O mercado de baixa renda tem se tornado cada vez mais relevantes para todos os setores empresariais. Estima-se que em 2010 as classes C e D serão responsáveis por mais da metade do consumo do mercado interno brasileiro. Empresas de transporte aéreo brasileiras de passageiros, que historicamente se caracterizaram por prestar serviço voltado para as classes de maior renda, passaram a desenvolver estratégias para atrair o público de baixa renda para viajar de avião, partindo de estratégias concebidas em outras indústrias e adaptando às particularidades do setor aéreo. O presente trabalho identificou as estratégias de empresas aéreas brasileiras para atender o mercado de baixa renda. Devido ao fato do mercado de baixa renda para o transporte aéreo ser ainda embrionário, as estratégias se concentra ainda no composto mercadológico, como produto, preço, canal de distribuição, comunicação e serviço. Práticas adotadas pelo varejo para atrair e reter o consumidor de baixa renda, como a loja de vizinhança, porta a porta, meios de financiamento alternativos ao cartão de crédito tem sido testadas e adotadas pelas empresas aéreas analisadas, complementando as práticas usuais do mercado. Essa pesquisa avaliou ainda os principais fatores indutores e restritivos à inserção da baixa renda no setor de transporte aéreo. A maior preocupação das empresas aéreas analisadas nesse estudo é com a infra-estrutura aeroportuária, que pode se tornar limitador da expansão do setor aéreo no Brasil. Já as operadoras de turismo são percebidas pelas empresas aéreas como agente indutor à inserção da população de baixa renda, em especial pela venda de pacotes de turismo. Finalmente, essa pesquisa avaliou, ainda que de maneira sucinta as estratégias de negócio adotadas pelas empresas aéreas, e identificou um modelo de baixo custo brasileira. Trata-se de um modelo híbrido entre as estratégias de diferenciação e baixo custo. As empresas analisadas procuram simultaneamente oferecer serviços para clientes corporativos e estimular novos mercados, sobretudo o mercado de baixa renda. De acordo com Porter (1985), esse tipo de estratégia poderia ser classificado como meio-termo, visto que a empresa não adota nenhuma das estratégias genéricas. Porém, o histórico dessas empresas permite avaliar que essas empresas iniciaram sua operação com modelo mais próximo à estratégia de baixo custo, e tiveram que evoluir ou reformular completamente esse modelo de acordo com as características do mercado brasileiro. / The Bottom of Pyramid has become increasingly relevant market to all business sectors. It is estimated that in 2010 social classes C and D will account for over half the consumption of the Brazilian domestic market. Brazilian airlines, who have historically been characterized by providing service for the high income classes, began to develop strategies to attract lowincome public to travel by plane, using strategies developed in other industries and adapting to the particularities of the airline industry. This research has identified strategies for Brazilian airlines to reach the Bottom of Pyramid market. As this segment is still limit, strategies still focus on the marketing mix, such as product, price, distribution channel, communication and service. Practices adopted by retailers to attract and retain low-income consumers, as the neighborhood store, door to door, alternative financing to credit card have been tested and adopted by the airlines studied, complementing the usual practices of the market. This research also evaluated the main factors that affect the introduction of Bottom of Pyramid in the airline industry. The major concern of airlines examined in this study is with the airport infrastructure, which can limit the expansion of the airline industry in Brazil. Tour operators are already perceived by the airlines as a promoter for this process. Finally, this research evaluated the business strategies adopted by airlines, and identified a Brazilian low-cost model. The model is a hybrid between the strategies of differentiation and low cost. The analyzed airlines are seeking to offer services to both corporate customers and stimulate new markets, particularly the Bottom of Pyramid. According to Porter (1985), this strategy could be classified as stuck in the middle, because the company does not adopt any of the generic strategies. However, the history of these companies can assess that these companies started their operation with model closer to the strategy of low cost, and they had to evolve or completely redesign this model according to the characteristics of the Brazilian market

The study aims to investigate the effect of airline one-year placement experience on Taiwanese students’ development and acquisition of L2 pragmatic competence focusing on their English speech act behaviours. 50 subjects participated in this study, including 10 airline staff and 40 hospitality university students. Two instruments - the Discourse Completion Test and the Focus Group Interview were used to elicit the request strategies from three research groups for analysis. The results of the study demonstrated that exposure to the target speech community specifically a year-long airport placement is relatively influential for the pragmatic development of Taiwanese hospitality university students. The findings in this study also showed that there is a positive relationship between linguistic proficiency and pragmatic ability. It is observed that the participants with better performance in the linguistic and grammatical knowledge tend to show equivalent pragmatic development more than the participants with lower proficiency. The study is believed to significantly contribute in three directions. Firstly, the findings of this study provide valuable data for the development of pragmatic competence in airline English learning. An overall review of the relevant literature shows that there are no studies until now that have explored the effects of airline placement on the pragmatic development of Taiwanese hospitality university students in terms of their English request realisation. Secondly, the results of the study can serve as important practical evidence and can provide guidelines for airline English instructors to start considering how to integrate effective instruction with intercultural pragmatic learning in their teaching materials and curriculum design in order to assist Taiwanese hospitality university students to acquire the pragmatic and social cultural abilities to meet the airline workplace language requirement in the future. Thirdly, the results of the study also revealed information about the pragmatic performance of Taiwanese ground staff; senior employees and supervisors. Therefore, it is hoped that the results of the study can raise the awareness of both English course planners and administrators in Taiwanese airlines to develop appropriate airline English courses for ground staff in order to improve ground staff’s English communication competence when dealing with passengers and also reach the standard of good service quality.

<p>In recent years, large efforts have been put on enhancing effectiveness in organizations. No resources are dispensable, and a dollar saved is a dollar earned. This is probably something that is rather easy to compute and control within the production sector. However, the service sector is another thing, how do we squeeze everything out of the resources in service organizations? This question caught our interest, and made us want to investigate the subject in the context of the airline business, and especially in its interaction with passengers.</p><p> </p><p>We have asked 100 respondents of their opinions of interaction with the airline when traveling by air – from the booking step to disembarking of the aircraft. The respondents were asked about what different attributes they thought were important in every step, and in relation how their real experience really was. By comparing these two factors, we can present the differences between desired and perceived levels of service quality, regarding the interaction with airlines.</p><p> </p><p>Six hypotheses were stated prior to our work. The results were rather expected, with a few exceptions. Our regression analysis told us that we could statistically verify almost everything we had assumed, but falsify parts of some hypotheses. For instance, friendliness in interaction is extremely appreciated throughout the entire process. How is that observed in reality and to who is that necessary? Read the study to find out.</p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normale Tabelle"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} > <! [endif] ></p><p>This paper focuses on the pricing strategies of international airlines, being the key factor to match the supply with demand and accomplish market equilibrium. The aim of study is to find a pattern of how pricing takes place, if and how airlines implement market segmentation and take demand-related elasticities into account. We specialize on the Scandinavian Airline System (SAS) and German Lufthansa. Their flight prices were collected as primary data from the corresponding websites. We observed the following air travel services: Long-haul international, short-haul international and short-haul domestic; additionally, we differentiated price levels by the time of booking. Based on our findings we can say that the market segmentation model provides a good base for airlines. However, it has to be accompanied by additional strategies to react to arising problems (peak problem, currency fluctuation, etc). The patterns we found implemented by SAS and Lufthansa represent a firm market-responsive approach to the problems in the airline industry.</p><p>< >< ><--></p>

<p>The assurance of customer satisfaction is an increasing challenge for airline companies.</p><p>Bridging the gap between passenger expectations and the perceived image of service quality</p><p>is a permanent problem that is in the need to be optimized. Therefore, it is indispensable for</p><p>the company to identify these gaps and develop strategies to increase customer satisfaction.</p><p>Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify gaps between perceived and required service</p><p>quality, and strategies to increase customer satisfaction. Consequently, the customer as well as</p><p>the company perspective shall be considered carefully. The theoretical foundation for this</p><p>dissertation can be referred to the service quality model of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry</p><p>(1985). To illustrate the coherencies and provide actual data from the reality, the cases of the</p><p>airline companies Air Berlin, TUIfly and Lufthansa are chosen. By conducting a survey,</p><p>quantitative data was collected from the customer. In order to collect data about the company</p><p>perspective, qualitative methods like an interview and secondary information from the</p><p>companies’ homepages are used.</p><p>Based on the cases of the three airlines, specific gaps are identified. From this, concrete needs</p><p>for action and strategies on the part of the companies can be derived. The findings of this</p><p>study show that core and secondary service quality attributes can be identified. Consequently,</p><p>the improvement of certain attributes can be more important than the improvement of other</p><p>attributes to increase customer satisfaction. These priorities depend also on the size of a</p><p>service quality gap and on the access to company resources.</p>

<p>Vi ville med vår uppsats undersöka om strategiska allianser inom den internationella flygbranschen har lett till att medlemmarna i alliansen åtnjutit en förbättrad lönsamhet och expansion i verksamheten.</p><p>Den alliansen vi hade fokus på för undersökningen var Star Alliance och vi granskade utvecklingen av de utvalda lönsamhetsmåtten hos de fem flygbolagen som var med och upprättade denna allians. Vi undersökte även lönsamhetsfaktorerna för fyra flygbolag, som för den studerade tidsperioden inte ingick i någon strategisk allians. Dessa användes som jämförelseobjekt.</p><p>Urvalet gjordes utifrån att det var just dessa fem flygbolag som upprättade alliansen och att denna allians var den första av sitt slag. Urvalet av de fyra jämförelsebolagen gjordes utifrån att dessa var de få flygbolag av den traditionella typen som under studiens utvalda tidsperiod inte ingick i någon liknande allians.</p><p>Vi genomförde undersökningen genom att samla information hämtad ifrån flygbolagens årsredovisningar från 1994 till 2004 och försökte upptäcka trendbrott i nyckeltalens utvecklingar efter det att Star Alliance upprättades. För att förstärka tillförlitligheten av undersökningen använde vi de fyra jämförelseflygbolagen och genomförde en statistisk hypotesprövning för att testa om det förelåg någon signifikant skillnad gällande utvecklingen av lönsamhetsfaktorerna mellan bolagen i Star Alliance och jämförelsebolagen.</p><p>Resultatet av vår undersökning var att ingen tydlig lönsamhetsförbättring skett för bolagen inom Star Alliance. Vi kunde urskilja att jämförelsebolagen vi använt i undersökningen hade en liknande utveckling av de utvalda lönsamhetsfaktorerna. Eftersom ingen skillnad fanns mellan bolagen i alliansen och de utanför kan man dra slutsatsen att samarbetet inom Star Alliance inte förbättrat lönsamheten för medlemmarna mer än för bolag som inte ingår i någon allians.</p> / <p>The main purpose with our survey was to analyze if strategic alliances within the international airline business have led to increased profitability and strengthened the competitive advantage for the members of the alliance.</p><p>For our study we focused on Star Alliance and analyzed the development of the selected profitability indicators for the five members that founded it. We also analyzed the same indicators for four airlines that for the time period of the investigation were not members of a strategic alliance. These four airlines were used for purpose of comparison.</p><p>Our selection was made on the basis that there were these five airlines that founded the alliance and that Star Alliance was the first of its kind. The selection of the four airlines of comparison was made on the basis that these four airlines, for the studied time period, were not members of a strategic alliance.</p><p>We made the study by collecting information from the airlines annual reports for the years 1994 to 2004 and tried to discover any kind of differences for the time before and after the alliance was founded. To increase the credibility of the study we made a statistic hypothesis test to detect if there were any significant differences, regarding the profitability indicators and the competitive advantages, between the airlines within Star Alliance and the airlines of comparison.</p><p>The result of our study was that no legible improvement could be proven for the airlines that founded Star Alliance. We could detect that the comparison airlines we used for the survey had a similar development regarding the chosen profitability indicators and the competitive advantages. When no differences could be proven between these airlines, we drew the conclusion that the members in Star Alliance had not improved the studied indicators, to any greater extent than the airlines that were not members of a strategic alliance.</p>

Demand uncertainty has been recognized as one factor that may cause price dispersion in perfectly competitive markets with costly and perishable capacity. With the persistence of the degree of price dispersion in increasingly competitive markets, demand uncertainty has become more important for us to understand the phenomenon of fare inequality. This dissertation consists of three related studies on this topic. In the first study, Prescott (1975) model is extends by incorporating the heterogeneity of customers' reservation values. The model shows that the equilibrium price dispersion also depends on the mix of customers and their reservation values. With customer segmentation based on reservation values, the equilibrium price dispersion is more efficient than what can be achieved without segmentation. In the airline industry context, the model implies that different prices can exist simultaneously in the market and carriers would provide more seats if they can segment their travelers. This sheds light on an alternative motivation for airlines to require Saturday night stay over other than the practice of price discrimination. In the second study, a price simulation in the airline industry is conducted. The stochastic demand for coach class, nonstop, air travel service on the observed routs is calculated. Then a market price schedule based on Prescott's model is simulated by using nonparametric method. The comparison between the simulated price distribution and the actual price distribution provides evidence that on average more than 60 percent of the fare inequality on the observed routes can be accounted for by cost variation due to demand uncertainty under the condition of perfect competition. At last, an empirical model is specified to explore the relationship between route demand uncertainty and carrier price dispersion in U.S. air travel markets. The results demonstrate that the effect of route demand uncertainty on carrier price dispersion varies with the market structure. In monopoly market, the route demand uncertainty has no effect on carrier price dispersion. While in duopoly and competitive markets, the increase of route demand uncertainty is associated with the decrease of the carrier price dispersion. Furthermore, the negative relationship is magnified when the market becomes more competitive.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-46). Also available online.

The assurance of customer satisfaction is an increasing challenge for airline companies. Bridging the gap between passenger expectations and the perceived image of service quality is a permanent problem that is in the need to be optimized. Therefore, it is indispensable for the company to identify these gaps and develop strategies to increase customer satisfaction. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify gaps between perceived and required service quality, and strategies to increase customer satisfaction. Consequently, the customer as well as the company perspective shall be considered carefully. The theoretical foundation for this dissertation can be referred to the service quality model of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985). To illustrate the coherencies and provide actual data from the reality, the cases of the airline companies Air Berlin, TUIfly and Lufthansa are chosen. By conducting a survey, quantitative data was collected from the customer. In order to collect data about the company perspective, qualitative methods like an interview and secondary information from the companies’ homepages are used. Based on the cases of the three airlines, specific gaps are identified. From this, concrete needs for action and strategies on the part of the companies can be derived. The findings of this study show that core and secondary service quality attributes can be identified. Consequently, the improvement of certain attributes can be more important than the improvement of other attributes to increase customer satisfaction. These priorities depend also on the size of a service quality gap and on the access to company resources.

In recent years, large efforts have been put on enhancing effectiveness in organizations. No resources are dispensable, and a dollar saved is a dollar earned. This is probably something that is rather easy to compute and control within the production sector. However, the service sector is another thing, how do we squeeze everything out of the resources in service organizations? This question caught our interest, and made us want to investigate the subject in the context of the airline business, and especially in its interaction with passengers.   We have asked 100 respondents of their opinions of interaction with the airline when traveling by air – from the booking step to disembarking of the aircraft. The respondents were asked about what different attributes they thought were important in every step, and in relation how their real experience really was. By comparing these two factors, we can present the differences between desired and perceived levels of service quality, regarding the interaction with airlines.   Six hypotheses were stated prior to our work. The results were rather expected, with a few exceptions. Our regression analysis told us that we could statistically verify almost everything we had assumed, but falsify parts of some hypotheses. For instance, friendliness in interaction is extremely appreciated throughout the entire process. How is that observed in reality and to who is that necessary? Read the study to find out.