Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Airline Industry Analysis
Airline Industry Analysis
ISMA meeting scheduled for today has been postponed for a weekJan 28, 4:30 to 5:30 College 8, room 240. Speaker is JP LeBlanc, Director of RAD Development, Borland
Airline Industry analysis using the Porter Competitive Model as a clearly defined industry. Revisit Business Strategy Model. Lessons Learned from Consistently Profitable Carriers. Is American Airlines the right standard for the US industry? Importance of Information Technology to the Airline Industry.
Singapore Airlines
Geographic Location, National Strategies, Leadership in IT, Competitive Strategies
Southwest Airlines
Aircraft Utilization, Focus on City Pairs, Pointto-Point Route Structure, Corporate Culture, Cost Savings in Reservation System
American Airlines
Largest airline in the US versus United while also a contender on the international level. A premium service airline with a hub and stoke route structure.
Foreign Carriers Regional Carrier Start ups Cargo Carrier Business Strategy Change
Intra-Industry Rivalry
SBU: American Airlines Rivals: United, Delta, US Air, Northwest, Southwest
Alternate Travel Services Fast Trains Boats Private Transportation Videoconferencing Groupware
Figure 4-2
ROUTES AND ROUTE STRUCTURE Short Haul Hub and Spoke Modified compared to the example in the textbook. Long Haul Point to Point
COMPANY STRUCTURE
Independent
Alliances
Convenience to Customers
Reservation System, Request hotels, car.
Knowledge of Customers
Frequent-Flyer Program: AAdvantage.
-Financial Policy - Accounting -Regulatory Compliance - Legal - Community Affairs Flight, route and yield analyst training Pilot Training Safety Training Baggage Handling Training Agent Training Product Development Market Research In-flight Training Baggage Tracking System
Computer Reservation System, In-flight System Flight Scheduling System, Yield Management System
PROCUREMENT
Route Selection Passenger Service System Yield Management System (Pricing) Fuel Flight Scheduling Crew Scheduling Facilities Planning Aircraft Acquisition
INBOUND LOGISTICS
OPERATIONS
OUTBOUND LOGISTICS
SERVICE
Adapted with the permission of Michael E. Porter from Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, copyright 1985 by Michael E. Porter.
Figure 4-3
Conclusions
The Airline Industry is a vivid example of the dynamics of the market that it serves. Shows that establishing strategies dictated by the market is critical. Once the right strategies have been identified, information systems can play an important supporting role.
Chapter 4
Porter Competitive Model and the Airline Industry
We must look at the world as it is versus how airlines would like it to be.
Robert L. Crandall
Return to Investors.
Country Strategic Resource.
Airline Profitability
Profitability = [yield X load factor] - cost In order to survive and profit in this tough environment, airlines attempt to manipulate three main variables: Cost, calculated as total operating expenses divided by available seat miles (ASM) Yield, calculated as total operating revenues divided by the number of revenue passenger miles (RPM) Load Factor, calculated as the ratio between RPMs and ASMs, which measures capacity utilization.
The commission questioned some of the most basic assumptions that have formed the foundation of policy toward this industry--and behavior within it--for the past half century.
It also questioned whether the airline industry has basic structural problems or if it is just a collection of poorly managed companies.
Commission Findings
The Airline Industry is more competitive than before deregulation in 1978. Travelers and shippers are charged less than in 1978. The Airline Industry has never made a sustained, substantial return on investment. It lost huge amounts of money from 1990 to 1993. It canceled many aircraft orders shortly after an unprecedented buying binge. Its freedom to compete in international markets is uncertain because of government restrictions.
Commission Conclusions
For the U.S. to prosper in a global marketplace the airline industry must:
Be efficient and technologically superior. Have the financial strength to respond to rapid change and opportunity.
Efficiently move people, products and services to markets, wherever they exist.
Recommendations
Efficiency: Reinvent the FAA. Financial Health: Deal with factors that impact the financial health of the industry. Access to Foreign Markets: Replace the current bilateral system with a multi-national regime.
To return their balance sheets to respectability, most airlines would have to achieve profit margins that are almost unprecedented in their history, and sustain those margins for years.
September 11 Impact
An absolute disaster for the industry.
The Gulf War. The general decline in the world economy. Aircraft fuel price increases. Wages, work rules and work patterns. Chapter 11 bankruptcy airlines. Excess capacity. A very capital intensive business. Too many years as regulated airlines.
Airline Industry
The shock of September 11th has forced airlines to face an awkward fact: in some respects, aviation is a declining industry.
The Economist
International Travel
International travel from America has been hit even harder: the number of Americans flying across the Atlantic is down by over 30%. Never mind that more people are killed on America's roads every three months than have died in the entire history of commercial aviation.
12
530
20,818
Load Factors
Despite cutting capacity, the big American airlines are still flying with planes barely 60% fulla figure that would be much lower were it not for hefty discounts. Boeing and Airbus, the two manufacturers of large jetliners, are offering airlines special financing deals to pay for their purchases in order to stave off outright cancellations. The last time the airlines were in such straits, during the Gulf war and recession in 1990-92, it took them four years to return to profit, even though traffic recovered within a year.
European Airlines
The situation in Europe is no better. Two flag carriers, Swissair and Sabena, have collapsed since the terrorist attacks. Other big carriers, such as British Airways (BA) and KLM, are in major financial trouble. Traffic within Europe fell by over 10% in September and October 2001, while traffic from Europe to America and Asia fell by 35% and 17% respectively.
Financial Picture
Although air travel, measured by number of passengerkilometers flown, has long risen faster than economic growth, airline revenues have lagged world GDP growth for the past 20 years in real terms,
Revenues and profits per seat have been falling because of greater competition springing from deregulation, first in America and then within Europe and across the Atlantic. Even before the latest slump only a third of mainstream airlines in Europe, America and Asia earned enough to cover their cost of capital, which is 8% on average.
America's airlines are retreating to their strongholds in the hub airports they dominate, such as Dallas-Fort Worth (American) and Atlanta (Delta). Most airlines have cut at least one wave of coordinated flights in and out of their hubs. If additional security checks are introduced for transferring passengers before they board their outbound flights, and the handling of such travelers thus slows down, some observers expect the airlines to switch to fewer flights in larger aircraft.
European Changes
In Europe, where the failure of Swissair and Sabena has shown that there is room for only a handful of mainstream carriers rather than today's 14, a shake-out is already under way.
Airline executives and industry analysts note that the September 11 attacks, while devastating, are not the root cause of the financial crisis gripping major network carriers.
The crux of the problem is a combination of excessive costs in relation to carriers' current and projected revenues, an imbalance between the supply and demand for available airline seats, and an inability to boost air fares.
Corrective Actions
U.S. airlines have axed more than 70,000 jobs. In addition, some unions representing many of the industry's employees have made a commitment to work with management to help the carriers compete more effectively with low-cost rivals. It will take much more than concessions by labor for major U.S. airlines to solve their financial problems.
The financial problems carriers are suffering could actually worsen in coming months if the U.S. goes to war with Iraq. The U.S. airline industry cannot take another major hit. A brief war doesn't qualify but a messy, extended war or another significant domestic terrorist attack does.
Southwest could pass American to become the largest U.S. airline by 2013, and JetBlue could pass Delta to become the third largest by 2020.
A Sobering Fact
Before September 11, 2001, the global industry was showing a net loss on international services of around $3 billion.
Corrective Actions
Reduced capacity. Older aircraft may never return to service. Reduced wage pressures.
The agreement will be the biggest in the industry. US Airways and United Airlines have a similar agreement and Continental have some shared routes in a deal that dates to 1998.
American Airlines
American Airlines asked its employees to come to the aid of the carrier, saying they have no time to waste if they want to keep the financially strapped airline in business.
The plea comes as two major unions at the world's largest carrier consider a company request to freeze their wages and another union is trying to hammer out a new contract.
Company management says carriers that have reduced costs through bankruptcy protection have put even more pressure on AMR.
American Airlines
American asked union leaders to start holding weekly meetings, as early as next, week with company management in a collaborative process. The move comes as United Airlines is trying to squeeze large wage cuts from its employees as it undergoes restructuring under bankruptcy protection. About a month ago, American asked its employees to forgo pay increases. The union that represents flight attendants at American said it is taking a close look at the company's finances and may decide at the end of this month whether to forgo pay increases scheduled for this year.
Continuing Concerns
1. Fuel costs
2. Decisions regarding passenger services like whether to charge for food, the need for more electronic capabilities. 3. Upgrading aircraft. 4. Route strategies. 5. Union relations. 6. Relations with travel agents.
Foreign Carriers Regional Carrier Start ups Cargo Carrier Business Strategy Change
Intra-Industry Rivalry
SBU: American Airlines Rivals: United, Delta, US Air, Northwest, Southwest
Alternate Travel Services Fast Trains Boats Private Transportation Videoconferencing Groupware
Figure 4-2
ROUTES AND ROUTE STRUCTURE Short Haul Hub and Spoke Modified compared to the example in the textbook. Long Haul Point to Point
COMPANY STRUCTURE
Independent
Alliances
-Financial Policy - Accounting -Regulatory Compliance - Legal - Community Affairs Flight, route and yield analyst training Pilot Training Safety Training Baggage Handling Training Agent Training Product Development Market Research In-flight Training Baggage Tracking System
Computer Reservation System, In-flight System Flight Scheduling System, Yield Management System
PROCUREMENT
Route Selection Passenger Service System Yield Management System (Pricing) Fuel Flight Scheduling Crew Scheduling Facilities Planning Aircraft Acquisition
INBOUND LOGISTICS
OPERATIONS
OUTBOUND LOGISTICS
SERVICE
Adapted with the permission of Michael E. Porter from Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, copyright 1985 by Michael E. Porter.
Figure 4-3
Singapore Airlines
Consistently profitable but experiencing profit pressures. Winner of multiple awards for airline excellence. An extension of the country strategy to be the business and travel gateway to Southeast Asia. An impressive travel infrastructure. Leader of the Orient Airlines Association (OAA) Abacus reservation system. Price collusion on major routes. Nervous regarding U.S. carrier price competition.
Continuous Training.
Internal Communications. Consistent External Communications. Connection with Customers. Benchmarking.
Southwest Airlines
A U.S. carrier success story. Commuter airline that concentrates on city pairs. (Average flight is 400 miles or less and takes less than one hour) CEO Herb Kelleher, a Connecticut attorney turned Texan, had the best labor relations in the industry and an excellent company culture. Lowest cost structure in the industry. Company vision was to provide low cost airline service to an increasingly larger number of people. Objective to minimize reservation costs.
2. Focus.
3. Focus
6.
7. 8. 9.
10.
Singapore Airlines Swiss Air Cathay Pacific Midwest Express ** Japan Airlines Quantas ANA Virgin Atlantic Lufthansa KLM-Royal Dutch
11. Finnair 12. British Airways 13. Alaska 14. Air France 15. Varig 16. Aer Lingus 17. Kiwi 18. Air Canada 19. American ** 20. Delta**
Source: Zagat Survey of Frequent Flyers
Safety factors.
Air traffic controllers.
Impact on constituents.
International routes.
Airline Alliances
The Star Alliance is the largest of the major groupings. Consisting of 15 airlines led by United Air Lines and Lufthansa. Star serves about 815 destinations in more than 130 countries.
Oneworld, which is eclipsed by only Star among the major airline alliances, is led by British and American Airlines. Eight airlines offer service to 550 destinations in more than 130 countries. SkyTeam is quickly becoming a major alliance player by serving more than 450 destinations in nearly 100 countries. Led by Air France and Delta, SkyTeam has also consolidated cargo services.
Interplay among government regulations, airline strategies, and airplane capabilities shapes the evolution of world aviation.
Boeing Corp.
Barriers to Entry
Access to airports continues to be impeded by: (1) Federal limits on takeoff and landing slots at the major airports in Chicago, New York, and Washington (2) Long-term, exclusive-use gate leases (3) Perimeter Rules prohibiting flights at New Yorks LaGuardia and Washingtons National airports that exceed a certain distance.
US Industry Strength
Fifteen major US carriers represent the following significance in the world-wide airline industry: 29% of the aircraft
It is a vivid example of the dynamics of the markets that it serves. Establishing strategies dictated by the market is critical. Once the right strategies have been identified, information systems can play an important supporting role.
4. Explain the logic and growth as a competitive strategy and provide two company examples where this was a key
strategy.