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This dissertation reports on the factors that contributed to the successful entry strategy of 1time Airline, a low cost carrier, into the South African airline industry as well as its competitive strategies within this context. Research interviews were conducted in November 2005 and research material gathered until end January 2006. Key issues include an evaluation of 1time's business model in relation to other low cost entrants as well as against material sourced through interviews with 1time Airline management, employees and consumers of the airline's product. Porter's Generic Strategies and Five Forces model are used as a framework in evaluating the airline. It is found that Nohria, Joyce and Robertson's "4+2 Formula" is effectively implemented at the airline, but that further implementation of Game Theory in terms of alliances should be investigated for continued success and sustainability.

While 3.3 billion people flew worldwide in 2014 a large number of these were from developed countries. It is emerging countries which offer the greatest potential for future air traffic growth, with forecasts suggesting that 7.3 billion people will fly by 2034. The greatest proportion of this traffic will be in the Asia-Pacific region where there is already high low-cost carrier penetration. Given increasing price-based competition within short-haul markets, there are many significant challenges in terms of how Asian network airlines respond to LCC competition, and a popular response is the use of low-cost subsidiaries. Thus, the aims of this research are to establish the sources of competitive advantage of Asian airlines generally, and to examine the competitive responses of Asian network airlines and the strategic capabilities of them in competing with low-cost carriers, with a particular focus upon the use of low-cost subsidiaries. This research is underpinned with competitive advantage theory, particularly the resource-based view which concerns the internal environment of firms where each firm possesses a collection of unique resources and capabilities that provide the foundation for competitive strategy. For this research, data were collected from 49 senior airline management personnel using questionnaire surveys, resource surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The data were then analysed using VRIN analysis, the importance and difficulty of 37 competitive responses, strategic capability analysis, and the product and organisational architecture model. The results found that both a strong strategy and stable leadership are crucial. The strategies of Asian network airlines must be flexible to respond appropriately to competitive threats as they materialise, with this responsiveness contributing to the attainment of competitive advantage. Out of an analysed 36 intangible resources, the top resources for competitive advantage and responding to competitive threats for Asian airlines generally are slots, brand, and product and service reputation, with the importance of these based more on being hard to copy than valuable. Each analysed airline business model has a relatively distinct core bundle of intangible resources which explains the internal sources of their competitive advantage. The need for Asian network airlines to strengthen their competitive advantage and their ability to compete is because low-cost carriers impact them in many ways, most notably through a reduction in market share and reduced yields given the key motivation of customers within short-haul markets and economy class is now price and value-for-money. Asian network airlines are most likely to respond to low-cost carriers if they focus upon their core markets, grow their market share, and target the core higher-yielding passengers on which network airlines rely. In such instances, Asian network airlines should respond by focusing more on their brands and meeting the needs of their core targeted market segments. There is a strong positive correlation between profit margin and the strategic capability to compete with low-cost carriers. Yet, Asian network airlines have relatively weak capabilities overall. While Vietnam Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and Garuda Indonesia are reasonably well placed to compete, network airlines from Northeast Asia, in particular, must strengthen their capabilities especially as Japan, China, and Taiwan are witnessing fast low-cost carrier growth. However, the possession of a strong capability does not mean it is fully or properly leveraged. To compete more effectively with low-cost carriers, the most important competitive responses, based upon analysis of 37 responses, are the ability of management to quickly introduce changes, leveraging brand strength, and increasing aircraft utilisation. Based on the relationship between the importance and difficulty of responses, the most crucial responses for competitive advantage of Asian network airlines are reducing costs to within 30% of LCCs and increasing aircraft utilisation. If achieved, these should lead to meaningful sustained advantage. Low-cost subsidiaries are easier to implement than for network airlines to significantly reduce costs, change to one fleet, or reduce the use of direct distribution, which may explain their popularity within Asia and them being a borderline very essential competitive response. For network airlines, low-cost subsidiaries are a more effective way to compete with low-cost carriers, to participate in the growth of the budget segment, a means of operating uneconomic routes, and to remove unprofitable customers. Network airlines can then focus upon their core market segments and their core competencies. However, their creation is reactive and not proactive which undermines their effectiveness, likewise that low-cost subsidiaries suffer from poor profitability, higher costs, and much smaller size and scale than their key low-cost competitors. This research recommends that Asian network airlines strengthen their existing and primary sources of competitive advantage while pursuing new sources of advantage. While the strategic capabilities of Asian network airlines have strengthened over time, it is essential that they are further strengthened and fully acted upon given increasing competitiveness. The use of low-cost subsidiaries will continue, but it is crucial for themselves and their parent network airlines that they improve their ability to compete and thereby their performance.

This thesis studies the relationships between systematic risk, financial indicators and the financial crisis from the perspective of international airlines. The thesis uses the CAPM beta of airline stock as the proxy for airline systematic risk and explores its relationships with six financial indicators and the financial crisis which broke out in the second half of 2008. The findings of 28 international airlines over the period of 1997 to 2002 and 2007 to 2012 indicate that (1) airline systematic risk is negatively related to profitability and positively related to size, and these relationships hold over time periods, (2) the negative relationship between airline systematic risk and operational efficiency exists while it changes the sign over recent time periods, (3) airline systematic risk positively responds to financial leverage while its significance is influenced by samples used, (4) the positive relationship between airline systematic risk and liquidity is only significant over the first period, (5) no findings suggest airline systematic risk is related to growth. Moreover, the relationship between airline systematic risk and the financial crisis is not straight-forward because of lacking clear-cut judgment of the financial crisis year for airlines. Moreover, this thesis also tries panel data methods and finds both the same and different results compared with the model without panel data methods.

Title: Airlines experiential marketing: gaining and retaining customers Research Question: How do airlines use the experiential marketing to gain and retain consumers? Supervisor: Venilton Reinert Course: Strategic Marketing with Independent Project Keywords: Airlines, experiential marketing, experience, loyalty, sense, emotions, feelings Purpose: The aim of this research is to understand how airlines’ users can be acquired and kept thanks to experiential marketing. This study allows analysing the news consumers’ expectations and how companies adapt their strategies to meet customers’ needs thanks to experiential marketing. All airlines mentioned in this study are European. Methodology: A qualitative research has been used for this paper. The authors of the thesis proceed choosing five European airlines: British Airways, Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Easy Jet and Scandinavian Airlines System. The case studies have been used to describe, thanks to a number of Internet tools, how companies use the experience and feelings in marketing to urge consumers to purchase and be loyal. Then, authors used Schmitt theory to collect data. Finally, a number of frameworks have been used to analyse data. Conclusion: Airlines want to carry the customer to think and act through the experience. A successful experiential marketing occurs when the customer behaves thanks to his emotions. So, airlines’ marketers create competition, challenge, and game to remind customers. The interaction with public and internet users is necessary used in each experiential marketing event by airlines to promote the event and permeated to the customer share its experience, meet people and identify him in a group. If customers experience unique and perfectly experiential event, they will remember the service, and consequently the brand in the long-term as remarkable. In this way, the brand gain or retain customers.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration