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Us airline industry analysis
Us airline industry analysis
Us airline industry analysis
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Threat of New Entrants
This has a low threat because firms already in the industry have a cost advantage and these companies already have a strong customer base.
Economies of Scale
• Bigger producers buy more inputs and therefore may get quantity discounts
• Boeing is the world's largest aerospace and defense company
• Boeing sells more products in multiple industries so they have the ability to produce each unit at a lower cost than a smaller company would
• Delta is the 2nd largest passenger airline in the world by available seat miles
Product differentiation
• Boeing offers many different types of planes for different needs
• By scheduling and operating its aircraft efficiently, JetBlue is able to spread its fixed costs over a greater number of flights and available seat miles.
• Brand identity is important, Delta offers frequent flyer programs
Capital requirement
• High capital causing Boeing to invent huge financial resources in manufacturing facilities to produce large commercial planes creates entry barriers
Switching costs
• Most airlines have orders for planes to be manufactured to meet demand, so they cannot cancel orders due to the high costs to produce
• To switch a whole fleet to another is nearly impossible because of the high costs already involved
• Consumers tend to choose well-known names
Access to distribution channels
• “Southwest Airlines’ multi-channel distribution strategy is strategically designed to provide corporations and their business travelers with access to Southwest Airlines content through their preferred booking tool”. (Corporate Travel Services)
• JetBlue’s distribution channel is through their website
Cost disadvantages independent of size
• In developing new planes, Boeing’s costs goes down ...
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The Airline Industry is a fascinating market. It has been one of the few industries to reach astounding milestones. For example, over 200 airlines have gone out of business since deregulation occurred in 1978. Currently, more than 50% of the airlines in the industry are operating under Chapter 11 regulations. Since 9/11, four of the six large carriers have filed for and are currently under bankruptcy court protection. Since 9/11 the industry has lost over $30 billion dollars, and this loss continues to increase. Despite the fact that the airline industry is in a state of despair, JetBlue has become the golden example, a glimpse of what the industry could be.
Southwest Airlines strategy of focusing on short haul passenger and providing rates as low as one third of their competitors, they have seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Market share for top city pairs on Southwest's schedule has reached 80% to 85%. Maintaining the largest fleet of 737's in the world and utilizing point-to-point versus the hub-and-spoke method of connection philosophy allowed Southwest to provide their service to more people at a lower cost. By putting the employee first, Southwest has found the key to success in the airline business. A happy worker is a more productive one as well as a better service provider. Southwest will continue to reserve their growth in the future by entering select markets only after careful market research.
Having a low amount of cost in their operations is one of the contributing factors in Southwest Airlines’ financial success. Such low cost model of the corporation is brought about by an effective strategy. Southwest uses only one type of aircraft – the fuel-efficient Boeing 737. This tactic keeps training and maintenance costs down. Moreover, the no-frills approach to customer service contributed to the low cost of operations for Southwest. The airline does not serve meals on board, and there are no luxurious or first class seats offered. Services like these have been seen by the airline as unnecessary for an airline that provides a short-haul trip from city to city. By these, Southwest were able to offer low price tickets to customers, which was good for the company because most people would prefer to fly without those services mentioned if it meant for cheaper ticket price.
As airline industry is a competitive marketplace, the airline companies use new technologies to improve their efficiency and decrease the overhead costs, including ‘advanced aircraft engine technology, IT solutions, and mobile technology’ (Cederholm 2014). The technology changes including technology improvement, new innovation and disruptive technology. The disruptive technology need to meet the characteristics of ‘simplicity, convenience, accessibility and affordability’ (Christensen 1995). The technology changes would bring both opportunities and threats to airline companies. Since Labour cost and fuel costs occupy 50% of most airlines operating cost (Groot 2014). Therefore, if new technologies could be disruptive in the two aspects, there will be important changes to current airline
Right now these are just small threats to Boeing. But as things advance, there is no telling what the new market trends will be and what new directions a company like Boeing must take. It is important to continually perform SWOT analysis and stay nimble. Overall, the Boeing Company has stayed strong in the aircraft field and with record profits for the past two years it looks like they are achieving their goals. Boeing has had to change their business direction over the past 100 years in order to stay on top of the aircraft industry.
This paper analyzes the goals and actions of Boeing by analyzing its critical success factors as well as its strategic roadmap.
"It was the jet Boeing didn't build that averted what could have become one of the worst crash landings in the company's 91-year history--and cleared Boeing to conquer the skies again."(Masters, 2007). Boeing's Management team's work hard to plan what project's will be best for customers, lead to the largest returns to shareholders, and keep a reputation of being a world leader in the aviation industry. "In October 2002, executives of the aircraft manufacturer met with a group of global airline representatives at a conference center on the Seattle waterfront. The executives were trying desperately to figure out what to build next to hold off a soaring Airbus."(Masters, 2007) Boeing had made plans to build a high speed jetliner prior to this meeting. Through careful planning and expert decision making Boeing officials found that the world was more interested in comfort and efficiency. Boeing's high speed aircraft would have been a huge economic let down because of the huge price tag and expensive operating costs. After that meeting Boeing changed plans to make the Dreamliner which is a more cost effective and comfortable aircraft that has enough orders to keep Boeing busy building the aircraft for customers until the year 2015. While Boeing has spent many resources planning what to build, Boeing is now faced with the problems of how to meet customer demands of the new aircraft.
Pricing. Their pricing strategy is based off their market position as a budget airline. Positioning their company as a budget airline, Southwest can maintain and keep their lower price points compared to their competitors. For Southwest to maintain sustainability as a market leader, they must effectively utilize their resources to reduce their cost of operations. By only operating one type of aircraft, short non-stop flights, point to point routes, and flying into less crowded secondary airports, this has allowed Southwest Airlines to keep their price points down while simultaneously reducing their planes turnaround time.
Carey, Susan, and Jack Nicas. "United Continental, Southwest Report Higher Profits." The Wall Street Journal [New York] 23 Jan. 2014: n. pag. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
As aviation matured, airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airport operators merged into giant corporations. When cries of "monopoly" arose, the conglomerates dismantled.
The low cost and no frills strategy is make travel affordable at low cost. The company only operates one type of aircraft which is Boeing 737 to help maintenance cost low. Southwest was the first airline to use E-ticketing in this way customer can reserve spot and buy ticket on their web and allow less expense in printing tickets. Medium measured airports which allowed them to produce better time performance and less fuel costs so plane do not have to wait in the line at the runway. The core value of the company of “LUV and fun” makes the company great place to work that gives customer with a great experience.
Airline and travel industry profitability has been strapped by a series of events starting with a recession in business travel after the dotcom bust, followed by 9/11, the SARS epidemic, the Iraq wars, rising aviation turbine fuel prices, and the challenge from low-cost carriers. (Narayan Pandit, 2005) The fallout from rising fuel prices has been so extreme that any efficiency gains that airlines attempted to make could not make up for structural problems where labor costs remained high and low cost competition had continued to drive down yields or average fares at leading hub airports. In the last decade, US airlines alone had a yearly average of net losses of $9.1 billion (Coombs, 2011).
Technology Innovation: - Boeing should carefully analyze the market to evaluate the trends in the airline industry and aggressively invest in a new product line (top dog strategy) that could counter Airbus’s A380.
The 777 would be manufactured differently than previous Boeing aircraft. Various efforts would be undertaken to increase demand and reduce manufacturing costs of the 777 in an attempt to create positive cash flows sooner. To increase demand, the 777 would be the first fly-by-wire Boeing aircraft, a feature Boeing’s competitors already added to their aircraft. Boeing also made an effort to get their large customers involved in the design process from the beginning in an effort to increase its competitive advantage and long-term demand for the 777. As a cost saving measure, the design and manufacturing teams would work together to create a detailed simulation of the manufacturing process that would reduce the cost of “improvements” that were often made during manufacturing thereby reducing the overall manufacturing cost. Furthermore, Boeing would invest in more training for its engineers on the new CAD system. This new manufacturing process would lead to large capital outflows in the short-run. The challenge for Mr. Shrontz is determining whether these capital investments will lead to an increased return on equity for Boeing.
DuBois, S. (2012, February 17). The real threat facing the airlines - Fortune Management. Fortune Management Career Blog RSS. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/17/the-real-threat-facing-the-airlines/. Tom, Y. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.