Preview

American Airlines Strategy Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1748 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
American Airlines Strategy Analysis
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
COURSEWORK 1:

The US Airline Industry in 2004

Sommaire Introduction 3 I. The External Analysis 3
1 The macro-environment 3
2 The micro-environment 5 II. The Internal Analysis 7
1. SWOT analysis 7 III. The Strategic choices 9
1. The Bowman’s strategy clock 9

Introduction

The US Airlines market experiences ups and downs, and different phases; for example the period of regulation up until 1978 and the period of deregulation.
The US civil airline was created in 1920, but in those days, for deliver mail, it was after 1930 that began the competition and new entrants came. Then the US airlines grew, and became very important, were created CAB and FAF to strengthen the security. The deregulation has had a significant impact in the 80’s; there was a wave of new entrants and an upsurge in price competition. The financial crisis came at the same time, which provoked the bankruptcy, mergers…
Many companies have experienced lot of setbacks, as the crisis, the staff strikes, but also the arrival of low cost companies in the market.
To begin we will focus on the external analysis of US Airlines industry, realize thanks to two models, “PEST analysis” for the macro-environment and the “Five forces of PORTER” for the micro-environment. Then we will talk about the internal analysis, with the “SWOT” model; carry out from the different strength/weaknesses and opportunities/threats. We will finish with the strategic choices, in third part.

I. The External Analysis
The macro-environment

To begin the external analysis I will use the P.E.S.T model. This policy tool allows evaluating the influence of external factors on Airlines Company.

* POLITICAL:

* The CAB: civil aeronautics board was established by Congress, for restrict or eliminate the competition.

* Federal Aviation Administration, the national aviation authority was created in 1958 following an aircraft collision. It has authority to regulate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Over 80 years of regulation by the ICC, the railroads industries were in major financial crisis and being feared that the airlines industries were going to have the same problems, hence rising the reason to deregulate the airlines industries (Lawrence, 2013). The CAB Procedures and…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Airline industry is the topic I researched in this analysis. Companies in this industry provide scheduled domestic and international passenger transportation, mail and freight transportation. Major US companies include American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, and United Continental, as well as the air operations of express delivery companies such as FedEx and UPS. The industry key survival factors are efficient operations, reliability of services, and safety. The drivers of change are internet economy, globalization, and low cost competition. Based on the key survival factors and drivers of change,…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Airline industry is regarded to be a highly volatile business. This riskiness is derived not only from the enormous capital requirement for start-up and maintenance, but also related to external factors such as high level of competition, seasonality and fluctuation of fuel prices. In the following section, the Porter’s Five Model is applied to the global airline industry in determining the challenges faced by…

    • 5312 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southwest Airlines

    • 6862 Words
    • 28 Pages

    Following the Deregulation in 1978, a competitive price war ensued among the airline industry as a direct result of the new freedom for airlines to set their own fares as well as route entry and exits. This gave rise to the operating structure of the airlines as it exists today, consisting of the point-to-point system and the hub and spoke system. With this came the change of focus for major airlines to non-stop, cross-country routes in densely populated cities, which, in a regulated environment, would be profitable. This resulted in the obvious outcome of increased competition, thus lowering the average industry prices for non-stop cross country routes which were profitable. This caused operating costs to increase, narrowing the profit margins. During the mid 80 's, acquisition led to eight airlines capturing a disproportionate share of domestic traffic. Due to a recession and increasing fuel prices in the 90 's, bankruptcy and collapse were common to many carriers. As a direct result, new airlines were formed, and now position themselves as low fare, no frill airlines.…

    • 6862 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Airline industry was incepted in the 1930’s and was heavily regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board. The CAB determined which routes they could fly, ticket rates, and when they could schedule flights. Airline consumers were severely limited by routes and schedules and many were locked out by high fares. During this time the Airline Industry continued to operate and grow, but did not generate impressive profits. In 1978 the US Government began the process of deregulating the Airlines. The Airline Deregulation Act was approved by Congress on October 24, 1978. As a result, Airlines were able to fly to new destinations, flown more frequently, and dramatically lowered costs. Airlines also innovated new services such as overnight and same day shipping, and determined what consumer in flight amenities to offer. One estimate by the Air Transport Association suggests that ticket prices today are 44.9 percent lower in real terms than they were in 1978. (Brennan…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The airline industry experienced growing revenues throughout the 1990s. At the turn of the new millennium, there was a drastic change to this trend. A major devastation to the airline industry came after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The industry recorded losses of $7.7 billion for the year and revenues went down 13.5% after a record $93.6 billion in 2000. The industry struggled throughout the following years. Recovery from losses was difficult in those times due to increased security costs, increasing oil prices, a struggling economy, and low ticket fares. In 2008, oil prices reached a record high and the top 10 U.S. carriers lost $4 billion, followed by a $5 billion loss in 2009. Conditions have begun to look better for the industry. There is evidence of improving demand and revenues for the top 10 U.S. carriers in the first half of 2010, and oil prices remain lower than the 2008 record highs. This could be the beginning of more profitable years for the industry.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The U.S. Airline Industry

    • 1205 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The U.S. airline industry provides a unique service to its customers. It transports people and goods with efficiency and convenience which is not achieved by any other service. The purpose of this article is to collect data on the U.S. airline industry and analyze the state of the industry today. Data came from sources such as the Federal Aviation Administration, scholarly articles, and websites such as dallas.culturemap.com and airwise.com. Tools used to analyze the data include P.E.S.T., and Porter’s five forces. The analysis also focuses on the industries’ drivers of change and its key survival factors.…

    • 1205 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southwest Airlines

    • 3048 Words
    • 13 Pages

    This is the historic background of an American Airline company called the Southwest Airlines Co. based in Dallas which still exists and operates with great success between 57 cities in 26 states of the US, by over 300 airplanes , providing primarily short-haul, high frequency, point to point, low fare service . Through this essay we will see an analysis of the company 's advantages and disadvantages through a SWOT Analysis. We will try to localize the problems of the company at the time and in the case of a future expansion, and we will try to give a number of alternative solutions and chose one of them. The Southwest Airlines is a company that has done its first movements in the airline world in 1971 after many efforts for its opening through legal battles with competitors that did not believe that there was any particular reason why the another airline company should exist among all the others already existing. The different things that the new airline company provided were many and very interesting. The idea started from two friends Rolling King, and investment advisor, and Herb Kelleher, his lawyer, who met in order to discuss the idea of Rolling King for a low-fare, no- frills airline to fly between three major cities in Texas. The outcome of this discussion was in reality the decision of the two men to go for something that they believed would work, even though they were not positive about that. After all the legal battles between the two men and the airline companies of Texas at the time who believed it was not necessary for another airline company to enter the market, battles that prevented the operation of the company for three whole years, Southwest Airlines Co. had become a reality. Other legal battles followed in the future that justified the Southwest Airlines but left the company broke, while during the first year of its operations made losses and the earnings for the next half a year were balancing with costs. Gladly the recovery came soon and by…

    • 3048 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Delta Airlines

    • 4528 Words
    • 19 Pages

    • Baumwoll, J., Howland, B., Kruse, J., Lamb, S. and Shepherd, J. (2008), Delta Airlines: An Analytical View, viewed 3 November 2009, http://www.academicmind.com/unpublishedpapers/business/management/2008-06-000aao-delta-an-anyalytical-view.html.…

    • 4528 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper is the first part in preparing a comprehensive case analysis for U.S. Airways. How this particular company could possibly take advantage of some external opportunities, along with a strategy that could address some possible threats will be discussed. A competitive Profile Matrix will be constructed and will include some major competitors of U.S. Airways along with a few success factors that may be critical for this company to succeed. Finally, an External Factor Evaluation Matrix will be constructed from the PESTEL framework to help summarize and evaluate the current business situation of U.S. Airways while assessing opportunities and threats the company may be facing.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Delta Airlines Essay

    • 4692 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Hurt by poor profits and scarred from likely terrorist attacks against the US due to the US involvement in the Iraq war, the airline industry finds itself on a bumpy course. In an effort to head off a drop in the number of passengers and rising costs for security , companies laid off staff and trimmed services. In an already intensely competitive market, the ¡°inevitable¡± industry wide shakedown will have far-reaching effects on the industry's trend towards expanding domestic and international…

    • 4692 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    This report will be discussing strategic management to a company in the airline industry. This report will examine a chosen company’s strategic management and outline the stages. Strategic management is analyzing the situation facing the firm, also on the foundation of analysis formulating a strategy and lastly implementing strategy. Strategic management is the identification and the description of strategies that can be used by managers so as to attain better…

    • 4639 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    American Airlines

    • 1392 Words
    • 4 Pages

    3- The Airline industry and the market The airline industry is large, specially in the United States, mainly due to the " Deregulation" of the industry. In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Board was created to control the growth of the air transportation industry. This board had the authority to control entry, exit, prices and methods of…

    • 1392 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Over the many decades, this industry has existed; several airlines have declared bankruptcy and struggled to stay alive once on the other end of the bankruptcy. Very few of these chapter 11 filing airlines have truly endured the hard times and succeeded. This industry is facing a financial predicament and the future for the airline industry does not look good. The predicament that these industry faces that were accelerated by external shocks. According to Wilson (2005) the war in Iraq, the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the outbreak of Stars, and the crash of the stock market bubble of the millennium is some of the causes of the financial crisis that the U. S. airlines are facing, which has led to a $32 billion loss for the industry.…

    • 2884 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The objective of my report is to analyze the strategy analysis in “Gulf Air” which is very important factor for the firm’s formulated effective strategy. The external environment consists of a wide array of economic and sociopolitical factors. It is the specific market arenas that the organization has chosen in its strategy; it provides the business opportunities to the firm and it’s also a source of threats or forces that may impede the successful implementation of a strategy. Macro-environmental Analysis (PEST factors affecting Gulf Air Airlines). To analyze the macro environment, I will use the PEST analysis, which refers to political, economic, social and technical factors that confront Gulf Air airlines. Also we use SWOT analysis as well. This analysis provides a no exhaustive list of potential influences of the environment on the organization. Each of the forces is categorized by a particular macro-level external influence, which directly impacts strategic direction at Gulf Air.…

    • 4102 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics