OUTLINE PRESENTATION

1. INTRODUCTION
2. MAIN TEXT
3. SWOT ANALYSIS
4. PESTLE ANALYSIS
5. CONCLUSION
6. REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic
International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The
airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and was originally planned
by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and
the Falkland Islands. Soon after changing the name to Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fields
sold his shares in the company after disagreements with Sir Richard Branson over the
management of the company. The maiden flight from Gatwick Airport to Newark
Liberty International Airport took place on 22 June 1984.
The airline along with Virgin Holidays is controlled by a holding company, Virgin
Atlantic Limited, which is 51% owned by the Virgin Group and 49% by Delta Air Lines.
It is administratively separate from other Virgin-branded airlines.
Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited both hold Civil
Aviation Authority (CAA) Type A Operating Licences (AOC numbers 534] and 2435
respectively), both of which permit these airlines, operating as Virgin Atlantic Airways,
to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.
Virgin Atlantic uses a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-body aircraft and operates
to destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from
its main base at Heathrow, and its secondary base at Manchester. The airline also
operates seasonal flights from Glasgow and Belfast. Virgin Atlantic aircraft consist of
three cabins: Economy, Premium (formerly Premium economy) and Upper Class
(business).
In July 2017, Virgin Atlantic announced its intention to form a joint venture with Air
France–KLM, but in December 2019, it was announced that the joint venture would
not include a stake in the company.
On 5 May 2020, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline
would be laying off 3000 staff, reducing the fleet size to 35 by the summer of 2022,
retiring the Boeing 747-400s and would not be resuming operations from Gatwick
following the pandemic.
Virgin Atlantic filed for Chapter 15 Bankruptcy Protection in New York on 4 August
2020 as part of a £1.2 billion private refinancing package.
MAIN TEXT
Virgin Atlantic uses Microsoft Power Platform to do a safety and compliance audit for
their aircraft. Aircraft engineers use a simple Power Apps canvas app on their mobile
devices, with pre-loaded checklists to perform ad-hoc and scheduled inspections.
Manuela Pichler manages a quick-win development team called “IT Lite” at Virgin
Atlantic. Her team consists of SharePoint and Dynamics experts along with full stack
.NET developers. They work closely with internal stakeholders and departments
enabling them on their journey to digital transformation. Manuela was passionate
about Office 365 and is now using the Power Platform in conjunction with Office 365
and Dynamics 365 to provide new ways of working for various business departments.
In 2017, Virgin Atlantic embarked on a “Connected Engineer” project where all aircraft
engineers were equipped with iPads to ensure they could access the systems and tools
they needed at the time they needed them. Following on from this, Manuela’s team
began analyzing many of the legacy paper-based process with the goal of creating
mobile friendly solutions that will make their engineers more productive and efficient.
Their goal is to help them spend their time and energy focusing on the task they are
carrying out, rather than on paperwork.
One of these paper-based processes was: Safety and Compliance Audits. As part of
Engineering’s continuous improvement strategy, there is a corporate requirement to
provide more accountability of the individual departments within Engineering. The role of
Virgin Atlantic engineering within this mandate is: “To implement a self-monitoring process
using available technology and identify areas of focus and trends (non-compliance) in real
time.”
The Engineering Compliance team needed a way to review audit findings, take action
immediately, view trends and identify improvements based on the findings. The engineers,
with their new iPads, needed an audit process that was simple and quick and not take
them away from their working environment.
• There were several challenges with this process:
• There was no automation, and no dashboard to visualize the findings. As a result,
engineers couldn’t take appropriate action on the most critical items.
• The engineers were spending time away from their working environment to complete
audits on paper.
• They needed the process to be simple and quick. To fulfill this need, the Engineering
Maintenance department looked at purchasing licenses for audit tools, some with a
cost of £25,000 per year. However, following analysis of these tools neither of them
could quite meet the very specific requirements of the Engineering department. They
were unable to find a suitable stable and supported solution that met their exact needs.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
• Virgin Brand recognized by 98% of British Public.
• Clients expect good customer service in each separate class
Business/Economy.
• Virgin Atlantic introduced innovative technology: including in flight
music, ice cream, games, and movies.
• New in flight innovation is offered to gold club holders or J-class with
lounges offering quality food and comfort.
• Quality trained employees recruited from other airlines.
• Virgin Atlantic is spawned from as a private company allowing for
other Virgin brands and more control.
• Richard Branson’s innovative entrepreneurial management.
Weaknesses
• Flight delays: need to improve flight efficiency.
• The travel routes are limited.
• Hot Air magazine separate from traditional airline advertising
magazines
• including articles and marketing advertising.
• Cut routes to Chicago, Toronto, and Cape in relation to the September
11 tragedy.
• Late getting on the Internet “Missed the Boat” for web site, web
page, and ecommerce.
• Richard Branson is a one man manager being the owner and director
of multiple companies.
• Costs associated in the overhead of keeping two five star chefs,
lounge, and limo service.
• Virgin’s reliance on Trans Atlantic traffic makes them more vulnerable
to the drop in demand for travel to and from the U.S.
Opportunities
• Strategic Marketing above the rest utilizing by being innovative, fun,
maintaining values, caring, and produce quality.
• Technology adds improvements (Galileo) an advanced inventory
system.
• In flight Internet connection.
• Web site needs to be improved possible weakness for e-commerce
and regular web site navigation.
• Generate additional routes.
• Virgin Galactic, we are flying into outer space.
• Warehouse facility -Heathrow, London.
• Recession may be an unexpected opportunity for investment.
• On-line strategy in targeting branding and ongoing ad campaigns,
through on-line media planning and buying account.
Threats
• Recession, September 11th will and has affected the entire airline industry, order
cancellations, risk aversion for flying customers
• Brand Dilution by a rapid expanding brand image may be too global and
not focused towards the important products.
• Competition for routes British and United.
• Fuel prices are fluctuating, which accounts for 15% of total airline expense.
PESTLE ANALYSIS
• Political – Taxes that they get charged in different countries for landing, fuel
taxation etc.
• Economic – e.g. How does interest rate movement affext their long term
debt? How as their economic performance compared to the market sector?
P/E ratios etc. Oil prices increasing, is this affecting their profits from
increased fuel costs?
• Social – Safety measures they employ on board and on the ground.
Populations growth – does an ageing population affect them i.e. baby
boomers, lots of people in that life stage have more disposable income to
spend….
• Technological – As things improve technology becomes cheaper. How does
this affect them? Does this mean the entries to barrier are lower for
competitors to join? Do easy jet have a big R&D dept?
• Legal – Different legalities of different countries – some stricter than others 
• Environment – carbon offsetting.
 CONCLUSION
The British airline giant, Virgin Atlantic (which is a trading name of Virgin
Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited) has
accomplished success in expanding its business globally by the dint of
the implementation of the right business strategy at the right time.
Since 2016 the operating income of the Company is on the rise and this
is owing to the impeccable business strategy that Virgin Atlantic has
been able to introduce and implement. A SWOT and PESTLE analysis of
the Company is essential to strengthen the Virgin Atlantic case study
and to determine how the Company is operating within a given business
environment adapting to different business challenges. It is in order to
assess and evaluate the efficacy of the business position of Virgin
Atlantic that the Virgin Atlantic case study has become an imperative.
 REFERENCES
• Atras, A 2013, ‘Virgin Atlantic’s branding on social media: leveraging
brand attitudes and brand activity’, Brand Base, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-
13, Web.
• Carter, J 2014, Marketing Plan Example: Virgin Atlantic Little
Red, GRIN Verlag, London.
• Chaffey, D & White, G 2010, Business Information
Management, Financial Times Management, London.
• Notis, I 2015, ‘Virgin Atlantic Airways: a look inside the airline’s green
initiatives’, CU Scholar, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-45, Web.
• Scarborough, N & Cornwall, J 2014, Entrepreneurship and Effective
Small Business Management, Pearson, New York.
• Virgin Atlantic 2016, Web.