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Classic Airlines case study
Aviation oligopoly
Classic Airlines case study
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US Airways Operations in Profile
From the beginnings as a mail carrier in 1939, to becoming part of the world’s largest airline in 2013, US Airways has spurned economic downturns, cut throat competition, and multiple bankruptcies, to survive and become the airline of today. With a hub and spoke system which allows for both the flexibilities of economies of scope and scale, a profile of the airlines history is profiled.
USAIRWAYS IN PROFILE 3
US Airways Operations in Profile
On December 9, 2013, and after timely and complex negotiations, the official merger of US Airways and American Airlines was officially completed. Upon full integration, the merger will have created the world’s largest airline, operated as American Airlines. The new combined companies will employee nearly 100,000 workers, service 6,700 daily system departures, to 330 destinations, throughout 50 countries in the world (American Airlines Newsroom, 2013). In shedding the US Airways brand name and operating as American Airlines, the passage will bring another chapter in the airline’s extensive and colorful history of growth, mergers, and name changes, creating the airline of today (figure1).
USAirways began in 1939 as All American Aviation, a product of the Air Mail Act of 1925, otherwise known as the Kelly Act. The act authorized awarding government mail contracts to private carriers via a bidding process. The company provided air mail service under such contracts to the Alleghany Mountain Region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Eastern Ohio (History of USAir, n.d.).
As the transportation of airmail became more reliable and aircraft designs allowed for the transport of both passengers and mail, the Airmail Act of 1930 was passed. The act realigned payment for pay...
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...he legacy carriers have the potential to create an oligopoly in aviation without controls. As 37 percent of the domestic market is held by discount
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US Airways Operations in Profile carriers, the new mega carrier’s network will create the ability to withstand future competition in the marketplace from new and existing low cost carriers like JetBlue and Southwest (Lifson, 2013). Additionally, these “mega carrier” consolidations will also provide a competitive response to the potential of international cabatoge negotiations currently undergoing within the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Cabotage provides the ability for a foreign carrier to operate domestic routes outside their own country (Yglesias, n.d.), which is not currently allowed by trade law. If approved, the stage will be set for competition of global proportions.
Growth of commercial aviation was greatly influenced when the U.S. Air Mail Service was created in the early 1920’s. The Post Office was one of the first to impose aviation regulations. It required its pilots to be tested, pass medical exams and have at least 500 hours of flying experience. The Post Office set up aircraft inspection schedules and preventive maintenance programs for the pilots to have a safe airplane to fly. These early regulatory requirements improved air carrier safety.
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.
Despite the growth in the market, Qantas International’s market share has been falling over the past 10years, from 34% in FY02 to 16% in FY13. The entry of Virgin Australia in 2000 in part explains this, however Virgin’s growth also coincided with the demise of Ansett in 2001 “… Virgin Blue will initially increase capacity on existing routes while evaluating what c...
In the Travel Pulse article "Airlines Leaving Us Little Choice – Like A Monopoly," posted by Rich Thomaselli, the practice of monopolization is observed in the airline industry. The author criticizes large airlines on their growth that has led to at “93 of the top 100 [airports], one or two airlines controlling a majority of the seats” (Thomaselli). The scornful article was written after recent events that have caused the Department of Justice and five States to sue two of the biggest U.S.
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.
Northwest Airlines began service on October 1, 1926, flying mail between Minneapolis / St. Paul and Chicago. (2) They started passenger transportation in July 7, 1927. (2) Throughout the years Northwest has grown steadily by acquiring new system routes in the northwestern region of the USA.
By 1914 aviation technology was sophisticated enough to make airplanes valuable wartime tools. In 1918, the U.S. government found an important peacetime role for aviation: delivering mail. Entrepreneur Walter T. Varney launched his U.S. "air mail" operation April 6, 1926, marking the birth of commercial aviation in the United States. Because Varney was a predecessor of United, it also marked the birth of the airline.
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).
Shortly after World War I, the U.S. Government discovered the abilities of the modern airplane and created the idea of utilizing aircraft to transport mail across the country. In 1917, Congress approved funding to experiment with the idea of delivering mail by air. By 1920, the Post Office was delivering mail across the entire country, eliminating over 22 hours in delivery times of a coast-to-coast route. With the success of the airmail service and the growing popularity of civil aviation, the U.S. Government recognized the need to develop set standards for civil aviation and in 1926 created the Air Commerce Act of 1926. The Air Commerce Act of 1926 called for the government to regulate air routes, navigation systems, pilot and aircraft licensing and investigation of accidents. The act also controlled how airlines were compensated for mail delivery. Later in 1930, Postmaster General Walter Brown made recommendations which were later known as the Watres Act which consolidated airmail routes and opened the door for longer-term contracts with the airlines. Brown handled the situation regarding new contracts poorly by only inviting a hand selected list of large airlines to the negotiation table. This move pushed smaller airlines to complain and the issue was pushed to Congress. Following congressional hearings President Roosevelt later decided Brown’s scandal was too much to deal with and canceled all mail contracts completely and handed over air mail delivery responsibility to the U.S. Army. That decision was a disaster, and one month later, air mail was handed back over to the private sector. This time, however contract bidding was more structured and fair to all. It was then clear that the airline industry was back in full swing...
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.
Delta Airlines was founded by C.E. Woolman, who was an agriculture extension agent. He was not as aggressive,
Lufthansa, one of the world’s biggest airliners, has divisions handing maintenance, catering and air cargo. Since the World War II the airline industry has never earned its cost of capital over the business cycle (Hitt, 2010). Most of the airline companies have either filed for bankruptcy or are being bailed out by their government. Lufthansa had also gone through these tough times, but had resurfaced to become one of the worlds most profitable airline company. The company adapted a transnational strategy, seeking to achieve both global efficiency and local responsiveness. Lufthansa’s monopoly in Germany came to a halt with the creating of the European Union. All the EU member countries become one regional and therefore the European competition became, an increasingly a local competition. Lufthansa created its regional Hubs, to cater for its domestic market. But the availability of substitutes such as bullet trains and the Euro tunnel, made is necessary for Lufthansa to create short traveling time, customizations and quality standards in the region to achieve a competitive advantage. But outside the EU there are no substitute to air travels as such all the flag carriers are competing in the market, the international airline industry is a highly competitive environment. A new force has also emerged in the world of air travel, in the form of three Gulf airlines with jumbo ambitions. Within a decade Dubai’s Emirates, Qatar Airways and Eithad from Abu Dhabi have between them carried the capacity of two hundred million passengers (Micheal, 2010). The company had to go global and therefore adopted the international corporate-level strategy, where Lufthansa will ope...
Tom, Y. (2009). The perennial crisis of the airline industry: Deregulation and innovation. (Order No. 3351230, The Claremont Graduate University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 662-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304861508?accountid=8364. (304861508).
Since its first grand opening in 1971, Southwest Airlines has shown steady growth, and now carries more passengers than any other low-cost carrier in the world (Wharton, 2010). To expand the business operations, Southwest Airlines took over AirTran in 2010 as a strategy to gain more market share for the Southeast region and international flights. However, the acquisition of AirTran brought upcoming challenges both internally and externally for Southwest Airlines. In this case analysis, the objectives are to focus on the change process post the merger with AirTran, and to evaluate alternatives to address the impacts of the merger. II.
Several large scale, interrelated conditions have affected the airline industry over the past several years in such a manner that every carrier has had to respond in order to remain viable and competitive.