Threat Of Substitutes : Low For Australian Domestic Airline

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.

Suppliers generally have a moderate to high bargaining power within the industry due to the limited number of suppliers which forces aviation companies to choose from the number available and accordingly to accept their prices. In fact, fuel is the second highest cost for aviation companies. There are highly depended on supplier’s prices and the availability which indicates on a relatively high bargaining power of suppliers. In addition, there are high switching costs which are strongly in favor of the suppliers and means that the company experiences an increase in operating costs when switching to another supplier as flying another type of aircraft leads to additional costs (maintenance, training etc.).Aircrafts are vulnerable to delays due to the location of gate locations which leads to a decrease in utilization and therefore to an increase in costs.

Rivalry among industry competitors has caused attention to be focused on tariff levels. Airfare prices were at an all time low in 2009. This suggested a strong competitive rivalry based on price differentiation. This price differentiation will cause a dramatic loss in revenue if these prices continue to drop and this would lead to a reduced competitiveness. In an effort to safeguard revenue and reduce expenditure, Qantas has developed a strategy to deal with a change in the external competitive environment. .

At the moment Australian passenger airline industry is dominated by thee large domestic carriers: Quantas, Jetstar and Virgin Blue.

Competitive rivalry: Airline industry can be characterized as imperfect oligopoly. There are several big airlines that dominate in long-distance flights and several smaller airlines compete for short-distance flights. The competition and price sensitive buyers lower the returns airlines receive. This market situation is favorable for a company like JetBlue, which differentiated itself by comfort at low price, but this can be easily duplicated by other companies.

Virgin Australia which was formerly called Virgin Blue is the Australia’s second largest airline. The airline was started in 2000 by British business tycoon Sir Richard Branson and former Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey. The airlines started as low-cost carrier, but went on to become a “new-world carrier” (Virgin Blue media release, 2011). This low cost airline went on to become a full-service airline by 2012 with the name of Virgin Australia. Since the year 2000 the airlines grew rapidly and posed threat to Qantas airline and over the years Virgin Blue looking at the marketing trends and characteristics of the aviation industry grew into a Full Service Airline and is considered a four star airline by research consultancy firm Skytrax.

Market structure can be defined as patterns of behaviour by enterprises in an effort to adjust to the markets in which they operate (buy or sell). Pricing strategies and collusive behaviour mergers are a few dimensions of market conduct. It is the industry norm for a legacy carrier to offer service to most popular destinations; Delta reducing routes to a similar schedule as the low-cost airlines is not an option in the multi-billion dollar industry. In order to gain market share from low-cost airlines, Delta must create a value proposition that differentiates itself from its competitors. Many customers will pay a premium if the level of service provided is higher than the low-cost, no-frills

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.

With regards to competition within the industry, British Airways' position is strong, even though competition if very strong in the short route sector due to a larger number of smaller competitors and the consolidation of certain competitors. Over time, in the long route sector there is very little difference in prices between the company and its competitors.

Oligopoly Behavior in the Airline Industry. Case Analysis This case illustrates the pricing behavior of firms that are oligopoly whose market is characterized by the relative few participating firms offering differentiated or standardized products or services. Such firms in an oligopoly have market power derived from barriers of entry that wards off potential participants. As seen in the case, it is clear that because there are a small number of US Airlines firms competing with each other, their behavior is mutually interdependent – thus, the strategies and decisions by one airline management affect managements of the other airlines whose subsequent decisions then affect the first airline. In the airline industry, such oligopolistic

Owned by parent company Qantas, the Jetstar Group is comprised of a network of value-based air carriers that deliver passenger services across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region (About Jetstar, 2012). The Jetstar Group's most recent five-year strategy has been to "turn the international business around [by] reducing investment in underperforming business areas and directing capital towards growth opportunities" (Qantas Reports Strong Full-Year Profit in Challenging Conditions, 2011). In addition, the Jetstar Group intends to "focus on improving the customer experience, develop a stronger and broader alliance

Virgin Australia is Australia’s second largest domestic airline, commenced in operations back in 2000 as a low-cost carrier (LCC) and has successfully survived in the market. Major shareholders include Air New Zealand, Singapore Airline and Etihad Airways. The airline rebranded in 2011 as a part of their 5-year turnaround

The threat of new entrants in the airline industry is very low for Virgin Atlantic, this is because the barrier for both high entry and exit barrier is very high. These barriers can stop new airlines not to enter into the industry. The entry and exit can be difficult for Virgin because there are a number of regulatory factors. For new airlines to enter, there must be large capital investment human resources that are skilled

Through s Porters Five Forces analysis (Figure 1 – Appendices) the greatest threat for Qantas is the rivalry. Qantas is taking advantage of this opportunity as through the alliance it creates greater certainty for the shareholders while also being able to increase its numbers in international routes to 33 one-stop destinations in Europe in addition to 31 one-stop destinations in the Middle East and North Africa (Ryan, 2012). Additionally, as competition was putting pressure on the market while Qantas was restricted by financial reasons, this alliance came as a great opportunity. Furthermore, from 31st of March Qantas frequent flier point users were able to book Emirates flights while the customers’ high status with Qantas was recognized at Emirates as well. Lastly, on European, Asian and African destinations Qantas mirrored Emirates baggage policies (from 20kg to 30kg) (Panaus Travel, 2013).

The growth of airline industry in any country is directly proportional to its GDP growth; the greater the business activity, the more air travel and the higher the GDP of the country. The demand