preview

American Airlines Case Study

Decent Essays

Contents

Part 1: Executive Summary 3
Part 2: Issues Identification 4
Part 3: Environmental & Root Cause Analysis 5
Part 4: Alternatives and Options 6
Part 5: Recommendations 8
Part 6: Implementation Plan 9
Part 7: Monitor and Control 10

Part 1: Executive Summary
With 1988 operating income of $801 million on a revenue of $8.55 billion, American Airlines, Inc. (American), principal subsidiary of Dallas/Fort Worth-based AMR Corporation, was the largest airline in the United States. At year-end 1988 American operated 468 aircraft on 2,200 flights daily to 151 destinations in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, France, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela, and West Germany.
The …show more content…

Pros:
a. To sell deeply discounted seats at the last minute could make additional profit.
b. American Airlines could be known to offer fantastic last minute vacations periodically.
Cons:
a. Focusing solely on marketing in an industry that is undergoing rapid change could be extremely costly in the long run.
b. Marketing would provide short term benefits but concrete improvements by other airlines may leave American behind.
c. Another drawback to an aggressive marketing focus is would skew yield management regression models, most notably overbooking.
Option 2: Upgrade Computerized Reservation System
American Airlines’ “store front” is the computerized reservations system, SABRE (semi-automated business research environment). All sale and cancellation transactions, whether from American Airlines reservations agents or travel agents, pass through SABRE, updating reservations inventory for all affected flights. Because the yield management decision-making process is so large and complex at American Airlines, effective control of the inventory of seats can be accomplished only with more advanced automated models.
Pros:
a. Increase the productivity of yield-management specialists and the reduction in work load can allow them to spend more time reviewing only critical flights thus making better revenue decisions.
b. Instead of being a price follower, the system could guide the company make better pricing strategies.
c. Keep American Airlines leader

Get Access