Case 2: Regional Airlines
Case 2: Regional Airlines
Case Introduction
A+ for effort, Customer Service Pays for Itself In an extremely regulated and thus relatively uniform industry such as the commercial airline industry, the successful airline is the organization which sets itself apart from the competition. Within an industry that requires customer planning to interface with flight schedules and security measures, a major operational aspect which can aid an airline in gaining an edge on the competition is customer service. The effective consumption of air travel (finding flights, buying tickets, getting through the airport, boarding a plane, and finally reaching the final destination) is not the same simple consumer –supplier
…show more content…
The salient issue of the case is determining what the appropriate level of investiture to make for the phone system to provide an expected (and beneficial) level of customer service
Group Discussion
Exploring Simulations
Simulation is a quantitative technique developed for studying alternative courses of action by building a model of that system and then conducting a series of repeated trial and error experiments to predict the behavior of the system over a period of time (Srivastava, Shenoy, & Sharma, 1989, p. 753). Of all the simulations waiting line simulations are of the most important to the customer service industry. In the airline industry long waiting times can lead to poor customer service scores and diminished sales. Regional Airlines is establishing a new telephone system for handling flight reservations (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, Camm, & Martin, 2012). The airlines main goal is to decrease the wait time at its call centers and increase sales. Regional’s management team agrees that its goal should be to answer 85% of its incoming calls immediately. The following analyzes Regional Airline’s (RA) current reservation system and ways to improve it.
Analysis of Current System
Currently RA is answering one call every 3.75 minutes during 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. time period (λ (average arrival
The airline industry has long attempted to segment the air travel market in order to effectively target its constituents. The classic airline model consists of First Class, Business Class and Economy, and the demographics that make up the classes have both similarities and differences to the other classes. For instance there may be similarities between business class travellers on a particular flight, but they will not all be travelling for the same reason. An almost-universal characteristic of air travel is that customers do not fly for the sake of flying; the destination is the important element and the travel is a by-product, a means-to-an-end that involves the necessity of an aircraft that gets the customer from point A to point B.
For the engine cost, there is also a positive correlation thus; increase in this cost may also vary in the increase in average age of fleet per hour. However, on this cost, only 61% is determined in the regression equation. Like in the airframe cost, there will be additional 2.6 in cost for every hour of average age in thousands.
Customers must use the internet to fill out an online form to address their complaints or service needs. These forms are processed by employees in your department. Currently the turnaround time on any given form is between four to eight hours. This creates a number of other customer complaints. Project Call Center is designed to reduce this turnaround time by 75% by creating and staffing a call center in Tampa. Building acquisition, building renovations, building fit out, IT system upgrades, and hiring and training of staff are estimated to cost $8.5 million dollars. This $8.5 million dollars can be paid evenly in any two quarters in the next year. In addition, seven new employees will need to be hired at $40,000 burdened labor costs per year to staff the call center. Management of this project could easily be done with the current in-house staff. Most of the work of this project would be outsourced and will have minimal impact on day-to-operations.
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
1. The dominant characteristics of the U.S. regional airline industry are they are mostly controlled by larger airlines or have a contract with them to secure flights. . Most regional airlines are there for smaller communities to access a flight to the major hubs. Most of the regional airlines service to major airports, so they are connected or part of a servicing contract with national airlines, who in turn are part of the operations of the global airline industry. Smaller aircraft and retired aircraft from the national and global airline industry are used for regional flights.
In an airline industry, customers form the core of the organisation and this is achieved by the level of customer satisfaction by voting for the airline. This expresses confidence in the airline. The airline to meet its customers expectations needs to ensure the following is adhered to:
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
This case analyses Prof. McPherson’s service experience with respect to two Airline carriers, which was not expected in this age of Network and Information Technology and also the service level expectations from the customers. First we analyze the setting/situation, issues Prof. McPherson experienced and his assumptions; and then try to address them. The bottom line: addressing such situations would improve efficiency, customer loyalty, brand name and increased profits
American Airlines (American) made four fundamental changes to its rates. First, it moved to a four-tier rate structure; American offered first-class rates and three tiers of coach: full-fare, 21-day advance purchase and 7-day advance purchase. Overall, it expected to reduce coach fares by 38% and first-class fares by 20% to 50%. Though full fare coach prices dropped by about 38%, advance-purchase fares dropped by 6% when compared to the advance purchase tickets already being offered. Through this fare structure, American also eliminated deep discount tickets. Second, American eliminated the negotiated discount contracts of many large
At the onset of the airline industry in the United States, major network airlines were the sole providers of air travel. This multifaceted industry was a difficult industry to break into as a consequence of “sophisticated customer segmentation, hub-and spoke models and costly information systems for reservations, fare wars and intense competition” (Thompson 2008). Shrinkage in airline ticket prices augmented the demand for airline travel. Many markets were simply deserted or over-looked by major network airlines; this is a region a fresh “second tier of service providers” could enter into. This endeavor proved to provide a consumer savings of billions per year. Thus in June of 1971, after a tumultuous battle with other Texas-based
Piedmont Airlines recently invested over $1 million in state of the art equipment and employee development in order to forecast and analyze the appropriate amount of discounted fares to offer per flight. The company discovered that by offering several discounted flights to consumers willing to book their travel well in advance of their departure date left many options available for the business traveler who needed to book much closer to the actual departure date. The analysis was the task of the Revenue Enhancement Department (RED) managed by Marilyn Hoppe. While this state of the art equipment was a step in the right direction, Marilyn believed that there were still a lot of subjective decisions being made and
The goal of this paper is to explain the prominent success of Southwest Airline in the United States through a single case study analysis making use of the McKinsey’s 7-S framework. Developed in the early 1980s at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, this framework looks at 7 internal factors (Structure, Strategy, Systems, Style, Staff, Skills, Super-ordinate goals) which, according to its authors, need to be aligned for an organization to be successful. In this paper, we will analyse each of its internal elements through the case study “Southwest Airlines in 2008, Culture, Values, and Operating Practices”.
In April 1992, American Airlines launched "Value Pricing" -- a radical simplification of the complex pricing structure that had evolved over more than a decade following deregulation of the U.S. domestic airline industry. American expected that the new pricing structure would benefit consumers and restore profitability to both American and the industry as a whole. The critical issue raised is: Would American's bold initiative work?
The airline which is categorized as a regional airline is known for its profitability and excellent customer service within the transportation industry (SWA, 2015).
However some operators have reversed this, and are paid by local governments to land at some airports, as they expect to gain economic benefits from this.