published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Thesis advisor: Michael Barry / This paper will study the effects of airline alliances on the economic welfare of passengers and airlines by studying how membership in an airline alliance affects ticket price, revenue passenger miles, and available seat utilization. This paper will analyze three sets of data from the US Department of Transportation, including the DB1BTicket Report, the T-100 International Segment Report, and the T1: US Air Carrier Traffic and Capacity Summary by Service Class. The purpose of this paper is to determine how airline alliances effect consumer welfare. The results show that airline alliances lead to higher fares on domestic routes as well as greater passenger revenue miles and available seat utilization. This paper shows that more anti-trust investigation should be taking place regarding airline alliances. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Finance.

by Fung Siu Yin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [3-8] (2nd gp.)). / Abstract / Acknowledgements / Contents / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Theoretical Framework Beyond Resource Mobilization --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter Three --- "The Cathay Strike： Background, Grievances and Confrontation" --- p.46 / Chapter Chapter Four --- A Diagnosis of Cathay Pacific Corporate Culture and the Formation of Identity and Solidarity --- p.73 / Chapter Chapter Five --- The Corporate Culture and the Micromobilization Process --- p.86 / Chapter Chapter Six --- The Identity of Team Culture Culture of Solidarity: Camaraderie Culture --- p.110 / Chapter Chapter Seven --- Conclusion Bringing Culture back in Collective Action --- p.128 / Appendix / Bibliography

In order for e-commerce businesses to attract customers and consequently increase revenue, it is essential to understand the behaviour of online consumers. This involves understanding how consumers react to website elements, and what could influence the adoption of online channels. Given the applied nature of this research area, a number of studies have been carried out by marketers and information systems experts in order to develop a better understanding of consumer behaviour and web elements impact on adoption of online services. However, as web services continue to expand, so does the need for further research concentrating on specific types of products or services. Many academic articles have been published to cater for specific web portals such as retailing, banking, governmental transactions, hotel booking, and many other areas. Whilst this is the case, there remains a lack of research examining customer behaviour when using airline websites. Given the specific nature of online consumers, and the amount of business surrounding e-ticketing, it is imperative that this gap in research is addressed. Multi-faceted limitations surrounding online consumer behaviour within the airlines industry emerge from the literature. For example, the majority of previous research has relied solely upon traditional theories and as such, other important perspectives related to travel warrant investigation. Additionally, apparent links between website qualities and website adoption remain under investigated in the context of the airline industry. Another gap in research relates to the investigation of the moderating role of travellers’ characteristics such as their demographics, internet experiences, and travel habits. Based on these limitations, this research aims to develop a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary (i.e. consumer behaviour, information systems, travel and tourism) theoretical model that is capable of examining the factors that influence travellers’ online satisfaction and intention to purchase air tickets from airline websites. In developing this model, this research adopts a positivist, deductive, and quantitative approach. Thus, based on the analysis and synthesis of literature, a conceptual model comprised of nine constructs is proposed. Inspired by the Information Systems Success Model, e-satisfaction is centralised in the model and suggested as the main predictor of intention to purchase airline tickets. Information web qualities and system web qualities are considered as antecedents of e-satisfaction. The two constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) are also integrated into the model. Other important factors such as e-trust, airline reputation, and price perception are also embedded. The suggested model has been validated using a measurement scale based on previously validated items. This research adopts an online survey that targets real travellers from Saudi Arabia who have used airline websites. Interviews, focus groups, and a pilot study were conducted to validate the survey items. Data collection procedures utilized the social media channels for the two operating airlines in Saudi Arabia as well as a snowball method. Data analysis techniques including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were used to validate the relationships and to test overarching research hypotheses. Additionally, group comparison techniques including invariance analysis were used to explore the moderation effect of demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, education level, monthly income, occupation, and location), internet experience, and travel habits (i.e. origin of the airline used, actual tickets purchase, travel frequency, motivation for travel, type of travel, and type of funding). The results from this research suggest that the most influential factors motivating travellers to purchase online are e-satisfaction followed by website trust. Furthermore, travellers’ perceptions of website quality also played an important role in influencing e-satisfaction. Price was the next influential factor. Several other factors appeared to have direct and indirect associations with intention to purchase and e-satisfaction. Additionally, findings emanating from group analysis suggest that some demographic factors and travel habits have a moderating influence over the research hypotheses. As such, this research makes several contributions to the consumer behaviour and web quality literature within the travel and tourism context. The findings from this research can assist airlines in shaping their web development priorities and enable them to focus on the most influential factors. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the application of these findings, an evaluation of the studies undertaken, and suggestions for future research.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 created a crisis of epic proportions for the airline industry. The attacks, on the heels of the first financial losses in four years, threatened the existence of many airlines. It was incumbent on the CEO to make sense and offer a plan to control the crisis and move forward. There were fewer audiences more attentive to this senemaking activity than the stockholders. On the cusp of the organization, shareholder management is a central job of CEOs in the 21st century. This study focuses on CEO presentations to shareholders for American, Delta and Frontier Airlines before during and after the events of 9/11. Using Close Textual Analysis as configured by Michael Leff, the time focused rhetorical analysis is extended to include slices of time. How CEOs use experienced time and interpreted time to gain stockholder confidence, control the crisis and create a shared vision of the future is the goal of this project. A longitudinal study across the years of 2001-2003, this dissertation considers how the organizational, leadership and personal goals of each of these airlines and their leaders are met through rhetorical configurations of time.

By the year 2020 the number of aircraft will have increased substantially and will be in �Free Flight�(that is, ATC will be devolved to the aircraft rather than being ground based). As an aid to navigation a more advanced form of collision avoidance will be required. This thesis proposes a method of collision avoidance planning using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Dynamic Programming (DP). It in essence enables Air Traffic Control (ATC) from within the cockpit for remote or uncontrolled airspace and is a step toward Free Flight. Free Flight requires quite different strategies than those used in the present collision avoidance schemes. This thesis reviews the approaches to collision avoidance used in the Air traffic navigation and to similar problems in other industries. In particular it considers the extended problem of collision avoidance within the framework of path planning. This is a key departure from the approach to aircraft collision avoidance used in the industry to date. Path planning reflects the real goal of an aircraft, which is to reach a particular destination efficiently and safely. Dynamic Programming is one solution method used in other industries for the problem of path planning to avoid collisions with fixed obstacles. The solution proposed herein for the Aircraft case uses Dynamic Programming applied to the moving obstacle case. The problem is first simplified by assuming fixed (static) obstacles for the cost minimisation algorithms. These fixed obstacles are then moved with time and the minimisation process is repeated at each time increment. Although this method works well in most cases, situations can be constructed where this method fails, allowing a collision. A modified approach is then used, whereby the movement of obstacles is included more explicitly (by modifying the shapes of the obstacles to represent motion) in the cost minimisation algorithm and a safe manoeuvre distance for each aircraft is used (by expanding the object size), to allow space for aircraft to execute safe evasive manoeuvres in difficult cases. This modification allows solutions which are complete (with no known cases of failure � collision situations) and should be considered as an important extension to the current Aircraft and Collision Avoidance System (ACAS). The testing of these solutions is focussed on the most difficult cases, and includes aircraft movement in �real space� (that is simulations using real aircraft dynamics together with dynamic programming algorithms running in discrete time steps).

<p>Nowadays, the European airline market is characterized by two major different airline business models; the full service airlines and the low cost airlines. Secondary, appeared for the first time in 1985 in form of the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair. In recent days, the European low cost market stands out through its growth potential and high competitiveness. Therefore, startup companies aiming to join the wave of success as well as insolvency of newly established airlines are part of the daily occurrence. The challenge, that established low cost airlines are faced with, is to create competitive advantages against new entrants and direct competitors under the circumstances of environmental changes. In addition to the described problem a model was developed in order to picture the situation. This paper aims to provide an answer to the specific question: How do low cost airlines use relationship marketing in order to enhance, maintain and attract new customers? The second step is to figure out how those tools affect the airlines generic strategy. The purpose of this study is to find out how low cost airlines in Europe deal with tools of relationship marketing and what are the effects those tools have on generic strategies. This thesis is based on a case study within the European low cost airlines market, with a special focus on three airlines: Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin. These questions are addressed using information obtained in interviews with respondents from the airlines that were recently conducted in Brussels and Bremen by personal interviews and additionally by telephone interviews and email contact. The results show that relationship marketing tools are used in a different extent by the airlines. The authors could not find evidence that using relationship marketing tools is the single solution to compete more successfully than without. It is further argued by the authors that RM is just one aspect strengthening the generic strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage.</p>

Nowadays, the European airline market is characterized by two major different airline business models; the full service airlines and the low cost airlines. Secondary, appeared for the first time in 1985 in form of the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair. In recent days, the European low cost market stands out through its growth potential and high competitiveness. Therefore, startup companies aiming to join the wave of success as well as insolvency of newly established airlines are part of the daily occurrence. The challenge, that established low cost airlines are faced with, is to create competitive advantages against new entrants and direct competitors under the circumstances of environmental changes. In addition to the described problem a model was developed in order to picture the situation. This paper aims to provide an answer to the specific question: How do low cost airlines use relationship marketing in order to enhance, maintain and attract new customers? The second step is to figure out how those tools affect the airlines generic strategy. The purpose of this study is to find out how low cost airlines in Europe deal with tools of relationship marketing and what are the effects those tools have on generic strategies. This thesis is based on a case study within the European low cost airlines market, with a special focus on three airlines: Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin. These questions are addressed using information obtained in interviews with respondents from the airlines that were recently conducted in Brussels and Bremen by personal interviews and additionally by telephone interviews and email contact. The results show that relationship marketing tools are used in a different extent by the airlines. The authors could not find evidence that using relationship marketing tools is the single solution to compete more successfully than without. It is further argued by the authors that RM is just one aspect strengthening the generic strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

This thesis is about solving the manpower planning problem concerning stangand transitioning of pilots. The objective of the planning is to have enoughpilots to satisfy the demand while minimizing the cost. The main decisions totake are how many pilots to hire, which pilots to train and which courses toschedule. The planning problems that arise are both large and dicult whichmakes it important to use ecient solution methods. Seniority rules betweenpairs of pilots are the most complicating factor.A major part in the solution process is the solving of mixed integer programs.The emphasis in the thesis is to develop and test adaptations of the branch andbound algorithm to solve mixed integer programs faster. One of these is abranching principle that takes a problem specic structure into account. Agraph of implications is constructed from the seniority rules and this graph isthen used to estimate the impact of each branching candidate. The implementedmethods outperform the software XPRESS on some instances, while for mostinstances the performance is comparable.

Electronic commerce has become the new global economic model. In recent years, most airlines build up Website and develop electronic commerce to improve their business competitive advantage. This research is aimed to make a comprehensive survey of airlines website functions and the impacts of electronic commerce on operating performance. Then analyze by interview with 8 international airlines¡¦ managers and SWOT analysis to find out the proper strategy for future development of airlines websites. The main results of this study follows below : 1.The best 2 operating performances for airlines websites is ¡§enhance the Service Quality and Efficiency¡¨ and ¡§enhance the Image and Popularity¡¨ 2.We get the following 8 strategies for the future development of airlines websites by SWOT analysis on the inner and outside environment factors : 1) Invest more resources to EC department for better performance 2) Take the advantage of airlines¡¦ image and attraction of global passengers 3) Boosting customers satisfaction and loyalty by good quality of service 4) Create mutual benefit with travel agencies by B2B cooperation 5) Marketing focus on the independent travelers and high-end customers 6) Enhance business competitive advantage by differentiation and specialization on services and products 7) Increasing the traffic of airlines websites by strategic alliance 8) Improve IT techniques for information integrity and transaction security