The Process Of The Virgin Atlantic Decision Making Process

With the hopes for an economic upturn still remaining, it is recommended that the Virgin group approach and review, with great urgency, the matters outlined in this memo. Questions have been raised by many noted publications including the Economist and Marketing News regarding the current financial state, brand strength and future of the Virgin group. Many has quipped Mr. Branson and the Virgin group as over-exerting and extending company resources, capabilities and competencies beyond a controllable and unprofitable threshold. Many critics have pointed to Virgin’s brand losing goodwill and compromising core values due to the brand stretching. With over 20 holding companies

The first part of this report provides a broad introduction into the business of Virgin Australian by examining its principal sources of revenue, its nature of operating, its competitors, the market share and the regulations affecting its operations. From this, it can be seen that Virgin Australia operates in a very competitive environment and generates revenue by the core business of passenger and cargo transport.

As we know, Virgin Group is a multi-national conglomerate of the Virgin -branded companies that function globally in various industries. Today, Virgin-branded airlines comprise of: Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, Virgin Galactic and Virgin America. In this analysis we will look at the primary resources and core capabilities of Virgin Atlantic, identify the purposeful areas of the airline’s organization, which primary resources and core capabilities are located and its position to the airline’s business strategy and its objectives. Furthermore, reviewing how each resource and capabilities are organized and reinforced in a way that aligns with the airline’s economic advantages, and what prospects exist to exploit the key capabilities of Virgin

BA enjoyed great success during the 1980s and early 1990s, and as a result, became the world 's most profitable airline for the most part of the 1990s, representing itself under the slogan "The World 's Favourite Airline". (BA, 1)

The company I’m going to investigate is Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic is a British airline, which was founded almost 25 years ago; it is a leading player of Sir Richard Branson 's Virgin Group, who own 51% of it and Singapore Airlines owns 49%. Its headquarters are located in Crawley, West Sussex, England, near London Gatwick Airport, they also have Technical Engineering Centers and other buildings and offices for cargo and Logistics in Manchester and Norfolk. It operates between the United Kingdom and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia from main bases at Gatwick and London Heathrow Airport, using a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircrafts. Despite Virgin Atlantic’s growth the

Virgin Australia uses both the prospector strategy and analyser strategy to respond to market turbulence. Turbulence in the domestic airline market, as explained in section 2.1.2 of this report, ranges from moderate to surprising. This environment requires a combination of customer/competitor based and flexible/creative strategic management (Viljoen & Dann, 2003). Virgin Australia achieves this through its application of the prospector strategy, shown in its product development strategy outlined in section 4.1 of this report. This is combined with its use of the analyser strategy, shown in Virgin’s flexible organisational structure and measured approach to risk taking.

Today Virgin Atlantic finds itself in a year of change. With a new CEO at the helm, new aircraft arriving in the fall of 2014, and a new partnership, major changes are underway. 2013 saw pay freezes for personnel, eliminating a layer of management, redesign of food trays, and other cost cutting measures. The trend for 2014 has been to keep tightening the financial belt and reign in the high cost draining the company’s revenue. The implementation of the new routes with Delta should support the financial turnaround and help make Virgin Atlantic profitable again.

When we analysed Virgin Atlantic we saw that they were putting forward a luxurious brand identity with a price point to match. They are regarded as an expensive and high-service choice for people who are willing to spend a little bit more money in order to have a higher quality of customer service on their flight. This put them in the high-price, high-service quadrant along with many other competitors including British Airways.

To achieve the results desired for Virgin Airlines, the company must concentrate on expansion in domestic niche markets by adding aircraft and destinations. By focusing on expansion within the United States, Virgin America can expand in their specialty market without losing their touch as one of the best customer service airlines in the world. In order to achieve this, several alternatives must be considered to bring about the desired result by emphasizing the driving forces, and lessening the resistant ones.

Virgin Atlantic has been maintained by the innovativeness and offering of quality services to the customers. Promotion of growth and attracting new customers are the main reasons behind the marketing plan. The plan has been produced for 3-5 year period to improve the future of the business. Virgin Atlantic saw the need to improve and expand the airline services offered in the country, ensuring that quality, faster and convenient services are guaranteed to the customers.

In July 2017, news headlines hit the airwaves and the internet regarding Sir Richard Branson giving up control of the 33 years old airline, Virgin Atlantic (Bkaskara, 2017). Apparently, the air carrier industry has experienced increased competitiveness. Low cost rivals are putting pressure on traditional transatlantic carriers, which has made Virgin Atlantic, once a trailblazing carrier, to struggle. In 2012, Delta Air Lines came to the rescue of the carrier in a joint venture, taking up 49 percent of the company (Stothard, 2017). Even so, in the July 2017 alliance, Branson, according to Stothard (2017) gave up his control as a part of a wide-ranging disturbance of the airline carrier industry that will see Delta Air Lines, Air France-KLM, and China Eastern intensify their alliances. The aim of the airline is ‘to embrace the human spirit and let it fly’ (Virgin Atlantic, 2016). Its main focus has been on services such as safety and security, for its 5.4 million customers flown in 2016 (Virgin Atlantic, 2016). To enhance its efficiency, Virgin Atlantic has implemented various strategic management practices to achieve competitive advantage and growth.

Objective of this study is to evaluate the Virgin Australia Airline within the low cost airline industry. To enhance the great understanding of the Virgin Australia, the paper provides literature reviews on the company.

Table of ContentExecutive Summary1I. Introduction2II. Main Body1. History of British Airways22. Current strategic situation….42.1 Internal analysis42.2 External Analysis52.3 SWOT82.4. Current strategy93. Potential Strategic options124. Recommended strategic direction with rationale164.2 Strategy Evaluation175. Identification of critical success factors186. Performance measurement criteria197. Conclusion218. Bilbliography249. References24Executive SummaryThe main aim of this report is to undertake a review and analysis of British Airways. It is UK's leading airlines both at international and domestic level, with its operations spread over 300 destinations across the world. The report starts with a brief description of the company. Then the

The airline industry is one that has rapidly evolved both with regards to technology and product offerings. This paper argues that technological advancements, deregulation and competitive pricing and marketing strategies are what have driven change in regards to both Easy Jet airlines. Segmentation, targeting and positioning have also played a profound role within the evolution of the industry. Many companies, particular those that are broad based have experienced difficulties from more niche players. Low cost producers such as JetBlue and Southwest have developed targeted strategies that cater to a specific market. The paper goes on to explain how each of these factors affects and drives the strategic positioning of Easy Jet. Deregulation occurred to increase competition; competition in turn affects innovation in marketing and pricing as well as technology, yet this process has no specific order with regards to where the change starts as innovation and competition, can then affect the way the market is regulated (Morrison, 1995). The document first begins with a comprehensive industry analysis which discusses pricing changes and segmentation within the market. Yet with the advent of the Internet, brick and mortar travel agencies became basically obsolete as more and more passengers began choosing the cheaper online alternative. This new technology cut out the middleman, and also allowed airline industries to diminish their own costs by diminishing personnel,

After a century of perpetual development [1], the commercial airline industry has witnessed a steady increase in airplane passenger capacity [2]. The industry itself is a notable economic force, from the perspectives of both operations and its impacts on relevant industries such as aircraft construction and tourism [3]. Different scales of wealth has led to market segmentations between airline companies with dissimilar objectives and consumer focus: premium airlines like Singapore Airlines offering top-notch service, comfort, and quality at a higher price whilst low-cost airlines such as easyJet are catering to consumers that prefer economical flights.