Case Analysis – Tale of Two Airlines in the Network Age
By –AKK
This case analyses Prof. McPherson’s service experience with respect to two Airline carriers, which was not expected in this age of Network and Information Technology and also the service level expectations from the customers. First we analyze the setting/situation, issues Prof. McPherson experienced and his assumptions; and then try to address them. The bottom line: addressing such situations would improve efficiency, customer loyalty, brand name and increased profits
Situation:
* Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport is ranked as one of the busiest international airports. * 3-6PM is one of the busiest times of the day in terms of airline traffic and the number of people
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The technology to communicate between the airlines is available and the customers do expect that the airlines share their passenger information for connecting flights.
Flight to London left 7 minutes before departure time:
Given the time and weather, the airline crew would have been under lot of stress and might be very eager to move on to their next task and also we need to consider operational expenses of a foreign airline. There are multiple issues here: 1. No communication between the two airlines regarding the flight delays and the connecting passengers (already discussed above). 2. The London based Airline could have verified their passenger list and should have identified Prof. McPherson as a Gold card member and a loyal customer and should have taken any one of these actions based on the situation: * Should have waited until the departure time. * Should have an agent at the gate until departure time and should have helped Prof. McPherson with alternative arrangements, if he was late.
London based airlines should be able to access their central database from any place in the world and should have been able to identify their patrons.
Positive note,
British Airways quality of service was affected and that lead to bad reputation due to lack of punctuality and delays. As a result, it was hit with a series of fines in conjunction with new British laws and regulations regarding the aviation business. (Kammishra, 2012)
They over booked the flight and forced paying customers to leave their seats. It just happened that one of them said no and the police was called to remove him forcefully from his seat. Why is the airline allowed to use that kind of force? That might change in the future and the guy might still get his justice, but for that day, what the airline did seems to be unjust, perhaps I don’t have all the facts, but that is the biggest problem today. Lot of story’s get blown out of proportion by media or social media with half the facts missing. And all we do is feel sorry and believe the guy was
This effects the world because it delays flights for thousands of people who need to be at certain places at certain times.
America on September 11, 2001 required that we reform our nation’s aviation security system in fundamental ways. Three years after the Sept. 11 tragedies, how far has airport and airlines come? It depends on the source. While it is important for airports to heighten security after the attacks of 9/11, the policies of profiling passengers are inadequate and a necessitate revision.
be a failure on the airlines part, but rather the nature of the business itself not being able to keep
In this assignment I was assigned the task of comparing 2 different airlines, one being a full service carrier and the other being a lost cost carrier, from United States of America, namely the Delta Airlines and South West Airlines. The points of comparison were market strategies, financial benefits, load factors, contrasting yield, revenues and passenger/cargo loads. The analysis was done on the business model and a long term strategy. Through this it would be known that which airline is performing better than the other. The disruption of air travel through various incidents like the terrorist attacks and global downturn, which can be considered as economic, political and social conditions, effect airlines adversely.
Before September 11, 2001, passenger screening and positive baggage identification was in place because of the high number of hijackings between the 1960’s to the 1980’s and the bombing on Pan Am103. However, “Airlines and airports continued to implement the FAA's rules as cheaply as possible, showing very limited concern for the security implications (Szyliowicz, 2011).” September 11, 2001 changed the way airport security is looked at, which has resulted in new policy and regulations.
This study conducts secondary research with data gathered from various sources, including relevant journal articles, the airline’s annual reports, and other secondary sources. It also applied the ground and blocked time of flight segment provided by R.A.Haeme, et al., (1988), the hub and spoke network structure and the point to point network structure discussed in the study of (Gillen, December 2006) to examine the operational
4. Try to obtain airline cooperation in notifying FBO’s dispatcher about delays and other irregularities.
* Government. The government is a weakness if they change or update some of the regulations that are in place now. This could cause delays and plans to change and take more time between flights.
Even though the narrator narrates that “ even though the delays are costing them a fortune,” the airport manager is not included. The airport manager's response would have helped understand the amount of money which they are spending as well as the tiring work to control people at the airport.
At the onset of the airline industry in the United States, major network airlines were the sole providers of air travel. This multifaceted industry was a difficult industry to break into as a consequence of “sophisticated customer segmentation, hub-and spoke models and costly information systems for reservations, fare wars and intense competition” (Thompson 2008). Shrinkage in airline ticket prices augmented the demand for airline travel. Many markets were simply deserted or over-looked by major network airlines; this is a region a fresh “second tier of service providers” could enter into. This endeavor proved to provide a consumer savings of billions per year. Thus in June of 1971, after a tumultuous battle with other Texas-based
British Airways (BA) is a company that encountered several difficulties back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The poor performances of the organization, was leading the company to failure. BA was offering a service that even though it accomplished the mission of the company, was not providing customer satisfaction. The organization was not taking into consideration the needs of the costumer and was not providing an acceptable customer service experience. “Productivity at BA in the 1970s was strikingly bad, especially in contrast to other leading foreign airlines” (Jick, Peiperl, 2010, p.28). Due to numerous changes, the company increased their revenues and became a respectful and well know organization.
3. Classify and describe the problems each airline faced in implementing its new reservation system. What people, organization, and technology factors caused those problems?
Over 60% of airlines have a strategic plan on how to improve their technique, some with programs underway. An advance in technology in the industry means easy handling of clients and better service provision (Lovelock 2011). Efficiency will be high, easy booking of tickets, fast and sophisticated security checks, reduced paper works and proper communication among others. The right technology will be an essential tool in the performance of this industry.