Dogfight over Europe: Ryanair

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According to the case, Ryanair must have to be bigger in its strategies to deal with the companies. Cost reduction is a good approach to capture the market, but other than this there must be some plans as backups. Aer Lingus and British Airways are strong due to their resources and capabilities. In order to meet the competition by Ryanair both the companies can also reduce their prices and increase their capacity to gain back their lost customers. This shows that the approach of Ryanair can backfire their own company rather than its competitors. Ryanair is only focusing on the current market trend rather than future trends. A good company has to be efficient in predicting because the future has to be predicted to overcome the issues in advance. However, Ryanair is acting immaturely by lowering their fares, only to hit the customers. They are only thinking about the weaknesses of their competitors rather than their strengths that are a lot more than the weaknesses.

Analysis of the Alternative Solutions

Ryanair can work on a number of alternatives in order to gain competitive advantage. Following are the alternative solutions for Ryanair to compete in the airline industry:

- Expansion

Ryanair has to expand its operations to other regions in order to increase its revenues. Since, it is competing with the two giants of the industry, it has to be so strong that it can enhance its operations to other areas. It is said that only 30% of the areas are served by the two companies and the rest areas are free for expansion. Therefore, Ryanair can expand its flights to other regions to cater the needs of the passengers and in return attract more customers. However, the expansion provides more opportunities for the company to gain establishment ("Ryanair SWOT: Low Costs Remain the Key Strength, Even As Customer Service Enhancements Take Root | CAPA - Centre for Aviation"). Aer Lingus and British Airways are strong companies that have many customers. It is really tough to compete with them. So, Ryanair has to expand its operations in the untapped market to increase its market share and revenue. For Ryanair, expansion is one of the best alternative plan to fight against the share of the AL and BA in the airline industry.

- Differentiation

After the launch of Ryanair, the company only focuses on the cost reduction in order to offer low air fares for the customers. On the other hand, it is not a differentiation strategy. A differentiation strategy should be started by Ryanair in order to stand out from other companies and to attract the customers. Reducing the fares is not a big deal because Aer Lingus and British Airways are financially strong enough to lower their fares as well. Ryanair has to think ahead than both the companies and diversify its operations to attract more and more customers. However, customers are attracted to the companies that have innovative services offered to them than any other company. By differentiation in the operations, Ryanair can gain the demand of the customers and this can raise the revenues for the company as well. For instance, tourism can be the best possible alternative for Ryanair because it is the only service which is not being served by the two major companies. However, there can be other services as well that can help Ryaniar to become different from others.

- New and Innovative Marketing Strategy

Customers are attracted by the marketing strategies of the company. Ryanair can spend some resources in effective and innovative marketing strategy in order to attract the customers and make a difference (Ryanair SWOT). The marketing strategy can be of many types, one of the strategy used by Ryanair was pricing strategy in order to market its services. Though, there are many strategies other than the pricing strategy to attract the target audience towards a new service.

Decision Choice

Among all the proposed alternative solutions, expansion is the best alternative. Ryanair is doing great with a low price strategy, therefore it should also strike the new markets to provide its services to a new market to increase its revenue. AL and BA are offering their services to a selective market and they have a hold on it. If Ryanair wants to be competitive it should expand its operations to other areas other than Dublin to London routes. Since, the two major companies BA and AL are operating efficiently in the their region they have become stronger and have a strong grip of the market share. Therefore, in order to be productive, Ryanair must increase its activities and operations and diversify the services to minimize the risks of loss and rivalry. In this way, Ryanair will be able to develop a strong market and it can also recover from the retaliation of AL and BA.

Conclusion

The airline industry after the WWII was changed from government ownership to privatization. This gave a new platform for the private companies to enter the market. Among the new entrants, Ryanair was the one which started it operations from a small scale flight service. Being competitive in pricing, Ryanair offered a relatively lower fare cost than the British Airways and Aer Lingus who were the two giants of the airline industry at that time. This affected both the companies by the loss of customers because all the new customers were affected by the low pricing of the strategy of Ryanair. However, besides the low pricing strategy, Ryanair must also diversify its operations in order to secure the company in the future from the retaliation of the British Airways and Aer Lingus.

Works Cited

"Ryanair SWOT: Low Costs Remain the Key Strength, Even As Customer Service Enhancements Take Root | CAPA - Centre for Aviation." Latest World Aviation News, Airline News, Analysis & Research | CAPA - Centre for Aviation. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. .

"Welcome to Ryanair!" Ryanair.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. .