WestJet’s competitive priority relates to cost, quality and delivery. Cost – WestJet has been able to reduce its operating costs through standardization. By purchasing only one type of plane WestJet is able lower both maintenance and training costs, resulting in higher profits. These savings and profits allows WestJet to provide lower cost airfares to its customers, thereby having a competitive advantage over its competitors. Quality – WestJet’s culture emphasizes a fun and friendly atmosphere for all travellers and empowers employees with bottom-up management.
IPO is the first sale of shares to the public by a private company like JetBlue. Whether going public is very important because JetBlue can obtain large amount of capital to fund its growth and expansion (i.e. purchase new aircrafts) and to offset the portfolio losses by the venture-capital investors, and JetBlue can also be able to get potential future benefits (e.g. quickly raising large funds from the public and obtain favourable terms from debtors) from listing by changing the debt to equity ratio. Meanwhile, going public can also increase the publicity of JetBlue and attract more potential customers, which may result in a greater market share of JetBlue in the airline industry.
These methods have increased because it helps the business to reduce their expenses and watch their budget more carefully. This links in again with following trends of technological advances. Business travellers will look for budget airline alternatives, and may fly economy instead of business. Because of this, there are more flight and accomondation providers in competition to give their customers the lowest price possible so as they get value for their money. Businesses such as EasyJet and Ryanair have benefit from this.
EasyJet- Case Study 1 Q1. Analyse the structure of the industry in which easyJet competes. How attractive was the industry in the late 1990s? The core objective of easyJet was to establish a sustainable mode of air travel at a price that would be comparatively cheaper to its rivals. By using a framework by (Porter 1980) we can illustrate the compatibility of such a strategy in the existing aviation industry Potential Entrants Despite the high volume of new entrants during the period of easyjet’s inception, only a minority were actually able to survive.
Based on the summary table provided in the text book – the first thing that jumps out is how disproportionate the labor volume/number of employees is to the number of aircraft that the company has. The company has to make some tough decisions in streamlining the labor force to reduce the cost of labor and make itself more competitive with its peers in an industry where competition is stiff at the least. In addition to this the idea that they will be using more regional jets e.g. Mesa Air in medium markets may help alleviate operating costs that are also currently very high. US Airways may also want to look into the option of merging/working with one of the more successful low cost carriers as a strategic partnership 2.
Highly competitive industry 2. Unsuccessful implantation of growth strategy 3. The hiring of competent staff who maintain the culture of JetBlue JetBlue’s strategy of maintain customer excellence and providing needed low cost service is a definite way to stay up above the competition, customers want a low cost airline that gives them what they need in terms of pricing as well as destination. JetBlue, will be in a position of failure if a growth strategy is not in place to increase capital and foresee methods in which to cover debt and make a profit “ Achieving our growth strategy is critical in order for our business to achieve economies of scale and to sustain or increase our profitability” (JetBlue,2004) Gating is an important issue that must be looked at, due to the fact it could limit their sales “We will also need to obtain additional gates at some of our existing destinations. Any condition that would deny, limit or delay our access to airports we seek to serve in the future will constrain our ability to grow” (JetBlue, 2004).
To maximize aircraft utilization, we look for opportunities to operate our fleet in off-peak times when the aircraft would otherwise be idle, to serve markets that may not be as time sensitive or may be better served by evening flights. Through our network and competitive fares, we aim to stimulate demand from guests who would not otherwise travel or from guests who would select another airline. We estimate that when we enter a new market the net effect to that market is an overall increase in traffic. This means we are often able to create new demand. As our Boeing 737 fleet continues to expand and we begin introducing our new Bombardier Q400, we expect that we will be able to establish additional profitable routes in Canada, the U.S. and internationally.
The remodeling of the airline has created a more pleasant atmosphere for the customers. They have specifically targeted business travelers. Southwest’s policy allowing customers to change flights without penalty appealed to customers. But what really made Southwest stand out to both customers were its frequent flights serving a ton of cities at convenient times and low prices. Though
An evaluation of the New zealand travel agency environment. Executive summary The key points that have been established include firstly the buyer power of the industry; it is high as a result of having a large number of suppliers with a concentrated number of buyers, giving the buyers high control. On top of this, supplier power is also high in the industry as the travel agencies are heavily reliant on the commissions of airline tickets. In fact, their income and profitability is contingent to the selling price of the goods and services from the suppliers. Threat of substitutes from such services as internet providers is high and increasing as modern technology becomes more prominent, it is a driving force resulting in the disintermediation of traditional travel agency businesses.
The last decision making principle is the rational people. These people over think things and try to rationalize everything they buy. They also know that lifelong decisions are hardly ever black and white, but also some shades of gray. So if you think about some of the most common things the people buy like airlines ticket. The airlines company may post them online cheaper if people buy them in advance and raise the prices when it gets closer to the