Swot Analysis of Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines in a major American airline company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company was founded on May 30, 1924. They operate as an extensive domestic and international network. Delta currently operates a fleet of more than 700 aircraft and they employ approximately 80,000 people. In 2011 they were the world’s largest airline in terms of fleet size. Delta Airlines is a very successful company. Part of what makes them so successful is expansion, making good decisions in route selection and hubs location, being service oriented, having a strong operation management, being reactive in terms of prices, and offering low fares.

Delta airlines have multilateral and formed alliances with other airlines. This is beneficial since the airline is able to gain access to international airlines. By forming alliance, the airlines share

What makes Delta airlines unique is their participation within charitable groups. The employees at Delta Airlines list as one of the top donors of blood to the American Red Cross (Delta, 2016). The employees of Delta also partnered up with a Humanitarian group to help build homes for families as well as volunteered their time through community sponsored events that Delta has had. United way has also been funded by Delta (Delta, 2016). These are just some of the charitable things that Delta has contributed to. Their client base it simple; meaning there client based is for anyone who chooses to use their services. They have a variety of options for their customers when purchasing tickets such as flying economy class, business class and or first class. Each class comes with a certain advantage such as flying first class, you have more seat space and along with accelerated check in and baggage handling. Delta Airlines like others have many competitors. One of their main competitors who is trying to thrive within the industry is

Delta Airlines is the largest airline carrier on the Atlantic Coast. In terms of scheduled passengers carried they were world’s largest airline with 277.6 billion in 2013. Also the second largest

How has SWA (a) responded to the “Shuttle By United” initiative (half page 5 points); and (b) what assessments can be made about SWA’s market and financial position on competitive routes based on 1994 4th quarter results (half page 5 points)?

Delta airlines offer very comprehensive products and services including, Baggage services, check-in,ecertificate programs, In-flight services, pet care, and services for a person with special needs.

Technological advancements, mergers and acquisitions, volatility in crude oil prices, currency depreciation, ground staff management and baggage handling are the major external factors for Delta Air Lines. The Monroe oil refinery purchased by Delta Air Lines provides an opportunity for the company to deal with the volatility in crude oil prices. Presently Delta Airline is over dependent on the North American markets, which had experienced a major hit during the recession in 2008.

C.E. Woolman, the first leader of Delta Air Lines, believed that the company should take care of its employees so that, in return they would take care of customers. At the root of this care included effectively communicating with his teams and empowering them to make the right decisions. As Debra Nelson and James Quick reference in Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World, and You, (2013, p. 283) “…communication, especially between managers and employees, is a critical foundation for effective performance in organizations…this is especially critical when leaders are articulating vision and achieving buy-in from employees.” The buy-in that Woolman received from his employees stemmed from his intentional engagement with them and expectation to provide the best customer service in the airline industry. Throughout its history, Delta has deliberately engaged its employees and has modeled a human resource management (HRM) system, which is the “term increasingly used to refer to the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of an organization’s employees” (Sims, 2002, p. 2). The HRM system at Delta has impacted its organizational structure, corporate communications, and shared decision making.

This report provides an examinaion of the current structure, performance, stragergy and management of Delta Airlines, along with an industry analysis of the airline industry. The report uses current and past financial and statistical data for the company along with other up to date material to determine Delta's current market position and future potential.

Delta “focuses on shifting their cost structure from fixed to variable costs as much as possible.” (https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/delta-airlines-flying-high-in-a-competitive-industry/) Delta also understands the importance the importance of delivering top notch customer service to appeal to their principal demographic, business travelers. They have incorporated a training work-shop so employees have a better understanding of how to solve travel disruptions that customers deal with. Employees also learn how to help insure that baggage performance is up to par with a low amount of mishandled bags reports from customers. Delta has done this by incorporating a way for customers to track their bags using a mobile app. In the Business Travel News Delta has been ranked #1 by corporate flyers for four years in a row. I believe the business level strategies that Delta has incorporated have been a good choice for their business. Their strategies have helped them to gain a competitive advantage from customer service and great operating cost flexibility.

Delta’s stock is greater than the S&P 500 index. It has been increasing from 2011 to 2015 closets to 4.60. Comparing with the competitors, the companies keep increasing their stock prices which indicates a steady source of income for investors. Delta comes second after American because American has been increasing their stock prices.

This, along with the fleet maintenance costs and gate acquisition costs are unavoidable costs. The main challenge for Southwest is to optimize its operations such as to make maximum utilization of resources and thus cut back on the operating costs. The practice of paying salaries higher than the industry average is also a concern because the employees now expect such benefits from the airlines.

From the humble financial portfolio as a crop dusting outfit in the mid twentieth century, to the multi-billion dollar portfolio of a major airline in the twenty first century, Delta Air Lines has risen as a successful business. The airline industry is directly affected by outside economic conditions and is also cyclical in nature. These factors make it very difficult for airlines to make predictions to stay financially afloat. Delta has ridden the bumpy path of the last twenty years and managed to survive. In the past twenty years there has been many events that

2. Why have all of the low-cost subsidiaries of full-service airlines, including Delta Express, failed?

bankruptcy protection bigger and better than ever. It also solidified American Airlines as the largest airline in the world. This merger has become to cornerstone of American Airlines affecting all areas of the organization both internal and external.