Airfare
Airfare is something that affects nearly all of us at one time or another. Regardless of the reason, most people occasionally have the need to travel by air, and in order to do so, the airfare must be paid. There are many different viewpoints on airfare, and after examination of just a few of them, it seems quite easy to form an opinion on the reasonability of current airfares.
The three main perspectives that I have focused on seem to represent a majority of people who would have opinions on airfare. There is the perspective of the travelers (business and pleasure), who are generally opposed to higher airfare; those of the airlines, which use many reasons for justification of airfare increases, such as increasing fuel prices and security costs; and the views of government organizations, such as the Department of Transportation, which are neutral and typically just present facts.
One perspective of the traveler comes from survey results published by the National Business Traveler Association in late 1997, which represents corporate travel managers and travel service providers. The survey results indicate that record airfare increases have significantly impacted corporate travel programs. The increased airfare resulted in a significant reduction in corporate travel as well as an increase in advanced bookings for business travel, which both must equate to a monetary loss for the airlines. The survey results also mention that the higher airfares will prompt corporations to take drastic countermeasures, such as reducing the amount of corporate travel by up to 50% and redirecting business to low fare carriers. This clearly indicates the dissatisfaction with airfare increases.
The neutral perspective on airfare comes from a report published by the Federal Aviation Administration (U.S. Department of Transportation). The report focuses on the impact that low cost, low fare airlines have on airfares. It mentions that low cost airlines force major carriers to operate more efficiently and reduce fares. As a result, Americans are benefiting. One amazing fact in the report states that the competition caused by low cost, low fare airlines saved Americans an estimated $6.3 billion in airfare last year. Also mentioned is the fact that in cities where low cost carriers exist, the average one way ticket has been reduced by $54. After reviewing the report, it is safe to say that low cost, low fare airlines are the primary reason that Americans are paying lower fares, but in cities where low cost carriers don't exist, fares are still very high and are increasing.
of price versus service in the airline industry as a whole, as well as, the
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.
In 1978, deregulation removed government control over fares and domestic routes. A slew of new entrants entered the market, but within 10 years, all but one airline (America West), had failed and ceased to exist. With long-term growth estimates of 4 percent for air travel, it's attractive for new firms to service the demand. It was as simple as having enough capital to lease a plane and passengers willing to pay for a seat on the plane. In recent news, the story about an 18-yr British...
Spirit addresses “price” by attempting to get the lowest possible fair for their potential customers. They have instituted their “unbundling” strategy that essentially removes all the conveniences that other airlines afford. Fees for checked bags, fees for flight changes, and no complementary in-flight beverages are just a few of the cost-trimming techniques employed. This strategy allows Spirit to come up with impossibly low fares. It also conforms to customers who just want to get from point A to point B without paying extra for services they don’t use. This strategy, coupled with an in-your-face “promotion” ploy, has made Spirit Airlines “the most profitable airline in the U.S.” (Nicas, 2012).
After September 11th, 2001, the airline industry experienced a significant drop in travel. The reasons for the airline industry downfalls also included a weak U.S and global economy, a tremendous increase in fuel costs, fears of terrorist's attacks, and a decrease in both business and vacation travel.
The results of airline deregulation speak for themselves. Since the government got out of the airline business, not only has there been a drop in prices and an increase in routes, there has also been a remarkable increase in airline service and safety. Airline deregulation should be seen as the crowning jewel of a federal de-regulatory emphasis. Prices are down: Airline ticket prices have fallen 40% since 1978. Flights are up: The number of annual departures is up from 5 million in 1978 to 8.2 million in 1997. Flights are safer: Before deregulation, there was one fatal accident per 830,000 flights, now the rate is one per 1.4 million flights. So what's the problem?
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...
2.Price: A price must be set to add value to the consumer but also add revenue to the airline. Cost is considered the most volatile areas in the airline industry today; deregulation has forced pricing to become the major competitive variable. Like any industry supply and demand control the pricing elements of the ai...
Typical users of airfreight were producers of time-sensitive, high priced, finished goods such as valuable architecture and confidential documents. But in 1976, a spring survey shows that only 24% customers used both Courier Pak and Priority One services while less than 1% of them used only Courier Pak. Moreover, the cap...
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).
Southwest Airlines is operating in an industry that is struggling to make profits. The slowing economic growth and raising fuel costs are lowering earnings while revenues remain the same. The macroeconomic factors affecting the airline industry include unemployment, the economic growth in the United States, and inflation. With low economic growth, consumers are finding luxury items more difficult to purchase and airline tickets for vacations fall into that category. Unemployment contributes to a lack of vacation travelers since individuals who are not employed do not have extra money for vacation or airline tickets. Inflation also causes operating costs of the airlines to be higher cutting into profits.
a. Environmental Analysis: The international war on terror, with its attendant rising cost of oil has created havoc in a number of ways (Lufthansa Annual Report, 2004). Rising costs have resulted from the increase in fuel prices. Customer check-in wait times and flight time delays have resulted from new regulations designed to ensure passenger and plane safety, including more rigorous bag searches, more extensive passenger screening, and the like. This has resulted in customers paying higher prices and a less enjoyable flight experience.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA). 2014. Airline Cost Performance. IATA Economics Briefing. [report] IATA, p. 31.
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
The airline industry is very susceptible to changes in the political environment as it has a great bearing on the travel habits of its customers. An unstable political environment causes uncertainty in the minds of the air travellers, regarding travelling to a particular country.