Strategy and Organization at Singapore Airlines

In the local region, Qantas managed to outweigh its competitor by gaining a toll of 65% compared to its competitor. Evidently this shows Qantas is the number one preferred airlines compared to other competitor airlines like Virgin, Tiger Airways and Emirates airlines. However the situation is not the same in South East Asian region as Qantas only managed to obtain about 15% of market share compared to likes of Air Asia who leads the market share with 60% in this region. Conversely, this is not a concern for the airlines as the airlines managed to generate revenue of 5 billion dollars, with a predicted passenger growth of 4.9% which is equivalent to 2.9 billion passengers by 2034.

The day of 9/11 sparked the attention of the aviation industry, citing that it will never be the same again. Different sectors

This paper discusses the impacts of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the aviation industry. Specifically, how aviation industry members were forced to alter their marketing mix in response to the events. The four "P 's" of marketing were all modified. The airlines had to change their product (route structures) and their prices. They also had to change their promotion tactics to ease the customer 's "fear factor". Lastly they had to alter the means of delivering their product to the consumer due to enhance security measures (place).

The situation of the U.S airlines has been affected by a number of factors through time and is not a secret that has been passed by moments difficult, especially in the economic part. One of these factors were the terrorist’s attacks of 911. No other event in history has changed the way of doing business that the fateful events of September 11, 2001. Apart from the significant human loss, the millionaire impact to the economy of New York and in the United States and multi-million dollar expenditure associated with the global war against terrorism, attacks on the World Trade Center (World Trade Center or WTC) in New York and the Pentagon trembled the authority of the United States, at a time when it was going through a recession. All this made

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

The terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 will have a permanent affect on the global culture. Nearly every decision, process, design in the aviation community will be affected from these attacks. The masterminds behind these attaches could not have envisioned how much the world would change from these acts.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is one of the leading companies in the airline industry. They are well-known for their customer service. The basis of the philosophy of SIA is the fact that the quality of service will decide the success or failure of an organization. The management believes in providing value for the money the passengers pay. They recognize the vital role of the employees in this endeavor (Wyckoff, 1989). A well-managed organization considers satisfied and motivated employees as the basic source of improvement and success (Tella, Ayeni, & Popoola, 2007). Like any other organization, the SIA has room for improvement, in their new crew policies, advertising, and practices in retraining. These improvements could enhance them in the eyes of their employees and customers. To bring about improvements, there need to be some changes. The change processes are always associated with dilemmas and challenges. The efficiency of the change efforts and a democratic leadership are important in the resolution of the dilemmas and meeting the associated challenges. The desirable traits of such change efforts include awareness and acceptance of the need for change, foresight, team building aiming at the growth of people (Frandsen, 2014). For example, if the management recognizes and acknowledges the need for periodical retraining of the new employees in the interaction with the passengers, and arrange provision for this, the crew will become efficient in this skill. They will be more

SIA has strengths that are certainly unmated by the competitors, however, SIA still have weaknesses. Particularly, SIA’s investment in low cost airlines, such as Tigerair has reduced the company’s profitability, according to Air Transport World, 2014. Singapore Airlines’ attempt to penetrate into other

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.

So what did SWA know that no other airline knew? It kept things simple and consistent, which drove down costs, maximized productive assets, and managed customer expectations. SWA thought differently than most carriers as it viewed its main competition as the car and bus; therefore, it concentrated its energy and thinking around this strategy. It focused on point-to-point, non-stop flying where other carriers relied on a hub-and-spoke system, which collected

Global events such as wars, terrorist attacks and pandemic health threats have a massive impact on the aviation industry. Terrorism can have massive impact on a region, particularly after a terrorist attack, such as 9/11, not only does the world economy drop but a huge impact is also felt throughout the aviation industry. A terrorists primary aim is to instill fear within a group of people (Einav 2003). As was seen after 9/11 where passengers dropped worldwide by 4% due to fear of flying (Costa, Harned et al. 2002).

On the other hand governments support aviation industry by building airports, roads and hotels near airports, because they recognize this industry as an important ingredient for economic well-being. In addition governments arrange security at the airports to ensure safe journey. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have had negative implications for the industry. Over the years, all the airlines have changed their routes, marketing tactics and prices; they are also making an effort to reduce the fear and negative image associated with air-planes. Governments have imposed strict security checks on air travel passengers in order to avoid any unforeseen terrorist activity.

Airline suppliers expands drastically in their research and development in order to bring new levels of comfort and new fleets in order to boost sales. And again by bring in new fleets, it gives customer a sense of security. New developments made a huge impact on Singapore Airlines. Its carrier are the very few with younger fleets in the market and on top of that it’s the first to adopt new innovations such as reclining seats and seatback entertainment system with headsets.

As public biggest airline company in Singapore, Singapore Airline has several key business activities ranging from engineering, flight services until cargo services, but their main activity is more on flight services. Singapore Airline is relying heavily on Singapore financial system to operate their business. One of the evidence is that SIA benefiting from the financial market as the company’s share has been listed in SGX. As stated on Singapore Airline Annual Report, SIA has a cash surplus for the past 10 years on average………. Singapore financial system has help this company to grow and develop rapidly by their financial market, institutions and instrument, which will be discussed further later.

SIA has long been considered an innovator and driving force in services provided by major airlines. This dedication to serving the customer has been long ingrained into the employees at SIA, dating back to the company lore of providing the first inflight service when a pilot passed around a flask to the passengers within the cabin (Jick, T. & Peiperl, M., 2011.) This lore however, has been an integral part of the model employed by SIA: while customer service is led by those employees on the frontlines, it is ultimately provided by every employee. SIA realized this and began implementing customer service training programs to every department/ or job throughout the organization, integrating the emphasis on customer service needs into every aspect of the organization, to where it has become the norm (Anonymous, Strategic Direction, 2009.) Not only did SIA implement training programs such as “Transforming Customer Service” but SIA also allowed (and