strong, they gain the power to choose between producers and ultimately equip themselves with bargaining power which then the producers will have to conform to in order to produce profit, under these conditions the buyer has the most influence in determining the price of products. Also when buyers have strong bargaining power in the exchange relationship, competition can be affected in several ways. Powerful buyers can bargain for lower prices, better