SUBMITTED TO:

Prof. Minhaj Bhatti

SUBMITTED BY: Zohaib Shakoor Zohaib Asghar Syed Nayyar Sajjad Jawwad Asif

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to God, the Cherisher and

Sustainer of the world; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. You do us worship, and Your aid we seek. Show us the straightway, the way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to Allah, Who enables us to complete this project on Air Blue effectively. We are also thankful to our respected teacher Minhaj Bhatti, because without his generous co-operation and direction, the accomplishment of this project would not be possible.

Dedication

To our Loving Parents and Honorable Teachers.

Mission Statement:
Air blue will be recognized as the most progressive enterprise in the transportation business. We will offer our customers cost effective transportation service within geographical areas and market segments that can benefit from our services and will insure a return on investment and growth rate consistent with current management guidelines.

Vision:
Our vision is to make Air blue the most admired airline in the world.

Ensuring safety comes first Providing services straight from the heart

 Delivering superior financial returns Providing rewarding career opportunities

Introduction:
Air blue is a private airline based in Karachi, Pakistan. It is Pakistans second largest airline with over 30% share of the domestic market. Air blue operates scheduled flights operating 30 daily services linking four domestic destinations and international services to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Muscatand, and Manchester. It carried 1.4 million passengers on passengers on domestic flights in the 2006-07 fiscal years. Its main base is Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. Starting in 2004, air blues fleet of next-generation Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft began offering world-class travel to many cities within Pakistan. Air blue now offers flights to five international destinations:

UAE airports Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, as well as Muscat, Oman and Manchester, UK. Led by a team with decades of experience in the industry, air blue embodies a new era in passenger air travel.

History of Air Blue:

The airline was established in 2003 and started operations on 18 June 2004 with 3 leased Airbus A320-200 air craft serving Karachi-Lahore and Karachi Islamabad with three daily flights in each direction. The air line was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. During the first year the airline became very popular, which allowed the airline to compete directly with the flag carrier PIA and the two other private carriers. This allowed the airline to expand into more cities in Pakistan including Peshawar, Quetta and Nawabshah. On 14 August 2005 (Pakistans 58th Independence Day) Air blue launched its first international flight from Karachi to Dubai. On June 4, 2007, Air blue launched its inaugural to Manchester using the Airbus A321.

SWOT Analysis:

3 The SWOT analysis is the process of analyzing organizations

and their environments based on their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This includes the environmental analysis, the process of scanning the business environment for threats and opportunities, which is considered as external factors, and the organizational analysis, the process of analyzing a firms strengths and weaknesses as internal factor

The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weakness of the company.

Strengths
1. Leading Market Position 2. Brand Recognition 3. Superior Operating Structure 4. Network Presence 5. Hub airport at Karachi

Weaknesses

1. Route and fleet expansion 2. Growing demand for Low cost airlines 3. Expansion of Freight Business 4. Shifting customer needs 5. Further Alliances 6. Industry Recovery

Opportunities
1. High dependence on Passenger Revenues 2. Debt 3. Reliance on Oil Prices

Threats
1. High Interest Rates 2. Accidents 3. Strong Competition 4. Interest and foreign currency exchange rates 5. Decline in airline industry

Achievements:

First airline in Pakistan and only the third carrier in the region behind Emirates and Royal Jordanian to introduce the state-of-the-art self-service check-in facilities at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi.

First private airline in Pakistan to initiate long-haul services on (Islamabad-Manchester) sector.

First private airline within Pakistan to place an order for new aircraft.

First airline in Pakistan to start e-ticketing.

First airline in Pakistan to start self check in kiosks (Karachi)

Airblue makes a fuel stop at Trabzon in Turkey when flying to and from Manchester. This route is the longest route operated by an Airbus A321 aircraft in the world, and the longest scheduled route operated by an Airbus narrow body aircraft.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

In march 2008, Airblue launched the Plant-A-Tree program. It involved planting of 1 million tree throughout the Pakistan in this year.

Airblue launched a relief campaign for the IDPs of Swat Valley.

It joined hands with HelpCount. Org to provide relief to the

 victims of Swat Valley.

Joint Venture:

To comply with Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations the airline started operating on socio-economic routes by flying to Nawabsha in central Sindh however the service was soon suspended because of low passenger load factors and the unsuitability of the A320 aircraft for this route. The suspension meant that Airblue was not compliant with CAA regulations and therefore had to incur penalty fees. To overcome the issue of non-compliance Airblue entered into a joint venture with start-up charter airline JS Air to operate flights on its behalf on

socio-economic routes. This represented the first time in Pakistani aviation history that 2 air operators entered into a joint venture arrangement. The first destination under this agreement was the port city of Gwadar which was connected to the Airblue network on 17 June and was served twice daily, except Fridays, from Karachi. The flights were operated using JS Air's 19 seater Beech 1900C aircraft which are specifically suited to serving low yield 'commuter' destinations. This service was also suspended in 2007 due to insufficient demand despite using suitable aircraft.

Structure of Airblue:

Ground Services:
Passengers may check-in between two to 48 hours prior to flight departure. This may be done over the counter or at the self-service kiosks. Currently self service kiosks are available at Jinnah International Airport. Dnata the aviation services company handles the ground and

passenger handling for the airline at all of the airports the airline operates from. Gate Gourmet provides food and beverage services to the airline.

Cargo Services:
Airblue have launched e-Cargo service to cater to air freight markets of Pakistan, UAE and UK. According to a press release, e-Cargo will broaden the base of cargo and permit certified agents to book freight directly online opening the inventory through the web.

Customer service:
At airblue, we strive to provide you with the best tools to help you with your online travel reservations. This includes online help resources, such as answers to "Frequently Asked Questions" and email assistance. We also staff a 24-hour call center to book travel and answer questions.

Special Services:

Cabin:
Airblue currently operates a mixture of Air bus A321, A320 and A319. All aircraft are in a 3 by 3 all economy layout. There are several overhead screens located after several rows. The airline dropped its Business class section due to exogenous economic factors. The layout was 2 by 2 with in-flight televisions and leather seating.

E-Ticketing:
Airblue was the first airline in Pakistan to introduce e-ticketing, wireless check-in and self check-in kiosk facilities. The airline also became a member of Sabre system that is used by over a hundred airlines to help it with ticket automation service.

Payment Locations:
Karachi.
Lahore.

Islamabad. Rawalpindi. Faisalabad. Mirpur. Dubai. Abu-Dhabi, UAE.

 Mascat, Oman. Manchester.

Frequent Flyer Program:

Airblue frequent flyer program is called Blue Miles. Passengers are able to initially start on the base level where sign up is free. Once passenger earn enough miles, then are upgrades to the Blue Card followed by the Platinum Card. In May 2009, the airline formed an alliance with The Royal Bank of Scotland Limited (RBS) to launch its summer promotion on its credit cards.

Expansion Plan:
Airblue have some future plans to expand its activities. It decided to make route on some new destinations in different countries as follow:
Bahrain Bangkok Birmingham Colombo

 Copenhagen Delhi Dhaka Jeddah

Kuwait London Singapore At home Airblue plan to make route in Sialkot and Multan.