[pt] Esse estudo investiga em que medida o desenvolvimento e introdução de novas aeronaves moldam a estrutura da rede das companhias aéreas. Argumento que aeronaves modernas são mais eficientes e adequadas para operar voos entre cidades menores e menos centrais, favorecendo assim o serviço em mais mercados na periferia da rede. Com dados sobre o tráfego aéreo dos Estados Unidos, utilizo um arcabouço de escolha discreta para modelar as decisões de entrada das companhias e a subsequente escolha de aeronave em cada mercado. Experimentos contrafactuais mostram que, caso o desenvolvimento de tecnologia tivesse cessado em 1999, a rede de tráfego aéreo como um todo estaria mais centralizada, a maioria das companhias estariam operando redes mais centradas em torno de hubs, alcançando menos cidades e servindo menos mercados. / [en] This paper studies to what extent the development of new aircraft shapes airlines network structure. I argue that modern aircraft are more efficient and well suited to operate flights between smaller and less central cities, hence favoring the service of more markets in the periphery of the network. Using U.S. air traffic data, I employ a discrete choice framework to model airlines entry decisions and the subsequent aircraft choice to each market. Counterfactual experiments show that had aircraft technology ceased to improve in 1999, the air traffic network as a whole would be more centralized, airlines would be operating more hub-centered networks, reaching fewer cities, and serving fewer markets.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the changes to marketing strategy of airline companies in Europe due the proliferation of low-cost carriers in Europe. The thesis is divided into three parts. In the theoretical part the marketing strategy framework is established by reviewing the latest literature on marketing theory and its application to the airline industry. The second chapter provides the historical background and shows the specifics of the airline industry in order to determine when the proliferation of low-cost carriers in Europe occurred. It also analyzes the impact the proliferation had on the business operations of the network carriers by looking at the changes to different elements of the marketing mix. Finally the third chapter summarizes the authors research on consumer behavior in the airline industry. The research was conducted through a quantitative questionnaire and it investigates consumers perception of price and brand awareness.

The aim of the thesis is to provide investors and other stakeholders with an approach how to calculate the fair value of a company and its stocks to make an investment decision. As stock market prices are influenced by many events, they rarely reflect the true underlying value of the company. The company investigated in this thesis is the German airline company Lufthansa. A strategic, a financial and a ratio analysis are performed before the fair value is assessed using the discounted cash flow method under three future scenarios. The analyses revealed a possible undervaluation of the company, which led to a buy recommendation for shares of Lufthansa.

In recent years European airspace has become increasingly congested and airlines can now observe that en-route capacity constraints are the fastest growing source of flight delays. In 2010 this source of delay accounted for 19% of all flight delays in Europe and has been increasing with an average yearly rate of 17% from 2005 to 2010. This paper suggests and evaluates an approach to how disruption management can be combined with flight planning in order to create more proactive handling of the kind of disruptions, which are caused by congested airspace. The approach is evaluated using data from a medium size European carrier and estimates a lower bound saving of several million USD.

本論文分為兩部分，第一部份是探討全球航空產業的油料避險會不會對公司價值有所影響，以及油料避險的誘因。第二部份則是檢視全球航空公司的風險曝露會不會影響分析師的預測誤差，尤其是燃油價格變動的風險曝露。 / In the first essay, we examine whether jet fuel hedging increases the market value of airline companies around the world. Using a sample of 70 airline companies from 32 countries over the period 1995 to 2005, we find that jet fuel hedging is not significantly positively related to their firm value in the global airlines, but this positive relationship holds in the various sub-samples and is significant for US and non-alliance firms. Moreover, our results show that the risk-taking behavior of executives and the tendency to avoid financial distress are important determinants for the jet fuel hedging activities of non-US airline companies. Alleviating the problem of underinvestment is also an important factor to explain the jet fuel hedging activities of US and non-alliance firms. Our results add support to the growing body of literature which finds that hedging increases firm value for global airline companies. In the second essay, we examine the extent analysts revise their earnings forecasts in response to oil price, interest rate and foreign exchange rate shocks they have observed during the year, and whether these revisions contain additional information about how current and past price shocks affect reported earnings, using the sample of the global airline industry. Empirical results indicate that jet fuel hedging can increase analysts’ forecast revisions in the total sample, and in the sub-sample of the volatile fuel price period. These results can also be seen in US and non-US airlines, and airlines with both strong and weak governance. Overall, our results show that oil price shocks play an important role in investor and analyst information uncertainty with regard to the global airline industry. Consequently, corporate risk disclosures only provide limited information about firms’ financial risk exposures. Two essays are comprised in this dussertation to examine whether jet fuel hedging has effects on firm value and analysts’ forecast accuracy in the global airline industry. Using global data allows us to cmpare the differences of jet fuel hedging behavior and incentives for hedging across different sub-samples. Furthermore, we also examine how jet fuel hedging affects analysts’ forecast erros across different sub-samples and its implications for firm disclosures about their risk exposures in the financial reports. In the first essay, we examine whether jet fuel hedging increases the market value of airline companies around the world. Using a sample of 70 airline companies from 32 countries over the period 1995 to 2005, we find that jet fuel hedging is not significantly positively related to their firm value in the global airlines, but this positive relationship holds in the various sub-samples and is significant for US and non-alliance firms. Moreover, our results show that the risk-taking behavior of executives and the tendency to avoid financial distress are important determinants for the jet fuel hedging activities of non-US airline companies. Alleviating the problem of underinvestment is also an important factor to explain the jet fuel hedging activities of US and non-alliance firms. Our results add support to the growing body of literature which finds that hedging increases firm value for global airline companies. In the second essay, we examine the extent analysts revise their earnings forecasts in response to oil price, interest rate and foreign exchange rate shocks they have observed during the year, and whether these revisions contain additional information about how current and past price shocks affect reported earnings, using the sample of the global airline industry. Empirical results indicate that jet fuel hedging can increase analysts’ forecast revisions in the total sample, and in the sub-sample of the volatile fuel price period. These results can also be seen in US and non-US airlines, and airlines with both strong and weak governance. Overall, our results show that oil price shocks play an important role in investor and analyst information uncertainty with regard to the global airline industry. Consequently, corporate risk disclosures only provide limited information about firms’ financial risk exposures.

<p> </p><p><strong>The airline industry and Sustainable Value</strong>The airline industry are, by many, considered to be an industry with a high level of environmental impact, in other words an environmental destroyer. Although some argue that it still does only produces a small part of the world’s total emissions it is still an industry under high pressure from regulatory institutions and customers.</p><p>Sustainable value is a rather new concept and allows the user measure a company’s social and/or environmental performance in monetary terms, which is the main difference from many financial calculation models. The ADVANCE sustainable value method is based on theories of opportunity costs and can give indications in terms of efficiency in comparison to a chosen benchmark.<strong>Purpose </strong>With the use of this method we are interested in finding out if an airline can create a <em>sustainable value</em> even though they are performing an activity that, for some, is seen as destroying the environment? The sustainable value method prime users would be stakeholders such as investors and as many companies in the airline industry are non-public companies, we also aim to discuss a wider range of usage for this method such as for the management internal decision process.</p><p><strong>Method</strong>We have chosen three major Swedish airlines to base our calculations on by using a nonprobability selection. We have excluded companies that are not registered in Sweden, does not provide actual passenger transport, are so called “virtual airline” and/or have not any publicly available information. A virtual airline, in this context, refers to an airline that does not own or lease any own aircrafts and instead are buying passenger chairs from another airline, called codesharing. We will benchmark our calculations towards the Swedish GDP and the Swedish Transport sector.</p><p><strong>Theoretical framework</strong>The management’s task is to, among other things, implement measures for the management accountants to use in their work. Corporate Sustainable Responsibility’s (CSR) general idea is to act responsible towards the most important questions for their stakeholders such as investors, government etc. CSR has led to that more sustainability information to stakeholders is produced, the type of information that we are using in our calculations.<strong>Our findings</strong>By the use of the ADVANCE method we can see that in fact airlines, despite the high preasure can create a positive Sustainable Value while comparing to the transport sector. We also argue the method can be used by the management as a complement to their other financial measures as it gives other efficiency indications than traditional methods.</p><p> </p> / <p><strong>Flygbranschen och hållbart värde</strong>Flygbranschen är, av många, ansed vara en industri med hög miljöpåverkan. Även om vissa hävdar att det fortfarande bara bidrar till en liten del av världens totala utsläpp, är det fortfarande en bransch under högt tryck från lagstiftande institutioner och kunder. Hållbart värde är ett tämligen nytt begrepp och tillåter att användaren att mäta ett företags sociala och / eller miljöprestanda i monetära termer, vilken är den största skillnaden från många ekonomiska beräkningsmodeller. ADVANCE Sustainable Value metoden är baserad på teorier om alternativa kostnader och kan ge indikationer i fråga om effektivitet i jämförelse med en vald riktmärke. <strong>Syfte</strong>Med hjälp av denna metod är vi intresserade av att veta om ett flygbolag kan skapa ett hållbart värde trots att de utför en verksamhet som, för vissa, ses som förstör miljön. Metodens främsta användarna är intressenter som investerare. Då många svenska företag i flygbranschen är icke-offentliga bolag, strävar vi också att diskutera en bredare användning för denna metod som för förvaltningen interna beslutsprocessen. <strong>Metod</strong>Vi har valt tre stora svenska flygbolag att basera våra beräkningar på genom att använda en icke sannolikhets urval. Vi har uteslutit företag som inte är registrerade i Sverige, inte ge nuvarande persontransporter, är så kallade "virtuella flygbolag" och / eller inte har någon allmänt tillgänglig information. Ett virtuellt flygbolag, i detta sammanhang hänvisar till ett flygbolag som inte äger eller leasar några egna flygplan och istället köper passagerare stolar från ett annat bolag, kallat code sharing. Vi kommer att jämföra våra beräkningar till den svenska BNP och den svenska transportsektorn. <strong>Teoretiskt ramverk</strong>Ledningens uppgift är att bland annat genomföra åtgärder för förvaltningen revisorer att använda i sitt arbete. Corporate Social Responsobilitys (CSR) allmänna tanken är att agera ansvariga gentemot de viktigaste frågorna för deras intressenter såsom investerare, regeringen osv. CSR har lett till att mer hållbarhets information  produceras, vilken är den typ av information som vi använder i vår beräkningar. <strong>Vårat resultat</strong>Genom användning av metoden kan vi se att det faktiskt finns ett flygbolag som trots det höga trycket kan skapa ett positivt hållbart värde när vi jämför mot transportsektorn. Vi hävdar också att metoden kan användas av ledningen som ett komplement till sina andra ekonomiska verktyg eftersom det ger andra effektivitet indikationer än traditionella metoder.</p>

The airline industry and Sustainable ValueThe airline industry are, by many, considered to be an industry with a high level of environmental impact, in other words an environmental destroyer. Although some argue that it still does only produces a small part of the world’s total emissions it is still an industry under high pressure from regulatory institutions and customers. Sustainable value is a rather new concept and allows the user measure a company’s social and/or environmental performance in monetary terms, which is the main difference from many financial calculation models. The ADVANCE sustainable value method is based on theories of opportunity costs and can give indications in terms of efficiency in comparison to a chosen benchmark.Purpose With the use of this method we are interested in finding out if an airline can create a sustainable value even though they are performing an activity that, for some, is seen as destroying the environment? The sustainable value method prime users would be stakeholders such as investors and as many companies in the airline industry are non-public companies, we also aim to discuss a wider range of usage for this method such as for the management internal decision process. MethodWe have chosen three major Swedish airlines to base our calculations on by using a nonprobability selection. We have excluded companies that are not registered in Sweden, does not provide actual passenger transport, are so called “virtual airline” and/or have not any publicly available information. A virtual airline, in this context, refers to an airline that does not own or lease any own aircrafts and instead are buying passenger chairs from another airline, called codesharing. We will benchmark our calculations towards the Swedish GDP and the Swedish Transport sector. Theoretical frameworkThe management’s task is to, among other things, implement measures for the management accountants to use in their work. Corporate Sustainable Responsibility’s (CSR) general idea is to act responsible towards the most important questions for their stakeholders such as investors, government etc. CSR has led to that more sustainability information to stakeholders is produced, the type of information that we are using in our calculations.Our findingsBy the use of the ADVANCE method we can see that in fact airlines, despite the high preasure can create a positive Sustainable Value while comparing to the transport sector. We also argue the method can be used by the management as a complement to their other financial measures as it gives other efficiency indications than traditional methods. / Flygbranschen och hållbart värdeFlygbranschen är, av många, ansed vara en industri med hög miljöpåverkan. Även om vissa hävdar att det fortfarande bara bidrar till en liten del av världens totala utsläpp, är det fortfarande en bransch under högt tryck från lagstiftande institutioner och kunder. Hållbart värde är ett tämligen nytt begrepp och tillåter att användaren att mäta ett företags sociala och / eller miljöprestanda i monetära termer, vilken är den största skillnaden från många ekonomiska beräkningsmodeller. ADVANCE Sustainable Value metoden är baserad på teorier om alternativa kostnader och kan ge indikationer i fråga om effektivitet i jämförelse med en vald riktmärke. SyfteMed hjälp av denna metod är vi intresserade av att veta om ett flygbolag kan skapa ett hållbart värde trots att de utför en verksamhet som, för vissa, ses som förstör miljön. Metodens främsta användarna är intressenter som investerare. Då många svenska företag i flygbranschen är icke-offentliga bolag, strävar vi också att diskutera en bredare användning för denna metod som för förvaltningen interna beslutsprocessen. MetodVi har valt tre stora svenska flygbolag att basera våra beräkningar på genom att använda en icke sannolikhets urval. Vi har uteslutit företag som inte är registrerade i Sverige, inte ge nuvarande persontransporter, är så kallade "virtuella flygbolag" och / eller inte har någon allmänt tillgänglig information. Ett virtuellt flygbolag, i detta sammanhang hänvisar till ett flygbolag som inte äger eller leasar några egna flygplan och istället köper passagerare stolar från ett annat bolag, kallat code sharing. Vi kommer att jämföra våra beräkningar till den svenska BNP och den svenska transportsektorn. Teoretiskt ramverkLedningens uppgift är att bland annat genomföra åtgärder för förvaltningen revisorer att använda i sitt arbete. Corporate Social Responsobilitys (CSR) allmänna tanken är att agera ansvariga gentemot de viktigaste frågorna för deras intressenter såsom investerare, regeringen osv. CSR har lett till att mer hållbarhets information  produceras, vilken är den typ av information som vi använder i vår beräkningar. Vårat resultatGenom användning av metoden kan vi se att det faktiskt finns ett flygbolag som trots det höga trycket kan skapa ett positivt hållbart värde när vi jämför mot transportsektorn. Vi hävdar också att metoden kan användas av ledningen som ett komplement till sina andra ekonomiska verktyg eftersom det ger andra effektivitet indikationer än traditionella metoder.

本文以美國境內航空市場為例，探討多重市場接觸與價格離散的關聯，並研究大型航空公司併購案前後多重市場接觸對航空公司競爭策略的影響。本研究發現：(一) 相互容忍說於併購案發生前後皆成立。(二) 相較於考量擴大市場的市佔率，航空公司更應該關注與競爭者間的競爭關係。(三) 併購案發生前後，航空公司的訂價行為都深受競爭對手的競爭策略影響。(四) 併購案發生前，因競爭者多，市場上航空公司平均市佔率的大小是航空公司可採取競爭手段重要因素之一。在最大的1000 個市場中，雖然每家航空公司的市場力量不大，航空公司仍可採取價格競爭，然若是對手間聯合懲罰，則航空公司不敢採取激進手段，且多重市場接觸越多，價格離散程度越大。而在次要競爭的市場中，則因航空公司的平均市占率是最大的1000 個市場的兩倍，因此航空公司並未有明顯競爭行為。但若考量競爭對手間的碰面次數，則多重市場接觸與不同分位價格關係為正，且多重市場接觸越多，價格離散程度越低。併購案發生後，因航空公司間彼此箝制力量大，與競爭對手間的碰面次數越多，越傾向隱性勾結，且高價位的價格上升較低價位價格多，使價格離散程度越大。 / In this paper, we discuss whether multimarket contact matters for price dispersion in the U.S. airline industry, and compare the influence of multimarket contact on airlines’ competition strategies before and after airline mergers and acquisitions. We find that: (a) Before and after the mergers, mutual forbearance exists. (b) In contrast to an airline‘s market share, the relationship between airlines and itself plays a more important role in its pricing strategy.(c) Before and after the mergers, airline companies’pricing strategies are significantly affected by their competitors’strategies. (d) Before the mergers, because of the intense competition, it is the size of the competitors‘ market share that the company decide whether to take aggressive strategies. In the top 1000 competitive markets,airline companies will take aggressive actions to get more passengers for the punishment from its competitor is an incredible threat, however, if competitors collude together, airline companies will hardly dare to cut price. And the effect of an increase in multimarket contact on price dispersion is positive and significant. In the second competitive markets, since the average market share is twice bigger than in the top 1000 markets, airlines prefer not to participate in cut-throat competition. However, if competitors collude, then airline companies will cooperate together, and the effect of an increase in multimarket contact on price dispersion is negative and significant. After the mergers, increase in contacts with competitors would facilitate mutual forbearance and increase price dispersion and higher-percentile prices will increase more than lower-percentile prices.

Revenue Management (RM) is the practice of managing perishable assets by control-ling their availability and/or prices with an objective to maximize the total revenue. Seat inventory allocation falls in the purview of quantity-based RM. The liberalization of the aviation sector and the subsequent entrance of the low-cost carriers saw an ever-increasing customer base for the airline industry. Given the large number of buyers, firms were free to decide the price at which they would sell tickets. The low-cost carriers started to follow a third degree price discrimination and segmentation of the market, charging a higher price to the market with a relatively inelastic demand. Although a lot of work has been done in the area of seat inventory allocation under a monopolistic market scenario, we realized that not a lot of work had been done in a competitive market scenario. This thesis considers the problem of seat inventory allocation and pricing in a duopoly where each of the competing airlines have two fare-classes. We consider the possibility that the same fare-class may be priced differently by the two competing airlines and allow for the over flow of passengers between the airlines in the same fare-class. In the first part of our work, we develop a non-linear mathematical model for setting the booking limits for one of the two competing air-lines such that the revenue earned is maximized. We consider over flow of passengers from one airline to another in the same fare-class in response to a price differential and compare the results obtained from our model with the standard Expected Marginal Seat Revenue (EMSR) model under a monopolistic scenario. The results show that our model gives higher revenues than that obtained from the EMSR model. In the second part of our work, we consider a non-cooperative game between two competing airlines with price cutting as the strategy to increase their demand. Through numerical computations, we identify the pure strategy Nash equilibrium. From the results, we conclude that Nash equilibrium is achieved only when both the airlines follow the same pricing strategy indicating that individual price cutting will not be beneficial. This also indicates that unless the competitors enter into a cooperative coalition with each other, they would not benefit from deep discount offers. In the third and final part, we prove theoretically the existence of pure strategy Nash equilibrium in a two airline, two fare-class problem with price sensitive over flow of customers in the same fare-class that was computationally analysed earlier. The strategy / strategies at which Nash equilibrium is achieved are identified. We show that Nash equilibrium is only achieved when both the airlines price identically. Hence, our thesis concludes that differential pricing does not hold any significance for the competing airlines from an operational perspective.

[pt] A globalização e a era da informação impõem novos e complexos desafios para as empresas. A indústria aeronáutica global passa por um período de acirramento da concorrência e uma tendência à concentração. Nesse ambiente, inovar é fundamental. Para atender às exigências crescentes dos clientes, as organizações precisam buscar vantagem competitiva por meio de alianças estratégicas voltadas à inovação, que é apontada como alternativa para melhorar o seu desempenho ou, até mesmo, assegurar a sua sobrevivência. O objetivo final desta dissertação consiste em, por meio de um estudo de caso e com o auxílio do ferramental Strategic Network Analysis - Innovation Framework (SNA-IF) (MACEDO-SOARES, 2014), analisar a estratégia competitiva da Embraer, com ênfase na sua adequação dinâmica, e levando-se em consideração as implicações estratégicas do seu portfólio/rede de alianças e a sua orientação para a inovação. Líder na fabricação de jatos comerciais regionais e maior exportadora de bens de alto valor agregado do Brasil, a empresa é uma integradora de sistemas, que projeta aeronaves, e realiza, dentre outras, atividades relacionadas à montagem, integração de sistemas, comercialização e suporte técnico. As alianças estratégicas da Embraer têm contribuído para o cumprimento de sua missão, fornecendo, assim, bens e serviços de elevado padrão tecnológico e qualitativo na indústria aeronáutica, com preços competitivos, de forma a assegurar a satisfação dos clientes. Têm, assim, uma adequação dinâmica à sua estratégia competitiva de diferenciação por inovação. / [en] Globalization and the information age impose new and complex challenges for business. The global aviation industry is experiencing a period of increased competition and a tendency towards concentration. In this environment, innovation is fundamental. To meet growing customer demands, organizations need to seek competitive advantage through strategic alliances geared to innovation, which is singled out as an alternative to improving their performance or even ensuring their survival. The final objective of this dissertation is to analyze the competitive strategy of Embraer, with emphasis on its dynamic fit, by means of a case study and with the help of the tool Strategic Network Analysis - Innovation Framework (SNA-IF), taking into consideration the strategic implications of its portfolio / network of alliances and its orientation towards innovation. A leader in the production of regional commercial jets and the largest exporter of high value-added goods in Brazil, the company is a system integrator, which designs aircraft, and performs, among others, activities related to assembly, systems integration, marketing and technical support. The strategic alliances of Embraer have contributed to the fulfillment of its mission, providing, therefore, goods and services of high technological and qualitative standard in the aeronautical industry, with competitive prices, in order to assure customer satisfaction. They have, a dynamic fit to the firm s competitive strategy of differentiation by innovation (MACEDO-SOARES, 2014).