As I am sure that you are aware, Hurricane Irma has recently just hit South Florida. It has come to my attention that Delta has raised their airline prices significantly as people were trying to flee from a disastrous storm that had the potential to wipe out everything they owned and worked for. As someone who helped run a family owned business, I know first-hand that making money is the most important thing on a successful businessman’s mind. However, I firmly believe that there is a line that should not be crossed in business. When a company starts putting wealth and profit over the lives of our brothers and sisters in the United States, a country that we all share and live in together, there is a problem that needs to be addressed and not …show more content…
Imagine having your family and friends live someplace else, far away from you with a hurricane heading their way. You see on the news how massive this hurricane is supposed to be. The media is comparing it to Hurricane Katrina, the third strongest hurricane ever recorded in the United States, that wiped out more than 800,000 homes and killed over 1,800 people. The first thought that would enter any rational thinking person’s head would be to try to make sure your family is in the safest area possible. You would want them to get out of any danger and be out of harm’s way and out of the path of the “next Hurricane Katrina.” You hear that they are going to fly to Atlanta, but they’re going to have to dip into their life savings. Next thing you know, they are stuck in South Florida because tickets became too expensive and unrealistic to …show more content…
Having been part of the central group of getting Delta back on track when it was facing bankruptcy, one can assume you are a very wise man and know what you are doing. So let me ask you this, is making money really more important than saving lives? You would want your family to be handled with the upmost care and put in the safest position possible, just as everyone else would, so why make it nearly impossible for that to happen? To take another look at things, if your airline prices were kept the same, everyone would buy tickets to leave and would, in turn, make you and your company more money by filling up all of the seats in every aircraft. By increasing prices so much, less and less people are able to afford tickets which means that less tickets will be bought, leaving valuable seats open causing a waste of space. By keeping prices realistic, you would be saving lives in the process of making larger profits, a win win
Rivalry is one of the main issues in this industry. While rivalry may not typically doom an industry, the airline industry is too dependent on the ability to dictate price on its most popular routes to drive overall profitability. Airlines depend on these routes, called ‘city pairs”, to bring customers in as they are popular with them. Airlines enter these routes, hoping to attract these customers, which puts too many seats for these city pairs, thus making supply exceed demand. To compete, airlines drop their fares, many times to the point of eliminating profitability. Airlines are then unable to pull out of the city pair because they would risk losing too many customers which they hopefully can build loyalty with so they will fly with them on profitable ...
The Airline Industry is a fascinating market. It has been one of the few industries to reach astounding milestones. For example, over 200 airlines have gone out of business since deregulation occurred in 1978. Currently, more than 50% of the airlines in the industry are operating under Chapter 11 regulations. Since 9/11, four of the six large carriers have filed for and are currently under bankruptcy court protection. Since 9/11 the industry has lost over $30 billion dollars, and this loss continues to increase. Despite the fact that the airline industry is in a state of despair, JetBlue has become the golden example, a glimpse of what the industry could be.
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?
In the article Under Water by Kate Sheppard, the author addresses the issue of natural disaster more specifically super-storms that highly endanger people who live on coastal counties throughout the U.S. Sheppard primarily addresses this article to the 39% of American population who live on coastal counties that are likely to get flooded, and to the governmental authorities who rather spend billions of dollars fixing damages caused by super-storms instead of taking precautions to prepare for them. Sheppard relies on extrinsic proofs to claim that people pretend like there will not be another major super-storm that will happen in the near future while weather changes and data have shown otherwise, and as
Mother Nature cannot be controlled and as humans we are forced to deal with various natural disasters. We have earth quakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes and many other types of events that are weather driven. Many natural disasters affect our everyday lives and individuals may be forced to safe areas to protect themselves from potential danger. Natural disasters can also place a financial burden on people in affected communities. Hurricanes are strong storms that have been hitting the United States for as long as history can remember. Many hurricanes have hit the southeastern part of the United States the past 100 years. Some of these hurricanes have left little effect of society while others have scarred into the history
In certain areas of the world hurricanes are a part to life and although Katrina looked as if it was going to be a rough and dangerous storm many people who live in the gulf thought they would be able to handle what was storm had to offer. The storm itself, while although dangerous and cause damage it was the infrastructure and the levy the really ended up turning this disaster to the magnitude it ended up being. Hurricane Katrina provided to be a storm that not only the citizens were not able to handle but also the government was ill prepared for.
Hurricanes are natural occurrences that cannot be prevented, only prepared for. The similarities between Hurricane Hugo and Katrina included their size and equally terrifying wrath. Both hurricanes were Category four, with winds that soared up to 160 miles per hour, and engendered intense flooding in the regions they hit. The adverse conditions of Hugo made it the most destructive hurricane to ever strike the United States north of Florida, and one of the costliest hurricanes with over seven billion dollars in damages. When Hugo landed directly in South Carolina, Charleston and Myrtle Beach sustained significant damage from storm surge; the impact was severe. Katrina’s wrath primarily affected New Orleans, causing massive flooding in the city. This catastrophic event nearly destroyed New Orleans, and is responsible for an estimated 80 billion dollars in damages. What makes these two hurricanes strikingly different, however, is the extent of their aftermath. These differences are portrayed clearly through the lack of preparation the government and its citizens displayed when faced with the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.
Their predicament looked particularly awful after 9/11. But the major carriers made it through. While this crisis went on, low ticket competitors such as Southwest and JetBlue picked up the slack and offered greater service in addition to cheaper prices. The Auto Industry should’ve took notes and learned from the flight industry. To say that the government was the only and last option ignores basic market principles. I really don’t believe that the entire auto industry would have gone away for that happening. Chrysler and Ford cost the taxpayers more than $1 billion and America also records the loss of ownership of an iconic brand. GM cost taxpayers more than $10 billion and we won’t reap benefits from any future upside of that company. Ultimately, we spent more than six figures per job to "save" them from an imaginary end and end up with billions that won't be regained. Bottom line, our government shouldn't be picking winners and losers and deciding what companies should receive taxpayer assistance and which shouldn't without taxpayers say on the topics. Also, they shouldn't be prioritizing certain groups' interests over others and shouldn't have
Lower prices draw a larger audience. When tickets are inexpensive and in high-demand, audiences are drawn to that event, thus creating a
In conclusion, you may be concerned about leaving your homes, but with a category 5 hurricane, it is necessary. We do not want anyone to get hurt. This is the best possible way to keep everybody safe. We hope you agree with our decisions and will stay safe by evacuating the
They weren’t even close to being successful, and the price was still outrageous. Many people take their whole families, as well, so it would reach a much higher cost that way. Once again, that’s the cost of a ticket, not other snacks, gas money, or parking. Considering the amount of
This was a sad day for everyone in both the immediate and extended “Delta family,” a day perhaps as sad in its own way as the death of Mr. Woolman almost 40 years before. The sadness mixes with fear by employees and retirees, their families, stockholders, customers, vendors, taxpayers, governments and all others among the tens of thousands impacted by the bankruptcy. Leadership decisions by Delta’s Board and CEO’s over a long period of years laid the foundation for Delta to be in a position where the factors would have a large enough impact to result in bankruptcy. By promoting Ron Allen to CEO, primarily because he had moved up the chairs in the company through Beeb’s efforts, the Board showed their lack of awareness of the need for a strategist to deal with the fundamental changes taking place in the airline industry. Then the Board brought in Leo Mullin and gave him free rein for 6 ½ years to turn a cash rich company into one in such poor shape financially that his successor had to turn to expensive sources of money to keep the company
In April 1992, American Airlines launched "Value Pricing" -- a radical simplification of the complex pricing structure that had evolved over more than a decade following deregulation of the U.S. domestic airline industry. American expected that the new pricing structure would benefit consumers and restore profitability to both American and the industry as a whole. The critical issue raised is: Would American's bold initiative work?
...he government of Louisiana soon came up with new criteria on how future structure should be built to withstand more natural disasters like these. Not only knowing basic information, knowing how to prepare, and seeing how Hurricane Katrina was so destructive should help the forty five million citizens that live on hurricane prone coastlines prepare for anything like this in the future.
This lack of preparation takes place in different places and involves different hazards. In the case of a hurricane, only half of all respondents living in Central Florida have a hurricane evacuation plan in place (Kapucu, 2008). Another finding revealed that only 8 percent of all respondents have prepared a disaster supplies kit at home. Kenny (2009) found that most residents in South Florida, a hurricane-prone area, failed to take preparatory measures such as securing bottled water and food when storms strike. In another place and a different hazard, the results of the study demonstrated the same finding.