Continental Carriers, Inc. (This is not an essay. This paper responds to each of the comments raised by the five members of the board.) Continental Carriers, Inc. (CCI) should take on the long-term debt to finance the acquisition of Midland Freight, Inc. for a few reasons. The company is heavy on assets, the debt ratio will only grow to 0.40 with the added $50M in debt. Also, the firm will benefit from an added $2M in a tax shield and be able to return $12.7M a year to its stockholders and investors, instead of $8.9M if equity is raised to finance the acquisition. Lastly, the stock price and earnings per share will increase to $3.87 in comparison to an equity-financed acquisition of $2.72 per share. CCI would be taking a somewhat high risk by issuing additional stock due to the uncertainty about the offering price. Having a low P/E ratio with respect to the rest of the market, and the replacement cost of the firm being greater than its book value (argument 3), there is a good chance that the current stock price and the proposed offering prices are too low. Although long-term debt is a better financing choice a few of the drawbacks are pointed out. Debt holders claim profit before equity holders, so the chance that profits may be lower than expected, increases risk to equity may reduce or impede stock value. However, in extreme financial situations such as a recession period, CCI would still be able to increase its cash during a recession period with all debt capital structure. Also, there is a remaining 12.5 million that would have to be paid at the expiration of the bonds, but that could be paid off by issuing new bonds or additional equity at that time. Five members of the board raised comments that have been addressed as follows: 1. The argument of the debt financing being a risky venture since the proposition was to pay out to a sinking fund does not make sense. Over the course of the next seven years, CCI had a historical growth in revenue of 9%. This growth along with the $2M tax shelter would easily pay for the sinking fund. In addition, by buying back bonds annually, the interest expense is further decreased, thus creating less of a burden on the cash flow. In contrast, an equity-financed acquisition would spread the net income out over 3 million more shares, thereby reducing the dividend pay-out to shareholders. 2. Another director argued that with equity financing, the shareholders will yield a 10% EBIT of $5M. Furthermore, this director posited that 3 million shares at $1.
The Lufthansa Heist was a robbery that took place at the John F. Kennedy International Airport; the people (players) robbed five million dollars at the time of the robbery. The total amount of money robbed to todays’ date is estimated to be around eighteen million dollars and three million dollars in jewelry. The heist was planned by Jimmy Burke and carried out by a number of people. A van would be used to transport the cash and another car would accompany the van to run interference should something happen.
Frontier airlines marketing utilizes the 4Ps within the constraints that were listed in the module slides. The product, for all intents and purposes, is the seat, in motion from one place to another. If that seat goes unfilled, it is not stored for later use, but goes bad, like fruit. This is a similar issue of production that hotels face. The unit is constantly produced and expiring, with no option not to produce it if it will not be sold (with the exception of scaling back service on, or closing, a route. Additionally, it is a consumer based product, so frontier needs to be sensitive to the desires of the customer, because there are many choices when flying into and out of Denver.
Southwest Airlines roots can be traced back to Texas in the 1960’s where a company by the name of Air Southwest Co. was created to provide interstate flights in Texas to avoid federal aviation laws. This technique of trying to avoid federal regulation was challenged when 3 other major airlines filed a lawsuit against Air Southwest Co.; later the state of Texas upheld Air Southwest Co. right to fly within the state of Texas and the Supreme Court decided not to review the case. (Southwest Airlines, n.d.) This was a challenging start for Southwest as it was being targeted right off the bat by some of its competitors. The company name was changed in the early 1970’s to Southwest Airlines Co. and a headquarters was established in Dallas, TX. The company’s main focus was interstate flights between the 3 major cities in Texas including Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. (Southwest Airlines, n.d.)
Capital One uses IT through its information-based strategy (IBS) to “record, organize, and analyze data on the characteristics and behaviors of their customers,” as stated by CEO Richard Fairbank. Their philosophy was to exploit information by constructing scientific models that could be used to both assess the creditworthiness of potential cardholders through FICO scoring, and to customize product offerings for existing ones. This was done through data mining, sorting, customizing offers and marketing campaigns, and then analyzing this data to see what campaigns worked – for what reason and what it returned in revenue and profit generation. This differs from other financial institutions in that these other institutions were compiling data manually, accepting applicants based upon debt-income ratios and were all charging the same interest rate and annual fee.
Spirit Airlines has long been considered an unorthodox airline. They, of course, address all four P’s in their marketing strategy; however, they focus a large amount of their effort on price and promotion. They focus on cutting price through “unbundling”. They focus on promotion through taking advantage of social issues and breaking news. Many advertisements and deals promoted by Spirit have given the public a definite shock-factor. Spirit has made two objectives very clear: they are furious at getting the customer the lowest fare possible by any means necessary, and they will similarly use any means necessary to get those potential customers to notice those fares. Such a blatant marketing strategy works. Even going up against some big competition, Spirit finds ways to be competitive and successful in flagrant fashion.
The topic in which I chose to do a scrapbook on was “How the government affects the airline industry in Canada”. Specifically I chose articles that related to the aftermaths of the September 11th tragedy. This event affected airlines in an enormous manner. Many airlines were facing economical problems and in turned asked the government for assistance. As a result, Canada 3000, which was Canada’s second largest airline carrier filed for bankruptcy protection on October 11th.
Celebrating their 100th anniversary next year, Harley-Davidson is a true American success story. From their modest beginnings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to one of the most recognized company names worldwide, they have been passionate about motorcycles. Harley offers an experience like none other with the one of a kind look, feel, and sound only available on a Harley. Besides their main business of building and selling motorcycles, they have began to offer financing and insurance through Harley-Davidson Financial Services, and they also offer a full line of accessories and apparel to make the Harley experience complete.
The seventh largest major domestic airline in the United States (US), Southwest Airlines, is commonly known or referred to as a low-cost carrier. Southwest Airlines is the only major airline that provides short-haul, point-to-point service in the United States. In fact it was the first airline of its type ever started; it has become the archetypical low-cost airline. The idea has proven itself so well, that other start-up airlines have based their company strategies upon the basics of Southwest. Today, there are two other low-cost air carriers (the other two airlines are considered national airlines and not major airlines) that are actively and aggressively competing with Southwest Airlines for business and profit turning. The three American low-cost air carriers are currently posting profits even in light of the US economy’s current state of affairs, with Southwest Airlines first, JetBlue second, and Air Tran third, in profits. How is this possible when the major six airlines are reporting losses of millions and millions of dollars each quarter? The answer to this question begins about 30 years ago.
JetBlue Airways entered the market in 2000 from a position of financial strength, leadership capability and several rare advantage points uncommon to others in the industry: 1) David Neeleman, the founder, had several years of industry experience as a result of having successfully launched and sold an airline (Morris Air), bringing both explicit and tacit knowledge into the his new venture; 2) Neeleman was afforded the opportunity to work directly with his idol, Herb Kelleher, at Southwest Airlines (the king of the low-cost leaders) after Southwest purchased Morris Air from Neeleman; and 3) Substantial financial support from venture capitalists who had funded Neeleman's previous ventures and were more than willing to support and capitalize on his idea for a new low-cost passenger airline.
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.
In the airline industry, Southwest Airlines is considered a true innovator. By shaking up the rules of flying and improving upon inefficient industry norms, Southwest has quickly grown by leaps and bounds. From the very start, Southwest Airlines' goals were to make a profit, achieve job security for every employee, and make flying affordable for more people (Southwest,2007). Southwest has not strayed from these goals. It does not buy huge aircrafts, fly international routes or try to go head to head with the major carriers; and thanks to a great planning, Southwest airlines has become the most successful airline company in the U.S., if not the world.
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.
The American Airline Industry The Airline Industry is a highly competitive industry with companies operating in domestic and/or international markets. Many airlines are stilled owned by their respective countries and have treaties between countries to allow airlines to land there. The industry has been taking a relatively shaky course as costs are rising and profits have been decreasing. This was further intensified with the recent terrorist attacks on US soil, which lead to higher costs as the need for more security arose. Recent financial statements of major airlines showing major losses reflect the problems that the industry is having.
The airline industry has become more and more competitive over the years. It takes determination, preparation, knowledge, and recourses to start an airline company, and that is just what happened forty-five years ago in Dallas Texas. Southwest Airline is a very successful airline company serving around 100 million customers annually (Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet). Many things stick out about Southwest such as their satellite-based WIFI and free luggage. These accommodations appeal to the customers. The company describes its mission as “dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit” (About Southwest). From a customer standpoint, there is nothing else
Since the beginning of time man has always dreamed of flight and throughout the ages has made many failing attempts. Some of the first records of attempted flight date back to the ancient Greek times when Daedalus and Icarus had their catastrophic failure. Finally in the early 1900s the Wright brothers had the right stuff and made the first flying powered aircraft, thus the world of Aviation was born. When it comes to Aviation the main purpose is obviously travel and getting from point A to point B in a very short amount of time. During the early days of flight air travel was very primitive in nature and could be downright dangerous; because not only were there very few rules and regulations, but there were not any legitimate air carriers specifically in the business for carrying passengers. Soon after the advent of flight, many people saw how profitable Aviation could be and took advantage of the market in its infancy, and created the airlines as we know them today. One of those Airlines was Varney Airlines.