A low-cost airline (also known as a no-frills, discount or budget carrier or airline) is an airline that offers generally low fares in exchange for eliminating many traditional passenger services. The aviation industry is in process of deep change and one of the major reasons is the low-cost phenomenon. Many of newly founded airlines are treated as low-cost carriers and the purpose is to show to potential customers the prospect of less expensive air travel. Hence, start-ups do not face many problems while entering the market although not all companies are strictly low-cost some of them are just lower-cost companies. Some, let’s say, traditional companies such as Air France or Austrian Airlines offer to their customers to buy unbooked seats at a relatively cheaper …show more content…
Those companies implement lean management which is based on effectiveness, cost transparency, minimum complexity and the focus is on core tasks. This means that low-cost airlines have flatter hierarchies, no complex operations and little bureaucracy. They can also make some savings by adopting downsizing, this happens when the size of the core workforce is reduced and this can further reduce a firm’s costs because fewer in-flight staff is required owing to a limited on-board service. Other ways for cutting costs are the maximum utilization of permitted working hours of all employees such as cutting holiday allowances. The service organizations must meet three key customer needs to deliver service excellence: security, esteem and justice. Researches identify an array of service quality factors that are important for customers, including: timeliness and convenience, personal attention, reliability and dependability, employee competence and professionalism, empathy, responsiveness, assurance, availability, and tangibles such as physical facilities and equipment and the appearance of the
The consumer feels valued and thinks of the airlines as reliable. (Hongxia, 2014) “An efficient schedule saves you time and money.” Money and time is everything in our communist society, it’s precious to each and every one of us as consumers so when it’s advertised that we’ll be saving both, a sense of trust is built with the service. Consumers only look for business with companies they are able to trust, believing these companies will treat them fairly and honestly.
Case Analysis #1 – “Southwest Airlines: Is It Still the King of Cheap Flights” 1. Answer the questions at the end of the case. 1. Airline customers can be segmented in a variety of ways. Two of these include by purpose of travel and their destinations.
Answer: (a): Market segmentation is the first step in defining and selecting a target market to pursue and penetrate. Basically, market segmentation is the process of splitting up an overall market into two or more groups/classes of consumers. Each group of consumers is called as a market segment. Each group (or market segment) should be similar in terms of certain characteristics or product/ service needs. In business world, market segmentation is considered to be a most important tool in enabling marketers to better meet customer needs and requirements.
INTRODUCTION “The moment you make a mistake in pricing, you 're eating into your reputation or your profits.” - Katharine Paine The above quote from the founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and The Delahaye Group is quite apt. Pricing is quite often ignored by executives & leads to people not understanding how it can change the competitive game in an industry.
The airline industry is one of the most important industries in modern society as it keeps the world connected. Two of the biggest firms in this market are Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines. The industry is an example of an oligopoly as only a small number of firms sell their services in a market with high barriers to entry. These high barriers largely come from the capital required to purchase a jet, let alone hundreds of jets, and to operate them with pilots and a crew. In this market, both Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines share significant market power, and the decisions one company makes impacts the other, they are highly interdependent.
Looking at the respective case studies, SIA, EA and Lufthansa have shared similar challenges like striving for cost effectiveness and differentiation from competitors. Despite these similarities, SIA and EA seem to have survived throughout as an individual highly recognized brands while being involved in Star Alliance overshadows Lufthansa. As well, Lufthansa also operated with higher labor costs than low-cost players or emerging market competitors – years of union advocacy, pension fund obligations, and industry regulations forced these airlines to devote a larger share of revenues towards labor benefits. EA advantage mostly comes from government support and their self sufficient in fuel compared to the other two airlines. External factors like fuel prices or government factors may affect the airlines, but the root of sustaining competitive advantages still lies within the organization’s strategies and core values in order to gain
Decentralization and the expansion of a larger portfolio through its proposed partnership will improve branding awareness and customer satisfaction. Competition from various airlines offering less generous terms and conditions of employment will be a tough challenge as it may arouse with several negative reactions from employees. Green technology investment is another huge challenge due to current financial instability. The organization will need the execution of change to set aside budget to compete in technological investment. 2.2 Internal drivers of
This is what Nok Air can offer better than its competitors. However, the disadvantage is the current Nok Air’s operating cannot generate enough profit. Since Nok Air positions itself as “premium low-cost airline”, the firm is now facing the high cost. The costs include fuel engine price, the premium onboard service, foods and beverages, the cost of offering high weight of baggage, and so on. Also, as Nok Air has to hedge fuel engine from Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, it mainly drives Nok Air to have the higher cost, and it results in decreasing the profit (“Broken Wing Nok Air,” 2008).
The inauguration of Virgin Australia Airlines, by Sir Richard Branson, as a domestic carrier in 2000 basically aimed at the convenience of the budget travelers. The Airlines was inaugurated as relaxed informal airline. Sir Richard was open-minded, amiable, and generous with his management team, imaginative, audacious and exclusive in his thoughtfulness. Initially started as a low-cost carrier, the company improved its services to turn itself into a “new-world carrier” as described by themselves (Virgin Blue media release, 2011, para. 2).However all these faltered when Qantas’ past marketing manager took over during 2011.
Delta airline was expanding its business into low-cost airline segment by launching new independent subsidiary by the name of Song. Song’s primary business model was to target women and the segment of business class people. In effect to reduce the cost, Song management decided to fly high load factor on the drag of 900 miles. Moreover, the company increased the number of
One of the fundamental points of interest of the balanced scorecard is capacity for representatives and supervisors to see the relationship between their own execution assessment and money related measures identified with the authoritative objectives. Activity based costing system: To be fruitful in business operations, each organization needs to synchronize its exercises and forms with the corporate statement of purpose, being steady in conveying the item. Southwest Airlines advances itself as an on-time, ease supplier of air travel, conveying the guaranteed essential services to the clients. Organization successfully adjusts its authoritative structure and every single related operation on giving these purchaser services on the reported mission and objectives. Therefore, Southwest Airlines is the best minimal effort supplier of air travel in the United States.
With a rise in fuel prices and environmental factors (such as terrorist threats) reducing air travel, airlines continue to struggle. In union environments, where staff (like pilots and flight attendance) is heavily unionized, the industry has not been able to cut their labor costs. New low-cost industry entrants are adding to the pressure the traditional
> Founded in 1941 and based in Pasay City, The Philippine Airlines is the country 's ultimate flag carrier and oldest airlines. The monopolization of the airline occurred in 1995 when Lucio Tan, an affluent Chinese-Filipino businessman purchased the airline and became its chairman and CEO. . Global competition in the industry > Threat to new entrants: In spite of the low switching costs and the absence of proprietary goods and services, generally speaking, there is a low threat to new entrants in the airline industry. The huge amount of capital make reprisals against new entrants through a price drop.
For instance, with the global financial crisis and later the Eurozone crisis, the number of travellers has significantly reduced due to economic hardships. This has affected the profit levels of the airline as well as slowed down its growth prospects. The airline also faces intense competition from other low cost airlines forcing it to extensively invest in product differentiation to counter the competition. This is an expensive
Superior quality and innovation are important to achieving superior customer responsiveness. The ability to satisfy the needs of your customers will allow for your company to stay ahead of your rivals. Customers will be more likely to choose a company if they feel like their voice or opinion is being heard. Another part of this building block is the customer response time. Customers want their products quickly, so ability to deliver the product or service at a quicker rate is important.