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Evolution of the airline industry
Evolution of the airline industry
The history of the airline industry
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Introduction Singapore Airlines (SIA) was created in 1972 and was fully state owned. The company expanded rapidly, and with a strategy of concentrating on customer needs by providing exceptional in-flight service, the airline quickly became a noteworthy competitor in the market. During its formative period in the 1970s, SIA developed all the hallmarks that made it one of the most successful and consistently profitable airlines in the world. Through a constant investment in personnel skills and other sources, the company has achieved a sustainable competitive advantage, as well as a reputation for classy elegance. This paper reveals the strategies that have been used by SIA, with backgrounds on their sustainability and sources of advantage, the way these strategies changed over the years and how to continue. The slides for the presentation that accompany this paper can be found in the appendices. 1. Then & now: Strategical stability and change at SIA This paragraph contains an evaluation of the value strategies of 1972 and the current value strategy and evaluates the changes that have been made. A description of the 1972 strategy will be given first, thereafter; the current strategy will be discussed. The marketing strategy that was envisioned by the creation of the SIA had a focus on customer needs by providing exceptional in-flight service. This required the on board flight staff to be of excellent quality. At SIA, there was a constant emphasis on training (including social training and etiquette) and customer service. Ever since, the exceptional in-flight service has become a part of the company culture and image. All of this suggests a strong product-oriented strategy, a value strategy that Treacy and Wiersema (1993) define as product leadership. Competitive advantage came from a good product; the high profitability in the 70's was helped by low labor costs in Singapore. Improvements that have been made since 1972 are foremost improvements to the product of "traveling": better in-flight entertainment, an upgrade to ground services, more flight destinations through the "Star Alliance" network and improved seats and space on board. There are however improvements in other areas than product improvements: 2 kinds of loyalty programs have been introduced, premium passengers' preferences are filed and the complaint management has been improved over the years. The differentiation of types of passengers and the expectation that they will fly SIA again, retaining clients through complaint management and loyalty programs all suggest a move into a customer intimacy value strategy. As service and CRM become more and more integrated at SIA, customer intimacy is strategically embedded in the organization.
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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 a dysfunctional time for the airline industry, most airlines, especially major carriers, are adapting the concept of "doing less with more." One low-cost carrier, JetBlue, is changing the domestic aviation landscape in this regard and is defying the odds. Here is a company that has examined each marketing mix elements carefully, has adapted them to its customer’s needs, and is succeeding because of this approach.
The airline industry has long attempted to segment the air travel market in order to effectively target its constituents. The classic airline model consists of First Class, Business Class and Economy, and the demographics that make up the classes have both similarities and differences to the other classes. For instance, there may be similarities between business class travellers on a particular flight, but they will not all be travelling for the same reason. An almost-universal characteristic of air travel is that customers do not fly for the sake of flying; the destination is the important element and the travel is a by-product, a means-to-an-end that involves the necessity of an aircraft that gets the customer from point A to point B. Because the reasons can differ greatly in the motivations for a customer wanting to fly, it can be difficult to divide the market into discrete segments, that is, there is always going to be overlap in the preferences and characteristics of any given segment. With that in mind, the commonalities that are shared between the clientele that make up the respective classes can easily withstand analysis.
Gittell, J. H. (2003). The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Porter stated; “for an airline to succeed in the marketplace, it must have a sustainable competitive advantage” (Porter M. E., 2008). The airline industry is the highest competitive industry, and I believe a sustainable completive advantage is essential to succeed in the future of the aviation industry. The competitive advantages that an airline embrace, needs to be based on the airlines strategy and differentiation to competitors. Emirates displays how it has a strategy and how the airline gets ahead of its competitors through how unique it is.
In order to get a comprehensive analysis on SIA's financial statement analysis , we compared SIA's 5 financial year ending(FYE) results with the industry's average and 2 of its main competitors Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas Airways . Cathay has been trailing closely to SIA in terms of first class cabin service and profitability for years. Qantas has long been dominating the highly profitable Kangaroo route and is ranked 5th in the world by Skytrax's survey . Please refer to appendix for the actual figures for every analysis below.
SIA’s labor cost is the lowest among all major airlines, that not only valuable but also unique at that time. The gap between SIA and other airlines companies are not easy to cover in short time. But if other airlines make great efforts on cut down their human resource cost, they will catch up with SIA eventually since it is not too complexity, specificity and can be learn from the cumulate experience.
...ry long and successful history in the airlines industry, which makes it one of the leading airlines in the world. Also, it provides the most comfortable flights and services to its costumers and employees, which makes it unique.
Flight fee is one of the biggest nightmares of the passenger. In this regard, such an initiative is a win-win situation for the Asiana airlines. The establishment of extensive cabin retrofits is also a great improvement to the customer service delivery. The airline also boosts customer experience in a bid to achieve the airline’s sustainability through the provision of lie-flat seats. The seats boost comfort for the passengers aboard; hence, reduction of exhaustion. According to Asian Development Bank (2009), the airline provides the passengers with a sizeable monitor, especially for the business class passengers. The practical productivity of team relies on upon its hypothetical planning, information of an aeronautical building, and tenets of its operation, including exceptional circumstances, and propensities for utilization of this learning, furthermore on order and determination of pilot-in-charge of aircraft and group individuals. The administration productivity air movement, the associations of flight action and a wide range of upkeep of aircraft in the greatest degree is controlled by the proficiency of the action association in the modern undertakings, cognizance of initiators, and the moral obligation of leaders of all positions for action concerning security control of
In the 1990s, Emirates airlines began to expand its route network to various international destinations including Paris, Rome, Zürich, and Jakarta. With the advancement in aeronautical engineering, long haul flights became more frequent which lead to the airline's route expansion and earned it the name, “finest in the sky”. By 1994, the airline had 4000 employees and netted a profit of about 24 million dollars (The Emirates Story).
AirAsia Berhad (AirAsia) is a leading Low-Cost Carrier in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. AirAsia focuses on providing high-frequency services on short-haul domestic and international routes. The main goal of this paper is to analyse the business strategy of AirAsia as a low-cost airline. This paper aims to apply the management process of strategy and analyse the three levels of strategy by which AirAsia is able to maintain its reputation as the top Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) in Asia. This paper will then show how innovation is a key aspect in AirAsia’s strategy, and will finally consider the external environment framework in which AirAsia is succeeding.
One of the characteristics of service offered by AirAsia is intangibility. Services intangibility is inevitable and sometimes could be a challenge for every service provider. According to Pride & Ferrell (2011) intangibility of services can be defined as the characteristic that the service is not physical and cannot be perceived by the senses. For instance like AirAsia which provides flight services, it is impossible for the customers to touch the flight as it is a journey to specific destinations. They might be able to touch the plane, but in the context of services, the customers do not own the physical tools or equipment used to deliver the service but are only entitled to get the service which is the flight service.
Porter argues that no firm can provide value in all the ways that people wish value to be delivered, so they should select one strategy; cost leadership, differentiation or focus. (Robbins & Barnwell, 2002)
The Singapore Airlines needs to keep its superiority and stay on top of the competition in the international market, despite the bad times associated with a global economy or strategies implemented by main competitors.