As a business strategy, company mergers have become commonplace as a business strategy; due to the nature of their business, airline mergers and the issues created by them have been very public news. As most airlines in the modern age are global companies, mergers are complicated and intricate and one of the most challenging issues is merging the culture of the two companies across the new organization, as an analysis of the United-Continental merger, which began in 2010 and concluded in 2012, will demonstrate. After reviewing the background of the merger, this paper will focus on issues faced by two major labor groups, pilots and flight attendants, and how those issues clashed with those of the opposing company. Continuing with how these …show more content…
In 2008, Delta and Northwest Airlines formed the then-world’s largest airline, and in 2013 American Airlines and US Airways merged; combining operations allowed the carriers to cut costs and increase revenue. Two years prior, Continental and United Airlines combined operations in a merger that formed an extensive route network, afforded expanded business relationships with suppliers and was expected to increase profit (Cederholm, 2014). Compared with the merger of Delta and Northwest, the United-Continental marriage faced numerous problems, with labor problems the most outstanding issue. System integration, technology systems, and union labor contracts caused other problems that eventually led to customer service deterioration, resulting in heavy fines levied by the Transportation Department. As most employees of both airlines belong to unions, merging the culture of both companies was the most problematic issue; merging the dollars and mechanics of both airlines was robotic but merging the cultures of employees was an issue on a different …show more content…
Another issue under negotiation was that of outsourcing, in which major airlines hire regional carriers to fly under their name, and provide feeder service to major hubs; this results in lost pilots’ jobs (Pletz, 2012). In negotiations, the pilots’ union hoped to recapture pilots’ jobs and boost pay by eliminating, or at least curtailing, this
The objective of this research report is to provide a thorough analysis of Alaska Airlines. In order to do this we chose to compare a similar company against them. The company in comparison is Spirit Airlines. Both companies compete in the same type of business through airline transportation. Many of their services include; security, safety, transportation of passengers as well as luggage, ensuring vehicle safety while in transit, concierge services, providing entertainment aboard plane, checking weather conditions prior to flight, and much more. All of the data gathered for this report was obtained from the company’s 10-k filings with the SEC.
Qantas is the 11th largest airline as of 2014 and ranked 1st in Australia, whose prime function is the quality transportation of passengers and airfreight across domestic and international routes. Qantas has been successful due to its innovative cost controlling of the business in expense minimisation. However as a result of this, the business has undergone capital-labour substitution and the casualisation of the workforce. This developed workers’ concerns of their remuneration, employment conditions and job security which caused the engineers and ground workers disputes in 2011. Qantas has responded to these workplace disputes with the strategies of negotiation, grievance procedures and tribunals within its contractual and legislative grounds.
whether or not that city had enough gates for the new carrier, and whether the
The company’s cultural change, which is still ongoing, may lead to a decrease in employees’ morale. As AirTran’s employees continue to embrace Southwest Airline culture, the issues emerges from this organizational change remain priority.
Magic Carpet Airlines (MCA) is in the midst of a collective bargaining negotiation with a union and this paper will present the case from the union’s side of the bargaining table. First, one must understand the meaning of collective bargaining negotiations; this is when both sides of the negotiations discuss wages and others perks and then come to an amicable agreement. Collective bargaining is not a simple negotiation process, because the employer and the union usually meet on more than one occasion, due to the fact that union negotiators must keep their members informed during the process and they must also present any offers to their constituents for a yes or no vote to accept said terms being offered by the employer. The textbook offered the Magic Carpet collective bargaining as a case study and students were asked to analyze the issues being negotiated, determine ways
If the short haul passenger was the backbone of Southwest Airlines success, then their 737s were the lifelines that supported it. By choosing the 737 as the airplane for all of Southwest's flights, the company saved time and resources in training its employees. The crew could be easily substituted for one another due to the extensive training on the 737. Low costs and, therefore, low fares are an enormous competitive advantage, when combined with their high-quality and loyal workforce. A very unique culture was found at Southwest Airlines among all of its employees.
In today's competitive marketplace, all firms are seeking ways to improve their overall performance. One such method of improvement, recently adopted by many firms, is benchmarking. Benchmarking is a technique used to evaluate internal business processes. "In this analysis, managers determine the firm's critical processes and outputs, baseline those processes, then compare the performance of each process against a standard outside the industry" (Bounds, Yorks, Adams, & Ranney 1994). To effectively improve a business process to world-class quality, managers must find a firm that is recognized as a global leader, not just the industry standard. Successful benchmarking requires tailor-made solutions, not just blind copying of another organization. Measurement and interpretation of data collected is the key to creating business process solutions.
"Problems" in the airline industry have not risen due to too much competition within the industry. To the contrary, Washington regulators should turn the industry loose in any more ways that it can. Lowering restrictions to enter the market place, emphasizing private ownership of aviation matters, and encouraging open and free competition within the scope of anti-trust law should be the goals of the Clinton Administration. Instead of heading towards re-regulation, Washington should get out of the airline business for good.
Many elements of Delta Airlines are described in detail, within this paper. There is a breakdown of the external and internal factors, using external and internal analysis. Porter’s Five forces are used to create the external analysis, and the key factors for Delta are power of buyers, and rivalry. Delta’s competitive advantages are identified as customer service, sustainability, brand image, strong strategic alliances, and corporate travel. Delta’s main issues are the low expansion in international markets, continuous changing of incentive program, and glitches within technology. Delta should expand more into the Chinese and African markets in order to gain market share within the airline industry.
1- Issues The main issue of this case is the lack of profits of the airline industry, an industry that should be more than profitable due to the large amount of customers, the necessity of using airlines’ services and the high prices charged by most of these airlines. What we are going to deal with is, why is this happening? And how is American airlines dealing with this problem?. To be able to discuss how American airlines wants to regain profitability, we must identify and analyse different issues such as, the company’s background, the airline industry as a whole, the demand for air travel, the marketing strategies, the distribution systems, pricing policies etc.
Before we discuss government intervention and its affect on an industry’s competition we must first seek to understand the five forces framework. The theory, discussed in 1979 by Micheal Porter seeks to evaluate the attractiveness of an industry. Throughout this essay I will explore the theory and then relate government action and its well-documented affects on the airline industry.
Alaska Airlines (ALK) is an airline holding company that operates in out of Seattle. Alaska Air runs a mainline division which focuses on domestic and international flights under the names of Virgin American and Alaska Airlines. Then there are the fees and cargo portion of the company and the regional affiliates. The main driver of the companies revenue is the mainline division. Alaska Airlines competes with western based airlines such as Sky West and more recently Delta as they attempt to expand.
Shortly after World War I, the U.S. Government discovered the abilities of the modern airplane and created the idea of utilizing aircraft to transport mail across the country. In 1917, Congress approved funding to experiment with the idea of delivering mail by air. By 1920, the Post Office was delivering mail across the entire country, eliminating over 22 hours in delivery times of a coast-to-coast route. With the success of the airmail service and the growing popularity of civil aviation, the U.S. Government recognized the need to develop set standards for civil aviation and in 1926 created the Air Commerce Act of 1926. The Air Commerce Act of 1926 called for the government to regulate air routes, navigation systems, pilot and aircraft licensing and investigation of accidents. The act also controlled how airlines were compensated for mail delivery. Later in 1930, Postmaster General Walter Brown made recommendations which were later known as the Watres Act which consolidated airmail routes and opened the door for longer-term contracts with the airlines. Brown handled the situation regarding new contracts poorly by only inviting a hand selected list of large airlines to the negotiation table. This move pushed smaller airlines to complain and the issue was pushed to Congress. Following congressional hearings President Roosevelt later decided Brown’s scandal was too much to deal with and canceled all mail contracts completely and handed over air mail delivery responsibility to the U.S. Army. That decision was a disaster, and one month later, air mail was handed back over to the private sector. This time, however contract bidding was more structured and fair to all. It was then clear that the airline industry was back in full swing...
The perennial crisis in the airline industry: Deregulation and innovation. Order No. 3351230, Claremont Graduate University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses,, 662-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304861508?accountid=8364.
Additionally, deregulation and liberalization has accompanied the globalization of the airline industry, so that companies have had to compete against each other in new markets, as well as to gain entry into new territories. The rise of low cost local and regional airlines has made the competitive environment difficult to maneuver for large, formerly-state-subsidized national carriers. This has resulted in the need for strategic alliances between airlines in order to attempt to protect market shares and profits (Friehe and Curti, n.d.).