Porter's Five Forces Of Competition Model In The Airline Industry

With only a few large companies across the globe (Boeing, MD, and Airbus), the commercial aircraft industry essentially exhibits the qualities of an oligopolistic competition with intense rivalry. Here is an analysis of competition in the commercial aircraft business using Porter’s Five Forces.

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

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.

1. There are a few trends in the US airline industry. One is consolidation, wherein existing players merge in an attempt to lower their costs and generate operating synergies. The most recent major merger was the United Continental merger, which is still an ongoing affair, but has created the largest airline in the United States by market share (Martin, 2012). Another trend is towards low-cost carriers. In the US, Southwest has been a long-running success and JetBlue a strong new competitor, but in other countries this business model has proven exceptionally successful. The third major trend is the upward trend in jet fuel prices, and the increasing importance that this puts on hedging fuel prices and capacity management (Hinton, 2011).

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.

Since the merger of U.S. Airways and American Airlines, most people would now agree we are living in the age of airline oligopoly. Oligopolies form when there’s a state of restricted competition, and new companies cannot break into the industry for reasons like high-entry costs or government restrictions. This is the condition of the airline industry, today. In order to breach the oligopolistic nature of the airline industry, airlines must be able to break through high barriers to entry such as: retaining substantial capital requirements, having the need for technical and technological ingenuity and jurisdiction of patent rights. In addition, airplanes must be purchased, employees must be trained and facilities must be procured. Even after all these expenditures, some airlines still experience substantial financial losses. As a result, most of these airlines experiencing a financial hardship are subject to an airline merger. For this reason, the major airlines in the United States now consist of four competing large carriers: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. These companies have survived the deregulation of the airline industry and sustained their places at the top of the industry. In an effort to stand out in an oligopolistic industry, airlines must experience: economy of scale, growth through merger, mutual dependence and price rigidity and non-price competition.

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 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

Airline industry is the major engine powering the globalization of businesses and services. Prior to 1970’s, the airline industry was mainly owned and controlled by the governments in different countries. There was no free market competition as travelers have to make do with the services and prices available to them from the few airlines. But with the deregulation of the airline industry that swept across the world after 1970, entry barriers were lowered allowing new start-up of many airline companies, thus engendering competition in the airlines industry. This has led to competitions in various fronts, especially in prices and services provided onboard the flight. This competition has led to formulation of various business modules and the re-strategizing of the already existing and new start-up companies, in order for them to survive the new business environment. The operating environment of the airline industry continues to evolve, thereby presenting a significant challenge for the survival of the industry. Different models and frameworks have been formulated for analyzing the operating environment of various industries. In analyzing the operating environment, it is vital to indentify the different factors that might affect the organization cost, supply and demand. PEST (Political, Economical, Social and Technological) is one of the framework used for analyzing the macro-environment affecting organizations in a

The barriers for this industry are high. When looking at the five forces the first to consider is the thread of substitutes. Other modes of transportation could pose a threat but would be dependent on your perspective competitive advantage point. Rail and bus are threats for land travel and boat and ship pose a threat for marine travel. As far as bargaining power of buyers, this industry faces strong buyers powers due to the presence of existing buyers as well as advancements and innovation in technology. The barriers to enter the industry grant high bargaining power to the suppliers and some aircraft are only available by a few suppliers. The competitive rivalry is high because of the different competitive strategies that are employed for market share increases. The growth rate within the incrase is low and fixed cost within the industry are very

Having conducted research on Porter’s Five Forces Model and the current business climate of the airline industry, I will be analyzing the industry using the Five Forces Model. Porter’s Five Forces model is a highly recognized framework for the analysis of business strategy. Five forces are derived from the model that attempts to determine the competitive intensity, competitive environment and overall attractiveness of an industry. The framework is based on five forces that describes the attributes of an attractive industry and suggests when opportunities will be the greatest and threats the least within an industry. The five forces include

Buyers have a high power. They are knowledgeable about the price and have lots of choices. Suppliers’ power is high since there only two major plane manufacturers. Barriers to entry are high due to low margins and high up-front costs. Totally, competition is high with few major players and lots of cost-cut players. Overall Consumers have many choices and cost/ Differentiation is a critical competitive factor (Appendix

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

In the airline markets, SIA has strong competition from not only Asia areas, airlines but also many international brand airlines such as United Airlines and American airlines (best airlines in American for 2012). Although SIA has a great brand reputation with global markets, but it also continually develops the new equipment in the busy airline industry to provide the new attractive point for increasing the customer satisfaction.