This dissertation investigates the effect of market concentration on nonlinear pricing strategies in the airline industry. The study develops a theoretical nonlinear pricing model with both discrete product and consumer types to derive testable implications about the impact of market concentration on the structure of relative prices within a menu of prices. The analysis then uses a unique, airline ticket level data set to test the model predictions. The data set consists of a representative sample of airline tickets purchased between June and December 2004 from one major Computer Reservation System (CRS), for travel in the fourth quarter of the same year. The study restricts attention to 246 domestic routes in the United States, resulting in 878,169 tickets. This unique data set allows us to examine the effect of market structure conditions on relative prices within a menu of fare types with restrictive ticket characteristics. The analysis also contributes to the understanding of how the level of competition in a market affects the dispersion of airline prices. The results indicate that market concentration differentially impacts high versus low priced fares, as predicted by the theoretical model. More specifically, there is a decrease in the ratio of high- to low-quality fares as markets become more concentrated, after controlling for numerous factors that may affect prices through costs and market characteristics. The ratio of medium- to low-quality fares, however, increases with less competition. From a welfare perspective, it is interesting to observe that not all travelers are affected in the same way by a decrease in the level of competition. Business travelers, who purchase high priced fares, end up paying relatively lower prices in more concentrated markets while leisure travelers pay more.

The thesis introduces the airline industry and its interconnection with marketing on social medias. At the beginning, in the theoretical part, particularities of the industry explaining the necessity of any kind of marketing are stated. Definitions and categorization of social medias follow together with a detailed description of four of them which will be part of the later analysis. Characteristics of users are mentionned as well since they are highly important for the right segmentation and targeting. The practical part contains the analysis of usage of the chosen medias in marketing of the selected european airlines. It presents popularity of each airline and then it focuses on the most favourite ones with a purpose to reveal reasons of this favour. One chapter is dedicated to successful viral campaigns with recommendations for their formation. At the end, the thesis is summarized and the results of the analysis and suggestions for the future topic extension are added.

This research was conducted to analyse the crisis communication strategy used by Helios Airways after its Flight CY522 crash on 14 August 2005. The objective of the study was: • to examine the communication strategies Helios Airways chose and implemented in order to satisfy the enquiries of stakeholders who had different interests during the crisis. The pre-crisis background of Helios Airways; events related to the crash of Flight CY522, Boeing 737; and events after the crash were discussed. Owing to this, the single case study research approach was followed in conducting this study. Seven main issues emerge from the analysis of the data obtained. • the issue of the safety culture of the airline as discussed by the investigators of the crash; • the issue of compensation and handling of victims’ families; • the issue of the pressurisation defect of the aircraft identified the day before its flight which was not fixed; • the issue of the failure of the Boeing aircraft manufacturer to separate the signal which indicates take-off problems from that of pressurisation problems; • the issue of the government of Cyprus suspending flights after the crash; • the issue of the government of Cyprus Civil Aviation Authority granting a name change for Helios Airways to Ajet; and • the issue of the European Aviation Safety Agency in banning flights of Helios Airways. Denying responsibility, hedging responsibility, making amends, ingratiation and eliciting sympathy strategies were discussed inline with the crash of Helios Airways Flight CY522. Due to the pressurisation defect of the aircraft identified the day before its flight on the 14 August 2005, which was not fixed, the safety culture of the Airline had been perceived by the Cypriot public as low. This together with the delay of the compensation of the victims’ families and the confusing communication strategies, resulted in a negative public image of the Airline. The public insisted on the government of Cyprus banning the flight routes of Helios Airways. Due to those issues, Helios Airways was obliged to change its name to Ajet. However, even after the name change, the public did not accept Helios Airways as an airline of choice. Instead, they continued defaming Ajet in different media. Finally, Ajet ceased all operations and filed for bankruptcy. The major finding of this study is that Helios Airways did not have a crisis communication plan prepared in advance, and as a result, Helios Airways failed to communicate with its stakeholders, mainly the victims’ families and the media, by implementing a mix of inaccurate strategies without knowing exactly those stakeholders’ impact and degrees of involvement. There was no accurate correlation between the investigation progress and results, and the strategies. This can be substantiated from the niche width theory, which explains specialist airlines, as in Helios Airways, tend not to have crisis communication plans prepared in advance and as a result, lack consistency in messages. The general public, the civil aviation authority, and the government perceived the crash to have resulted from the failure of the Airways to fix the pressurisation problems that was identified the day before the crash. This clearly indicates the weakness of the communication strategies and the communication department of the Airways in identifying the perception of the public, and the media and their involvement, and then to align its strategies with the actual circumstances. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Communication Management / MCom / Unrestricted

nÃo hà / This work aims to answer questions regarding the Brazilian aviation market, and how it behaves in terms of oligopolistic competition. That is, there are some firms in this sector competing for the same market, thereby analyzing issues among these firms, you may indicate issues of efficiency in this sector. Using data on market share of each company, and the elasticity of the aviation industry for the year 2009, it was mixed reviews on possible mergers in the airline market in Brazil, giving in each profile that elasticity which would potentially bring a greater distortion for the sector. The methodology for this was the model PCAIDS (Proportionality-Calibrated Almost Ideal Demand System), proposed by Epstein and Rubinfeld (2002) that simulates the merger of two companies in an oligopolistic market, and has an advantage of requiring fewer parameters to your pet than other methodologies. The findings suggest that the merger of GOL TAM will bring a higher price increases than other combinations that were made to give some scenarios that were tested. / Este trabalho visa responder questÃes referentes ao mercado de aviaÃÃo brasileiro e verificar como este se comporta em termos de concorrÃncia oligopolista. Ou seja, existem algumas firmas, neste setor, disputando o mesmo mercado, com isso, analisando questÃes entre essas firmas, à possÃvel indicar questÃes de eficiÃncia neste setor. Utilizando dados sobre a parcela de mercado de cada empresa, e as elasticidades do setor de aviaÃÃo para o ano de 2009, foram feitas vÃrias anÃlises sobre possÃveis fusÃes no mercado aÃreo brasileiro, indicando em cada perfil de elasticidade qual seria a que potencialmente traria uma maior distorÃÃo para o setor. A metodologia para tal processo foi o modelo PCAIDS (Proportionality-Calibrated Almost Ideal Demand System), proposto por Epstein e Rubinfeld (2002), que simula a fusÃo de duas empresas em um mercado oligopolizado, e possui uma vantagem de exigir menos parÃmetros para a sua estimaÃÃo do que as outras metodologias. As conclusÃes apontam que a fusÃo da empresa GOL com a TAM trarà uma maior elevaÃÃo de preÃos do que se outras combinaÃÃes fossem feitas para alguns cenÃrios de elasticidade que foram testados.

<p>This dissertation extends the empirical industrial organization literature with two essays on strategic decisions of firms in imperfectly competitive markets and one essay on how inertia in consumer choice can result in significant welfare losses. Using data from the airline industry I study a well-known puzzle in the literature whereby incumbent firms decrease fares when Southwest Airlines emerges as a potential entrant, but is not (yet) competing directly. In the first essay I describe this so-called Southwest Effect and use reduced-form analysis to offer possible explanations for why firms may choose to forgo profits today rather than wait until Southwest operates the route. The analysis suggests that incumbent firms are attempting to signal to Southwest that entry is unprofitable so as to deter its entry. The second essay develops this theme by extending a classic model from the IO literature, limit pricing, to a dynamic setting. Calibrations indicate the price cuts observed in the data can be captured by a dynamic limit pricing model. The third essay looks at another concentrated industry, mobile telecoms, and studies how inertia in choice (be it inattention or switching costs) can lead to consumers being on poorly matched cellphone plans and how a simple policy proposal can have a considerable effect on welfare.</p> / Dissertation

Global sourcing strategies are becoming important with respect to more globalized world and changing global market. Nowadays, profitability is more complex subject for companies. Moreover, if we come through the airline companies, it will be more confused issue to achieve. Customers are getting knowledge about pricing strategies of different types of aviation industry and this makes customer segmentation more important.Coping with that challenging business requires strong skills on sourcing strategies in human resources, airport and aircraft choices. Hence one of the biggest airline companies was chosen as a case company to observe these strategies.Increasing of flights for all over the world causes more polluted environment. Hence, airline companies need to be more responsible for environmental issues. Sustainability in that business is motivated by customer and related policies. Chosen case company was also reviewed with respect to its corporate social responsibility.According to this thesis a lot of work can be done in order to a get a brief idea for the global sourcing strategies and corporate social responsibility. Authors were discussed that subject and observed its applications in a world-wide airline company. It can be supposed as a well-prepared study with literature review and related reflections.

This diploma thesis addresses the topic of frequent flyer programs for small and medium enterprises. The goal of this thesis is to analyze BlueBiz, the Air France-KLM frequent flyer program for small and medium enterprises, and to propose improvements for this program. The theoretical part consists of an introduction to marketing, commercial communications, and loyalty programs; the analytical part deals directly with the frequent flyer program BlueBiz. The analytical part introduces the airline companies Air France-KLM, and provides an analysis of BlueBiz terms and conditions, an analysis of the competitors' programs, analysis of program's communications and an analysis of BlueBiz awareness. The results of all analyses are summarized in a SWOT analysis, which creates groundwork for designing program's improvements.

Background and problem discussion: Society's increased concern about environmental pollution, the greenhouse effect, climate change and human rights violations have inspired business practices that take greater account of social responsibility. This has led to the fact that since 2017 it is mandatory for companies of a certain size to report non-financial information on how they deal with social and environmental issues in a sustainability report. An industry that has high pressure to report how they work for sustainable development is the aviation industry, but previous studies show that there is uncertainty about how to report sustainability and that it has led to a lack of quality in the reports. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine and add understanding of quality in sustainability reporting. The study also aims to compare sustainability reports over time and examine if the quality within sustainability reporting has changed. Method: This study uses a comparative and longitudinal research design. The study is based on a qualitative research strategy with quantitative elements using a qualitative content analysis. An encoding scheme is used to assess the companies' sustainability reports. Results: The study's empirical data shows that the quality of the sustainability reports within European airlines has improved considerably between 2015-2018, but there is still room for sustainability reporting to develop. Through a review of the companies‟ sustainability reports, you can see a clear direction that the sustainability reports are showing more and more similarities in terms of quality, and the companies have focused most on improving the reporting of trends over time as well as their performance in environmental issues. / Bakgrund och problemformulering: Samhällets ökade oro kring miljöförstöring,växthuseffekten, klimatförändringar och kränkningar av mänskliga rättigheter har inspirerattill affärsmetoder som tar större hänsyn till socialt ansvar. Detta har lett till att det sedan 2017 är obligatoriskt för företag av en viss storlek att redovisa icke-finansiell information kring hur de bemöter sociala och miljörelaterade frågor samt utmaningar i en hållbarhetsrapport. En bransch som har hög press på sig att redovisa på vilket sätt de arbetar för en hållbar utveckling är flygbranschen, men tidigare studier visar att det råder en osäkerhet kring hur man ska hållbarhetsrapportera och att det lett till en bristande kvalité på rapporterna. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka samt tillföra förståelse för kvalité inom hållbarhetsredovisning. Vidare syftar studien till att jämföra hållbarhetsrapporter över tid och undersöka om det skett någon förändring gällande hållbarhetsredovisningens kvalité. Metod: Denna studie använder sig av en komparativ samt longitudinell forskningsdesign. Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med kvantitativa inslag där en kvalitativ innehållsanalys används. Ett kodningsschema används för att undersöka företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Slutsats: Studiens empiri visar att kvalitén på hållbarhetsredovisningen inom Europeiska flygbolag har förbättrats avsevärt mellan år 2015-2018, men det finns ännu stort utrymme för hållbarhetsredovisningen att utvecklas. Genom en granskning av bolagens hållbarhetsrapporter ser man en tydlig riktning mot att hållbarhetsredovisningarna visar alltmer likheter kvalitetsmässigt, och bolagen har lagt mest fokus på att förbättra redovisningen av trender över tiden samt deras prestationer inom miljömässiga frågor.

<p><strong>Frågeställning: </strong>Hur skiljer sig lågprisflygbolagens strategier jämfört med de traditionella, vilken är den vinnande strategin?</p><p><strong>Huvudsyfte: </strong>Genom utvalda teorier<strong> </strong>och nyckeltal jämföra och se skillnader mellan flygbolagens strategier och hur det påverkar lönsamhet och utveckling<strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>Metoder: </strong>En jämförande studie baserad på sekundärdata på fem stora flygbolag för att hitta olikheter i strategier. Främst används bolagens årsredovisningar, vetenskapliga artiklar och relevanta teorier för insamlandet av data.</p><p><strong>Slutsatser: </strong>Biljettpriset inom flygindustrin blir en allt viktigare faktor att anpassa sig efter för överlevnad på marknaden. Lågprisflygen har genom kostnadsreduceringar genom enklare bokningssystem, mindre personalstyrka, avlägsna flygplatser och enhetlig flotta kunnat sätta lägre priser än de traditionella. Detta innebär att effektiviteten har ökat och detta sätter press på de traditionella flygbolagen att kostnadsreducera och utveckla servicen ytterligare för att ha en chans att klara konkurrensen. Marginalerna har blivit mindre vilket pressar ner lönsamheten inom industrin. Traditionella flygbolag behöver anpassa sig efter de nya kraven och omstruktureringar är nödvändigt.</p> / <p><strong>Problem formulation:  </strong>How does the low price airlines strategies differ from the traditional airlines strategy, which is the winning strategy?</p><p><strong>Main purpose: </strong>With chosen theories and key figures see the differences between airlines strategy and how it affects profitability and development.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A comparing study based on secondary data from five big airlines in order to find differences in strategy. Mostly the companies' annual reports, scientific articles and relevant theories are used for the collection of data.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>It is becoming more important to adjust the ticket price on air travelling to survive on the aviation-market. Low-price airlines have been able to lower the ticket price through cost reductions with easier booking systems, smaller workforce, less attractive airports and a uniform fleet. This productivity increase is forcing the traditional airlines to reduce their costs and improve their service to deal with the competition. The marginal's are getting smaller and profitability is getting lower. Traditional airlines have to adjust after the new demands and restructures are needed.</p>

Background: The airline industry is unique and fascinating. It was protected through government controls until the early 1980s. However, due to deregulation policy the industry opened to free competition. As a result, collaborations and alliances were formed and low budget airlines were able to enter the market. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to present the current stage of the European airline industry by investigating the strategies of Ryanair and SAS with the help of strategic management tools. Procedure: Two companies were chosen, Ryanair as a low budget airline and SAS as a mature airline. The investigation was based on secondary data found in financial -, annual -, business - and company reports as well as in independent analyst reports and on the Internet. Results: Ryanair’s and SAS’ strategies differ a lot. While Ryanair is focusing on lowest costs it is able to offer low fare tickets but also puts effort into increasing service. On the other hand, SAS’ complicated situation in the weak industry leads to many strategic adjustments. Its diverse choice of prices and services underlines its current instability. Concerning the European airline industry, moves toward consolidation are observable. The industry is reshaped