Airborne Express Executive Summary Airborne Express is an air-express transportation company that provides delivery of small packages and documents throughout the United States and to and from many foreign countries. Statement of Purpose To identify the issues and problems that the company is facing and how the company incorporates into its business strategy the major trends that concerns air delivery business. To give alternative courses of action and to recommend the best alternative to improve the company’s operations. Statement of Problem Airborne Express ranked third place in the 2002 U.S. air express industry with nine percent (9%) of the market and it has difficulties catching up with its larger rivals, FedEx and UPS which has 26% and 53% of the market respectively. Alternative Courses of Action 1. Focus and continue developing the deferred and ground delivery services as there is a shift towards these kinds of services from overnight package services. 2. Continue to have strategic partnership and alliances with foreign agents to serve the international market. 3. Corporate accounts should still be the main target. 4. Lease out a portion of their airport facilities. Analytical Tools 1. Porter’s Five Forces Model of Attractiveness 2. SWOT Analysis Recommendation A switch from premium overnight services to lower – margin deferred services and ground delivery services is an advantage to Airborne Express. With existing assets including trucks, tracking systems, regional hubs and sorting facilities, they only need minor initial investments to develop fully these kinds of services. They should use these assets wisely and effectively. Conclusion Airborne should strengthen and continually improve its services domestically, since it gives larger revenues, then strengthen its alliances internationally, so as to serve the demands of the international market. To add on its profitability, Airborne should lease out a portion of the airport facilities to other airlines, so that it could have other source of income to compensate the maintenance costs of the airport. Methods of Analysis 1. Porter’s Five Forces Model of Attractiveness a. The threat of new entrants into the industry - Operating an air - express transportation industry requires large capital investments, and therefore it can impede the entry of new firms into the industry. For one, Airborne has already its own set of aircrafts and even operate its own airport, and it would be hard for a new firm to compete with this. - The company does not spend much on advertising; its brand
Federal Express main products are delivering packages to widespread locations within a short time. In this case study, we would focus our discussion on its most profitable services, i.e. Priority One, Standard Air Service, and Courier Pak (Table 1).
WestJet is the second-largest carrier in Canada, which mainly focuses on economic airlines. In decades past, WestJet expanded its destination network form all western Canadian cities to international scope. During this development period, IT played a important role. For example, electronic ticket is used in the airline reservation system. However, some IT-related issues also hinders the company’s development.
This comparison between American Airlines (AA) and US Airways (AWE) starts from the year ending report in 2008 after AWE finally completed embedding America West into their operations in October, a process begun in 2005. Neither has taken part in any mergers or takeovers since then and, despite AWE briefly flirting with the idea of taking over United Airlines in 2008, merger and acquisition plans for both had been subordinate to recovering from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
Since then, Virgin Atlantic has become the second largest long-haul international airline operating services out of London's Heathrow and Gatwick Airports to 21 destinations all over the world - ...
Southwest Airlines is competing with "Shuttle by United" head to head in about 9 routes. United has just announced that it is discontinuing its Oakland - Ontario route and hiking the fares in all the 14 routes by $10, which calculated to be 14.5% increase in the fare. Southwest has to respond effectively to these unexpected developments and has to act accordingly while maintaining their current low fare image and increasing their daily operating profits. We have considered the elasticity of the market to be 1.15.
1. Issues 2. American Airlines’ objectives 3. The airline industry 4. Market 5. Consumer needs 6. Brand image 7. Distribution system 8. Pricing 9. Marketing related strategies 10. Assumptions and risks
UPS and FedEx are the leading parcel carriers in the U.S. FedEx has significantly expanded their capability to compete with UPS’s dominant ground delivery service. UPS has continued its strong marketing efforts in overnight and deferred air services. Both of these carriers have introduced information systems, which include user-friendly Internet interfaces. The carriers have also expanded logistical services and improved integration with customer supply chains.
“To be the best airlines in whole world and providing excellent customer experience in our flights with full entertainment and loads of satisfaction.”
Gulfstream Aerospace is one of leading corporate jet manufacturers in the world. They have been building jets since the late 50’s and continue to create top of the line aircraft which have become the status symbol of success. With their success comes an extensive company infrastructure and supply chain. First, we will discuss how Gulfstream uses the location to maximize the effectiveness of its supply chain. Then we will look at the business case for Gulfstream’s approach to its supply chain, and in particular, does it make sense to have a car follow supplies while it is on the rail system. Finally, we will look at Gulfstream’s to the “just in time” manufacturing and its strategic approach to choosing locations.
Before to select the proper alternative, three alternatives were analysed and evaluated under four decisions criteria: customer experience, cost, growth rate / market penetration and ease to implementation (See Exhibit 2: Factor Analysis). Between all the alternatives, it was suggested that Southwest Airlines enters to New York City by bidding the slots and gates at the LGA (See Exhibit 3: Alternatives Analysis). This alternative sustains the challenge of changing the customer experience which means adding more flights from and to the East; furthermore, entering to new markets will reinforce “the power of the network” through LGA. At the same time, this decision will allow signing more code-sharing agreements with other airlines flying to international destinations and offer new products and services to LUV customers as loyalty rewards, in-flight internet, onboard duty-free purchases, etc.; as a result of this, it will increase passenger’s insights and experiences by flying with Southwest Airlines. Nevertheless, there is potential risk by selecting this alternative, in the recent years the energy prices has had a huge increase affecting costs, fares and even capacity needed, however Southwest Airlines has been able to hedge fuel for decad...
An alternate strategy for JetBlue to return to profitability is to expand the market it services. A large part of JetBlue’s business is transporting cust...
In August of 1971, Smith started his venture by buying controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales. While operating his new firm, Smith recognized the tremendous difficulty in getting packages delivered within one- to- two days. This dilemma motivated him to do the necessary research for resolving the current inefficient distribution system. Thus, the idea for Federal Express was born: a company that revolutionized global business practices and now defines speed and reliability1.
The demand for aviation transportation has never been greater with airports playing a key role in the overall success of the air transportation system and for over 40 years the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has listed over 5,000 public use airports as being important to the public need for aviation services (Young & Wells, 2011, p. 10).
Through increased competition, especially Southwest, AirTran is only available mainly in the eastern United States. Customers needing to travel to the western US probably will choose another airline that could create brand loyalty for another airline.