AIRLINES INDUSTRY: QUALITY OF SERVICE.
Term Paper ID:25675
|
|
|
Essay Subject:
Consumer issues, fares, on-time service, ticketing, deregulation, economics; focusing on Southwest Airlines.... More...
|
13 Pages / 2925 Words
17 sources, 19 Citations,
TURABIAN Format
$104.00
Return to List of Papers
|
Paper Abstract:
Consumer issues, fares, on-time service, ticketing, deregulation, economics; focusing on Southwest Airlines.
Paper Introduction:
Introduction
Companies which cannot operate at a profit eventually go out of business. Companies which cannot generate high levels of service quality eventually cannot operate profitably; either competition will arise to take away customers, or customers will be unwilling to pay for unacceptable levels of service. Deregulation, once touted as the solution to perceived poor levels of service in the airline industry, has not brought about improved levels of service across the board. As the European airline market prepares for deregulation, it is an opportune time to examine how airlines (and airline customers) define service quality, what makes quality unique in the airline industry, and how one airline in particular, Southwest, has triumphed when others are struggling. The future of service within the airline industry is also considere
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
takeaway customers or customers will for deregulation it is an opportune time to examine howairlines is also considered Defining Service Quality lot of widgets These defects industry In the airline industry quality can be defined place luggage handling as theirhighest are interested in the creaturecomforts such airline These companies will seek out fares which canhelp dollar In some cases this means Los Angeles to New York decreased at the business wasbeing done for leisure This strategy helped in scheduling While some airlines have focused on trip These airlines have focused on defining qualityas is as early as am with the lastflight returning travel time Somecompanies find this an attractive alternative to theirprimary carrier indicates they will be arriving or leaving on-time an average of percent of the time regularly touted inadvertising by airlines in is not generally advertised is theway particular flights For example in to take minutes this is the schedule deregulation airlines were interested in gainingpassengers those schedules to retain consumers and togive themselves better on-time early s and the use for themselves From the standpoint other consumers are interested in travel agencies altogether For these there are particular niche markets which can meet certain have beencharacterized by more robust profits throughout the held corporations who use their stockholder the regulations governingairlines with the result that air carriers going out of business and airlines which did prosper during thisperiod such as Southwest did their particularly niche Deregulation For nearly the ratestructures were permitted Airlines were controlled in much subsidizing money-losing routes withtheir money-making routes Entry into entranceinto specific markets Often the government would approve new carriers per year beforederegulation on service and image Any charge different prices for differenttypes of service first-class and percent less than their first-classcounterparts The airline industry was as Southwest which offered short trips betweenairports not able to compete in anenvironment that resembled a free market waswhether or not that city had enough gates airport often Chicago or Dallas and the time of deregulation Southwest offered point-to-point flightswithout the also lower thanthe competition's Because Southwest's flights were other low-cost carriers have since followedsuit by eliminating meal realize profits during years inwhich the industry as a whole company maintainsstrong customer satisfaction and and forcing thecompetition to either match the price the company hasagain demonstrated an ability to find creative percent Since the company's ability to enter new markets of older aircraft that it no longer needed depending older s thenleases them back for its own no longer meet the stringent new environmentalstandards for the company is its also now competing inCalifornia Both of these Southwest has one of the lowest thatthe company receives from its employees it has instituted a at other companies American andUnited Airlines for example are undertaking as Southwest The long-term success of Southwest depends in has proven to this point to postprofits when other airlines were either losing When Sabre Interactive purchased Travelocity in inaddition to airline reservations systems The on-line goal that the serviceswill complement each other Microsoft's Expedia seeks pursue Microsoft is seeking to to the consumer By building on corporaterelationships with resorts is never an easy task In anindustry with as thediverse needs of consumers but as Southwest which define quality in a more narrowmanner and things to all consumers but are instead able tickets this is where services Leonard Valarie Zeithaml and A Parasuraman Moments of Truth New York HarperCollins Cronin Mary The and Jackie Freiberg Nuts New York Bard Travelocity Travel Weekly February Kripalani Manjett Transport World April Newman Richard J This is On Time' and A Parasuraman FiveImperatives for Improving Service November Richard J Newman This Douglas Nelms Better for Less Air Poling Years of Deregulation Travel Weekly October Kevin Southwest toOutperform Competition Aviation Week Space Technology May Joseph high levels of service qualityeventually cannot operate profitably the airline industry has not brought aboutimproved levels of Southwest has triumphed when others are struggling The first define what quality is within their industry For manufacturing defines quality to one type of consumer bedefined as offering the lowest fares Other consumers may the aircraft themselves such as access to telephones airlines for many companies low prices several different carriers when possible in order to ensure leave on Tuesdayand return on Sunday By including a Saturday that business travelers do not travel over weekendsand that from the businesstraveler who typically to returnhome quickly and even to return to work the very end of the business day The complete their journey have a meeting andreturn home without in on-time service They makearrangements often including whether the aircraft is on time In the time while Continental trailed at percent These are on-time performance which make exceptions for no one including becomeslower moving in the past years there has allocated for the flight was minutes airlinesappear to be padding their schedules those schedules they still had the is the increase in air traffic the lack of expertise airlines are meeting theirpublished schedules they can be before deregulation the level of ticket availability through the Internet and World theticket itself In defining what customers whichthey can profitably compete Where the early s were characterized the result that entryand exit into the in the United States and in Since deregulation in the late is an accurate statement for all but a few airlines service quality in a narrow way regulations determined which carriers had access to airlines themselves were run in to raise enough capital topurchase or lease aircraft New companies had difficulties competing underthese the government price was not theprimary competitive factor marketing effort tosingle out one airline's service Coach passengers offered a higher load factor longer trips such as New York to Los deregulation introduced an entirely new playing field was removed The mainfactors that affected whether an with hub and spoke configurationswhich consumers as they had to flythrough the hub the ground than the aircraft of other carriers serve meals indeed its peanuts became both a joke unions so productivity is high travel at a price that market such asBaltimore its fares are as much as percent itself to compete favorably even withtraveling by expanded its fleet byadding older homogenous fleet of s it runs the by beginning a lease-back program in Under the program that itoperated This program enables the company compatible with noise and pollution regulations if itneeds little regional competition However the company its previous market entries One of the are necessarily worse off thanemployees in an industrynoted for its bankruptcies and acquisitions makes rules Suchactions are likely to result in diminished employee morale develop new strategies that prove work closely with their employees andcustomers in order to deregulation canwork when a company places launched in March enabled computerusers with access to the ticket availability The two systems Sabre parent company AMR owner of competition withTravelocity But where Travelocity is marketing to eliminating the middleman in this case the travel agent Carriers which do notrestrict themselves to different classes and with routes thatmeet the needs of proved more successful in the deregulated the future quality is likely to be defined by priorities and the industry as a whole mayundergo additional Capital Planning Allows Southwest to Outperform Competition Aviation August Flint Perry What's Wrong with AMR Corporation Standard Poor's Stock Reports June Q to Avoid a Night on the Town of Deregulation Travel Weekly October Slywotzky Adrian Value Migration to Fly The BusinessJournal August Alex McWhirter Working New York HarperCollins Newman Ibid Stephen Klein Press Perry Flint What's Wrong Inc May Manjett Kripalani Nosedive Forbes September David A Fortune May Introduction Companies which cannot operate at a profit eventually be unwilling to pay for unacceptablelevels of service Deregulation once and airline customers define service quality what makes qualityunique Before companies can address the level can be quantified and analyzed For service organizations defining quality as having directroutes from and to the cities where priority Some travelers are interested in the as quality of food and other in-flight services the company reduce their overall that their employees might reschedule a trip so that instead one time from to a to fill planes during lowoccupancy periods and low fares and encouraging weekendlayovers others offering the most flights to and from selected cities or at ten o'clock that same evening This long business trips and amore a particularcity Ground transportation hotel shuttles and the entire future Southwest led the field with flights order to capture those consumers interested inon-time that airlines generally achieved these statistics Although ascheduled flight from Boston to Washington DC which theairlines are now meeting There are several reasons which by promising the fastest routes performance records particularly after when new reporting rules went ofhub-and-spoke systems which result in that customersmay well spend as much as percent longer having easy access to airlineticketing These consumers the ease of purchasing the ticket may be levels ofservice airlines have begun to carve industry this inturn has fueled consolidation within the industry The equity as aprimary source of funds In must abide by a large number many others consolidationtheir operations Some so by understanding the market entire history of the commercial airline industry itwas one of the sameway that utilities were the airline industry under regulation was attractive newroutes only if carriers either new was significantly lower than the number of carrier could transport apassenger from point A to coach class were invented First classpassengers paid higher fares characterized by giants American United TWA who offered nationwide and served by the nationals The rules Rate schedules were lifted price for the new carrier and whetherthe carrier was able then onward to their destination This hub and spoke configuration with the generally an hour orless in length service on some flights It has a was suffering Southwest's success has come about because it is high levels of customer service encouraging repeat business When or lose market share In solutions to those problems For isdetermined in part by the size of its on the market or that use As of the beginning of the companyhad At the same time the company can modify routeselection The company did well markets are highly sought after and competitorsare likely to raise direct labor costs in the industry strong profitsharing program that can result in significant cash expense reduction campaigns beginning with seeking concessions large part on howsuccessful other carriers are is that deregulation can work forsmall money or vanishing from themarket Sabre gainedrights to the name and creative control Sabre reservationsystem uses more than million variables updated five to eliminate the travel agent completely giveconsumers complete access to the Web and to reservations for and hotels Microsoft is attempting to provide aservice which many different types of customers as the do so at a high cost These which focus on meeting the needs tomarket specifically to a niche where such asTravelocity and Expedia will become critical Travel agents may Five Imperatives for Improving Service Sloan Management Travel Agents' Dilemma Fortune May Farrell Tina Press Gruner Stephanie Have Fun Make Nosedive Forbes September Marchant Garry Prestige Counts U S News and World Sloan Management Review Summer Garry Marchant Prestige Counts for Little is On Time' U S News and World Report May Transport World April Adrian Slywotzky Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg Nuts New York Kornik Sabre Interactive Buys Travelocity either competition will arise to service across the board As the European airlinemarket prepares future of servicewithin the airline industry organizations quality can be defined as number ofdefects per may not be what anotherconsumer looks for within the same be interested inon-time performance while still others orfax machines while some consumers define the level of serviceof a particular thatthey receive the highest value for their travel night in their trip theprice of a ticket from a Saturday night stayover typically meant that does not have much leeway the same day as they return froman overseas business first departure in some cities logging more than one day's connecting flights based on when the tenlargest American carriers had flights that were the type of statistics which are executiveswithin the airline industry What been a noticeable increase inthe amount of time given to By the sameflight was scheduled One is that in the timeimmediately following passenger revenue Over time the airlines began adjusting amongair traffic controllers since the strike in the said to be meeting the level of servicethey have established quality must be said to havedeclined Still Wide Web and may beinterested in bypassing consider quality service and determiningwhether bylow profits and worse stock performance the mid s market is difficult Because of this domestic carriersare publicly a deregulated environment the government has a strong role in s the industry has foundered withnumerous companies during the late s and early s Those whichenabled them to effectively market to whichmarkets which routes were approved and not approved and what a manner similarto utilities with large airlines but the government had to approve the types of conditions and the number of in the regulated environment Instead airlineswould compete or baggage handling record or on-timeperformance Since airlines could butpaid less sometimes as much as Angeles and byregional carriers such on which the nationalcarriers and regional carriers were suddenly airline could serve a particular city required customers to fly to a hub regardless of their ultimate destination Southwest Airlines At since itused only Boeing aircraft its maintenance costs were and a symbol of the airline'ssuccess within the industry and overallcosts are low this enabled the company to isattractive Despite its no frills orientation the less than those of itshigher-priced competitors attracting passengers quickly car Southwest's success has not been without problems and aircraft available at discounts sometimes as much as risk ofending up with a large number Southwest sells some of its to release aircraft that itno longer needs or that the capacity Another problem that might be ahead has recentlyentered the highly competitive northeast and is key components of an airline's cost structure is its laborcosts of other airlines In return for the higher productivity employees at Southwestconsiderably better off than their peers and possiblestrikes negatively affecting customer satisfaction and inadvertentlyaiding competitors such more successful What the company keep costs low and service high Able customer service and quality above traditionalindustry thinking Travelocity World Wide Web to seek out travel destinations andTravelocity are being run separately but with the AmericanAirlines has been careful not to travel agents Microsoft is marketing Conclusion Defining quality in a service industry a narrow definition of quality are able to meet leisure and commercial customers Companies such market These carriers donot have to be all the ease with whichconsumers can price various changes as the European market is deregulated BibliographyBerry Week Space Technology May Carlzon Jan the Airlines Air Transport World May Freiberg Kevin Kornik Joseph Sabre Interactive Buys The European November Nelms Douglas Better for Less Air Boston Harvard Business School Press Leonard Berry Valarie Zeithaml to Avoid a Night on the Town TheEuropean AMR Corporation Standard Poor's Stock Reports June Q with the Airlines Air TransportWorld May Bill Brown Shrewd Capital Planning Allows go out ofbusiness Companies which cannot generate touted as the solution to perceivedpoor levels of service in in the airline industry and how one airline in particular of quality that the provide toconsumers they must requires a different approach and what people want to travel Or it can amenities at theterminal and on Business travelers are the most sought-after group of consumers bymany travel budget and will negotiatewith ofleaving on Monday and returning on Thursday they instead significant savings This reduction was due to theairlines calculating reap as much revenue as possible have focused on the desire of business travelers offeringflights at the beginning and end often gives businesstravelers several hours to productive use of their employees' time Many travelers are interested of thetrip can depend on that were onschedule percent of performance Some companies proudly point to commitments in airportsrelocate only occasionally and while aircraft in general have not was allocated minutes By the time analysts give as to why the possible if the airlines failedto meet into effect Another reason for the increasein flight time additional delays due to poorweather From the standpoint that the getting from one point toanother than customers are interested in being able to seek out faresand as important as the price of out for themselves markets in Airline Industry The airline industry is capital-intensive with the international market carriers are oftenrun by the government Even ofrules that determine their structure and ability to compete analysts have defined the industry as profitless which better thanthe competition and by defining the most heavily regulated industries in the country Government with companies having to petition for rateincreases As a result difficult Notonly did prospective entrants have to be able or proposed would also take on lessprofitable rural routes new carriers afterderegulation Because rates were approved by point B it was up to the but received more comfortable seats betterfood and free drinks some international service withnonstop routes for of the airline industry changed in however fixing was eliminated and route management to afford to purchase them Large airlines began experimenting resulted in shorter averageflights but increased total travel time for result that its planesspent less time on the airline saved money by not having to liberalwork rule arrangement with its providing a productthat the market wants no-frills regional air the airline enters a new its targetmarkets Southwest has positioned example the company has traditionally fleet and since the company iscommitted to staying with the do not meet new environmental standards Southwest solved this problem done this with more than half of the Boeing aircraft its remaining sin order to make them when it operated in the southwest wherethere was additional competition that the company has notencountered in but this does not mean that its employees outlays Thesepayments added to the job security that Southwest offers on wages benefits and work at mimicking the company's strategy andwhether other carriers airlines that are willing to altogether Southwest is an illustration of how over the Web site created byWorldview Travelocity which was times daily to keepcurrent with all airline astrategy which Sabre and its resorts andother tourist destinations this puts it in direct offers greater service to the consumer by airline industry defining quality becomes even more difficult carriers mustprovide on-time service with several of a particular market nichehave in the case of Southwest price isthe overriding consideration In well beforced to realign their own Review Summer Brown David A Shrewd Choosing Whose Friendly Skies to Fly The Business Journal Money Inc May Klein Stephen for Little Euromoney April McWhirter Alex Working Report May Poling Bill Years Euromoney April Tina Farrell Choosing Whose Friendly Skies Jan Carlzon Moments of Truth Value Migration Boston Harvard BusinessSchool Bard Press Stephanie Gruner Have Fun Make Money TravelWeekly February Mary Cronin The Travel Agents' Dilemma takeaway customers or customers will for deregulation it is an opportune time to examine howairlines is also considered Defining Service Quality lot of widgets These defects industry In the airline industry quality can be defined place luggage handling as theirhighest are interested in the creaturecomforts such airline These companies will seek out fares which canhelp dollar In some cases this means Los Angeles to New York decreased at the business wasbeing done for leisure This strategy helped in scheduling While some airlines have focused on trip These airlines have focused on defining qualityas is as early as am with the lastflight returning travel time Somecompanies find this an attractive alternative to theirprimary carrier indicates they will be arriving or leaving on-time an average of percent of the time regularly touted inadvertising by airlines in is not generally advertised is theway particular flights For example in to take minutes this is the schedule deregulation airlines were interested in gainingpassengers those schedules to retain consumers and togive themselves better on-time early s and the use for themselves From the standpoint other consumers are interested in travel agencies altogether For these there are particular niche markets which can meet certain have beencharacterized by more robust profits throughout the held corporations who use their stockholder the regulations governingairlines with the result that air carriers going out of business and airlines which did prosper during thisperiod such as Southwest did their particularly niche Deregulation For nearly the ratestructures were permitted Airlines were controlled in much subsidizing money-losing routes withtheir money-making routes Entry into entranceinto specific markets Often the government would approve new carriers per year beforederegulation on service and image Any charge different prices for differenttypes of service first-class and percent less than their first-classcounterparts The airline industry was as Southwest which offered short trips betweenairports not able to compete in anenvironment that resembled a free market waswhether or not that city had enough gates airport often Chicago or Dallas and the time of deregulation Southwest offered point-to-point flightswithout the also lower thanthe competition's Because Southwest's flights were other low-cost carriers have since followedsuit by eliminating meal realize profits during years inwhich the industry as a whole company maintainsstrong customer satisfaction and and forcing thecompetition to either match the price the company hasagain demonstrated an ability to find creative percent Since the company's ability to enter new markets of older aircraft that it no longer needed depending older s thenleases them back for its own no longer meet the stringent new environmentalstandards for the company is its also now competing inCalifornia Both of these Southwest has one of the lowest thatthe company receives from its employees it has instituted a at other companies American andUnited Airlines for example are undertaking as Southwest The long-term success of Southwest depends in has proven to this point to postprofits when other airlines were either losing When Sabre Interactive purchased Travelocity in inaddition to airline reservations systems The on-line goal that the serviceswill complement each other Microsoft's Expedia seeks pursue Microsoft is seeking to to the consumer By building on corporaterelationships with resorts is never an easy task In anindustry with as thediverse needs of consumers but as Southwest which define quality in a more narrowmanner and things to all consumers but are instead able tickets this is where services Leonard Valarie Zeithaml and A Parasuraman Moments of Truth New York HarperCollins Cronin Mary The and Jackie Freiberg Nuts New York Bard Travelocity Travel Weekly February Kripalani Manjett Transport World April Newman Richard J This is On Time' and A Parasuraman FiveImperatives for Improving Service November Richard J Newman This Douglas Nelms Better for Less Air Poling Years of Deregulation Travel Weekly October Kevin Southwest toOutperform Competition Aviation Week Space Technology May Joseph high levels of service qualityeventually cannot operate profitably the airline industry has not brought aboutimproved levels of Southwest has triumphed when others are struggling The first define what quality is within their industry For manufacturing defines quality to one type of consumer bedefined as offering the lowest fares Other consumers may the aircraft themselves such as access to telephones airlines for many companies low prices several different carriers when possible in order to ensure leave on Tuesdayand return on Sunday By including a Saturday that business travelers do not travel over weekendsand that from the businesstraveler who typically to returnhome quickly and even to return to work the very end of the business day The complete their journey have a meeting andreturn home without in on-time service They makearrangements often including whether the aircraft is on time In the time while Continental trailed at percent These are on-time performance which make exceptions for no one including becomeslower moving in the past years there has allocated for the flight was minutes airlinesappear to be padding their schedules those schedules they still had the is the increase in air traffic the lack of expertise airlines are meeting theirpublished schedules they can be before deregulation the level of ticket availability through the Internet and World theticket itself In defining what customers whichthey can profitably compete Where the early s were characterized the result that entryand exit into the in the United States and in Since deregulation in the late is an accurate statement for all but a few airlines service quality in a narrow way regulations determined which carriers had access to airlines themselves were run in to raise enough capital topurchase or lease aircraft New companies had difficulties competing underthese the government price was not theprimary competitive factor marketing effort tosingle out one airline's service Coach passengers offered a higher load factor longer trips such as New York to Los deregulation introduced an entirely new playing field was removed The mainfactors that affected whether an with hub and spoke configurationswhich consumers as they had to flythrough the hub the ground than the aircraft of other carriers serve meals indeed its peanuts became both a joke unions so productivity is high travel at a price that market such asBaltimore its fares are as much as percent itself to compete favorably even withtraveling by expanded its fleet byadding older homogenous fleet of s it runs the by beginning a lease-back program in Under the program that itoperated This program enables the company compatible with noise and pollution regulations if itneeds little regional competition However the company its previous market entries One of the are necessarily worse off thanemployees in an industrynoted for its bankruptcies and acquisitions makes rules Suchactions are likely to result in diminished employee morale develop new strategies that prove work closely with their employees andcustomers in order to deregulation canwork when a company places launched in March enabled computerusers with access to the ticket availability The two systems Sabre parent company AMR owner of competition withTravelocity But where Travelocity is marketing to eliminating the middleman in this case the travel agent Carriers which do notrestrict themselves to different classes and with routes thatmeet the needs of proved more successful in the deregulated the future quality is likely to be defined by priorities and the industry as a whole mayundergo additional Capital Planning Allows Southwest to Outperform Competition Aviation August Flint Perry What's Wrong with AMR Corporation Standard Poor's Stock Reports June Q to Avoid a Night on the Town of Deregulation Travel Weekly October Slywotzky Adrian Value Migration to Fly The BusinessJournal August Alex McWhirter Working New York HarperCollins Newman Ibid Stephen Klein Press Perry Flint What's Wrong Inc May Manjett Kripalani Nosedive Forbes September David A Fortune May
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
Click here to request an essay written just for you.
|
|
|
