Thesis (M.Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 41). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisors: Maxwell Stinchcombe and R. Preston McAfee. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Robert Helmreich. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

M.Comm. / The overall goal of this study is to provide a medium-sized South African airline with the theoretical framework and necessary research and analyses, in developing an integrated marketing approach in a deregulated environment. The objectives of the study are : to analyse the macro and market variables that could impact on the marketing efforts of a medium-sized South African airline. to assess a medium-sized South African airline's marketing efforts (in response to external variables) using existing theories and the airline's own set objectives. to link the marketing efforts of a medium-sized South African airline to internal variables, to be able to provide a truly "integrated" analysis of all marketing activities. to provide broad guidelines for future marketing activities undertook by a medium-sized South African airline.

M.B.A. / This study is concerned with an investigation into the manual labour reporting system as currently operated by South African Airways (SAA) Technical. This was necessary, as a large percentage of the time sheet hours were not being captured with the net result being that costs and the resultant effects were becoming distorted. The primary purposes of this research was to identify the reasons for the current difficulties being experienced with labour cost recovery within SAA Technical in order to propose changes to rectify the impasse. The following reasons for the labour hour losses were identified: • Ineffective operational control methods. • Deployment of geographically dispersed data capturers. • Computer programming errors in the transfer routines. These problems naturally lead to a loss of control. The following improvements after rectification were noticeable: • In January 1997, average labour hour under recovery was as high as 46%. After rectification, losses were down to 15% (cf. 4.3). • The management accounting reporting document was greatly revised; thus rendering improved service to and understanding by the users. • The automated labour reporting bar scanning system currently being implemented would also benefit from the rectified computer transfer program. It may thus be concluded that the research was beneficial to SAA Technical operation and provided solid reasons for the labour hour losses. If the recommendations as presented further on in this study are adhered to, there should be no reason for the present situation not to maintain or improve the current improvements.

The charter market of the airline industry has progressively grown from an insignificant segment in international traffic to a relatively significant one during the last decade. What affect has the growth of the international charter market had on scheduled operations? The scheduled operators state that charters divert a substantial amount of passenger traffic away from them thereby jeopardizing their cross-subsidization system. On the other hand, charter operators claim that not only do they serve an entirely different market segment of demand for air travel thereby causing no diversion but that they in fact generate additional business for the airline industry as a whole. The purpose of this paper then, is to attempt to determine the impact, if any, that charter carriers may have on scheduled operations. A number of hypotheses were developed which, when investigated, would indicate whether or not charter flights divert passengers away from scheduled flights. Data to test these hypotheses were obtained from questionnaires distributed, during the summer of 1970, to trans-Atlantic passengers on charter and scheduled flights. The sample size consisted of 182 charter passengers and 100 scheduled passengers. The general conclusion was that charter and scheduled passengers have different demographic characteristics. This implies that charter carriers may serve a different market segment of demand for international air travel. However, when the charter passengers, notwithstanding their demographic characteristics, were asked if they would still take this trip to Europe, either now or in the near future, if they had to fly on a scheduled airliner and pay the regular fare, almost fifty percent responded in the affirmative. Therefore, it appears that, over the trans-Atlantic route, charter carriers divert a substantial amount of passenger traffic away from scheduled carriers. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The U.S. airline industry's experience under a regime of deregulation, as well as the potential forms of strategic interaction in a duopoly are examined in order to determine what strategies Canada's two major carriers should adopt in the deregulated Canadian airline industry. The following recommendations are made to Air Canada and to Canadian Airlines International regarding price, service, and network strategies. First, the carriers should strengthen their hub and spoke operations (i.e. by further consolidating feeder carriers, and offering a high quality of service network-wide). Second, the airlines should strive to control costs (i.e. by reducing labour and fuel costs, while capitalizing on the potential economies of scope attainable through international operations). Finally, the carriers should apply their marketing expertise (i.e. by continuing to develop their yield management systems and frequent flier programs, as well as adopting innovative, new pricing strategies). / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis addresses the problem of pricing perishable inventories such as airline seats and hotel rooms. It also analyzes the airline seat allocation problem when two airlines compete on a single-leg flight. Finally, several existing models for seat allocation with multiple fares on a single-leg flight are compared. The pricing framework is consistent with modern yield management tools which utilize restrictions such as weekend stayover to segment the market. One model analyzed considers a restriction which is irrelevant to one set of consumers, but which the others find so onerous that they will not purchase a restricted ticket at any price. If the consumers who do not mind the restriction are less price sensitive than those who find the restriction onerous, then the thesis shows that there is an optimal policy for a monopolist which will sell fares at no more than three price levels. When two restrictions are allowed in the model, if one is more onerous than the other in the sense that the set of consumers who would not buy a ticket with the first restriction is a subset of those who would not buy it with the second restriction, then the restrictions are said to be nested. If the sets of consumers who would not buy tickets with the first restriction is disjoint from those who would not buy with the second restriction, then the restrictions are said to be mutually exclusive. If two restrictions are either nested or mutually exclusive, then a monopolist needs at most four price levels with three types (i.e. combinations of restrictions) of product. With two general restrictions, the monopolist may need five price levels with four types of product. The pricing model is applied to restrictions which are based on membership in a particular organization. For example, employees of an airline are frequently eligible for special fares. Some airlines provide special fares for government employees or for employees of certain corporations. An analysis is given to help airlines understand the costs and benefits of such arrangements. A model of two airlines competing on a single-leg flight is developed for the case where the airlines have fixed capacity and fixed price levels for two types of fares-full and discount. The airlines compete by controlling the number of discount fares which they sell. The split of the market between the airlines is modelled in two different ways. First, the airlines might share the market for a fare class proportionally to their allocation of seats to that fare class. In this case, under certain conditions, there exists an equilibrium pair of booking limits for the discount fare such that each airline will protect the same number of seats for the full fare customers, even when the demands are random and stochastically dependent. The second market sharing model assumes that the two airlines share the market demand equally. In this case, when the demands are deterministic, then there is an equilibrium solution where each airline will protect enough seats to split equally the market for the full fares. Finally, three existing seat allocation models for multi-fare single-leg flights with stochastically independent demands are compared. It is shown that the optimality conditions for each of these models are analytically equivalent, thus providing a unified approach to this problem. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Travel agents provide an essential range of air travel marketing services which result in large commission expenses for air carriers. Commission expenses have risen to such an extent that air transport analysts and others in Canada have openly criticized remuneration policies now in practice. They have questioned whether the travelling public is receiving a full value for the commissions which travel agents receive; they have cited rising commission expenses as evidence of economic inefficiency within the air travel marketing system. The role which the travel agent plays in the airline industry is described taking into consideration travel agents, air carriers and air passengers. Relevant background information related to the travel agent remuneration issue is presented by describing issues affecting the ability of independent agencies to provide travel services. This thesis approaches the travel agent remuneration problem using policy analysis to select a remuneration scheme which will best satisfy a select list of objectives. The objectives used in the evaluation of remuneration schemes include service objectives such as retaining travel agent impartiality, economic objectives such as implementing the "user pay" philosophy, political objectives such as avoiding obvious cross subsidization of different user groups and "regional development" objectives such as providing adequate service levels to small communities. Description of developments in issue areas including travel agent industry entry requirements, competition for market segments and the introduction of electronic reservations systems to travel agents is presented in order to better understand the likelihood of remuneration schemes achieving objectives. Three basic types of remuneration alternatives, net fare, uniform commission and incentive commission are considered. Both regulated and unregulated incentive commissions are analyzed since their impacts vary significantly. The regulated incentive commission alternative is selected as the optimal travel agent remuneration scheme. The selection of this alternative results in a compromise between the full achievement of the various objectives. Under this alternative, the benefits and costs of regulatory involvement in the setting of remuneration levels are assured. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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