Strategy Maping - Competition in the European Airline Industry

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Figure 4

The airline industry has constantly gone through stormy periods having been affected by fuel prices, high operating costs and the impact of low fare carriers operating in the market as well as other external environmental factors affecting the industry.

British Airways is a luxury airline offering economy, premium economy, business and first class service all focusing on comfort and service. They compete using differentiation strategy which is clearly demonstrated by the two main activities they offer. They concentrate mainly on short-haul and long-haul flights which is very convenient to their passengers.

Competition in the European industry – Strategic Group

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Figure 5

Figure 5

Strategic Mapping of the European Airline Industry

Below figure 6 seeks to group the strategic competitive players from the extract of the European airline industry based on their competitive characteristics as identified in figure 5 of quality and pricing rating in the industry. In addition data from article CAPA (2016), gives some idea of the share of the industry sales for some of the players identified see also figure 7 and 8 below to support the analysis.

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Europe to Europe: Top 20 airline groups by share of scheduled seats, summer 2016, and their seat growth versus summer 2015

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Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, OAG Schedules Analyser

Figure 7

[pic 6]

Source:

Figure 8

The strategic mapping in figure 6 provides the following insight on the competition among the selected European airlines. Gaining information on competitor gathers competitive intelligence to gain knowledge of their strategy so you can gain an advantage.

From the figure 6 it can be gleaned that the closer the groups are the more intense the competition is in the market. Different players 5 forces may differ although they are in the same group.

The largest strategic grouping is

References

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CAPA, 2012. All Nippon Airways adds Austrian & Swiss to JV, and eyes acquisitions, as Japan & France liberalise | CAPA - Centre for Aviation. Centre for Aviation. Available at: https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/all-nippon-airways-adds-austrian--swiss-to-jv-and-eyes-acquisitions-as-japan--france-liberalise-78166 [Accessed January 7, 2017].

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