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MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
Industry Overview
The market for low-cost carriers first emerged in the US with Pacific Southwest Airlines, pioneering the concept in 1949. The European market did not really develop until aviation deregulation came into effect in the 1990s, making flights affordable for a wider range of customers. Building on the inclining demand for cheap flights mainly by private individuals (average annual growth of 9.4% for leisure travelers between 1996 and 2003 [11], Figure 2), the industry has experienced rapid growth since then. Most notably, Irish airline Ryanair, formed in 1990, and British company EasyJet, formed in 1995, were able to shape the European market (Figure 3). Germanwings and Air Berlin are additional major players in the low-cost carriers (LCC) market throughout Europe.
PEST Analysis
The evolvement of the LCC industry in Europe was only possible through one major political decision in 1997 the deregulation of the European flight market. Before, the market for flights was largely controlled by the governments of European countries, trying to secure their respective national carriers market share. This led to high prices for European flights airfares were roughly twice as much as those for comparable distances in the U.S. [1]. After lifting most restrictions and enabling European carriers to offer routes between any points in the European Union, fierce market competition developed, leading to a sharp drop in prices. The outreach of cheap airlines is extending continuously. Initially providing competition for traditional, often overpriced and government-subsidized carriers, they are now competing with other forms of ground transportation like busses and trains. In many cases it is cheaper to take a flight as opposed to taking the train, especially for longer distances. Ryanairs average ticket price is about $63 [3], whilea ticket for a high speed train connection between for example Munich and Berlin is often way above $100 [17]. These days increasing fuel prices are affecting the whole airline industry and LCCs in particular. Fuel markets are volatile and influenced by geopolitical factors. Therefore efficient financial management of fuel reserves including trading with options and futures is getting more and more important to keep cost down and be competitive in the market place. Another factor promoting the rapid growth of the airline industry in general is the ever increasing demand for mobility. Being limited to business travelers in the past, a great majority of private persons now travels frequently via airplane to holiday destinations or weekend trips. For the majority of private travelers, price is the primary decision factor. This spurs on the tough competition in the LCC market since loyalty to a particular carrier is no longer found in most travelers the cheapest price wins. There also were numerous technological advances in the past few years that facilitate low-cost air transportation. For example the turn-around time, the time required for a plane from arrival to next departure at an airport was reduced from roughly one hour in the past to less than half an hour. This is made possible through advanced methods like aircraft fueling simultaneously with passengers boarding. Since low turn-around times are essential for higher margins, this is a crucial factor for LCCs capability to offer lower fares. As the number of passengers increases steadily and more people can afford flights for leisure activities, environmental groups warn that the impact on the environment will be severe [3]. Comparing the CO2 2
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
emission of a traditional driving vacation inside England with todays increasingly common vacation via plane for example to Murcia, Spain, shows the tremendous difference: for two persons, 20kg of CO 2 are emitted on the car trip as opposed to 1.4 tons of CO 2 emitted on the air plane trip [3]. Easyjet recently started the initiative of carbon offsetting, offering customers the opportunity to contribute to UN certified emission reduction projects in proportion to the CO 2 emission caused by their individual air travel [4].
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
Power-by-the-hour, a time-based jet engine rental program from Rolls-Royce [9]) it becomes more viable for new entrants to start with a small financial footprint. Furthermore, several of the established airlines (e.g. Lufthansa with Germanwings [5] or KLM-Air France with Transavia France [6]) have already started to push onto the market of discount prices with their own low-cost brands.
Threats of Substitutes
Since the unique selling point of low-cost airlines is speedy travel for little money, any mode of transportation that can compete either on price or time requirements is a threat to the business model. Almost all of Europe is covered with an extensive, internationally well-connected train system that provides fast transportation at relatively low cost. For domestic or short-distance travel the train is often the quicker alternative due to lower overhead times (e.g. no check-in procedures, no security checks, and no reservations necessary) while offering a higher level of comfort. A good example for this is the highspeed train connection between Stuttgart, Germany and Paris, France, where the travel time of 3 hours is lower than most flight options on that route. Similar arguments can be made for travelling by car. If it comes to long-distance trips, however, the advantage of higher travel speed usually still outweighs the limitations travel by plane creates
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
3. Efficient internal processes in back office and overall organizational efficiency help to keep the company structure lean and overhead costs low. 4. The relationship with employees through labor contracts and personnel leasing has to be managed carefully. In many cases LCCs do not have labor unions and have a high proportion of leased personnel, increasing their bargaining power with them.
Network
The second key success factor of European low cost carriers is quality and size of the network and the processes of setting up new routes. In general, there are two main types of network models found with European LCCs. On the one hand there is the model used by Ryanair, and on the other hand the model of EasyJet. Both have in common that the network is based on a point-to-point system in contrast to the hub-and-spoke system of most traditional airlines [12]. Ryanair primarily uses secondary, low-frequented airports in its network (Figure 4). It focuses on leisure markets with little competition by other airliners. For setting up a new route, Ryanair requires airport fees to be low. Looking primarily for opportunities to generate customer demand, Ryanair does not focus on current customer needs as much as other airlines [13]. Generating high volume and high efficiency routes with a good profit margin is of primary importance [14]. In contrast to that, EasyJet serves mostly major, highly frequented airports, focusing on existing customer demand and business markets and thereby entering direct competition with existing airlines (Figure 5). In order to generate the cheapest prices within the two models, both of them use the same strategy: For efficiency reasons all routes that do not generate a certain level of profits will be shut down immediately. Existing routes are evaluated frequently, leading to a fast adapting network.
Future Trends
The visible trend of converging ticket prices among the industry will require new methods of differentiation among the carriers to set their brand apart from others while keeping the price low. Increasing demand from business travelers makes it necessary to cater to their specific needs flexibility and an environment supporting productivity. Additionally the airports used will be of increasing importance travelers willingness to drive to remote locations for a low ticket price is decreasing steadily. Especially in the case of business travelers, the use of major airports and hubs is a valuable asset, since it gives customers a direct and comparable alternative to traditional carriers. Taking these thoughts into account, EasyJet seems to be the best prepared LCC in the market. It has a focus on major airports and already started to offer business lounges [18] in many locations. Being one of the biggest players in the market today, EasyJet is well-placed for success in the future, drawing upon its long experience and higher customer satisfaction ratings [19]. Compared to that, Ryanair still seems to be stuck in the traditional LCC method, failing to explore new concepts which can provide future differentiation from competitors. Therefore it appears justified to believe that EasyJet will be the number one market shaping company in the near future.
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
References
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_deregulation#Benefits [2] http://wikitravel.org/en/Discount_airlines_in_Europe [3] http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=1148066222008 [4] http://www.easyjet.com/en/Environment/carbon_offsetting.html [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France-KLM [7] http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_24/low_cost_engends.pdf [8] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/4015854/Low-cost-airliners-in-price-war.html [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_by_the_Hour [10] http://www.mckinsey.de/downloads/presse/2005/sb_050623_bb_airlines.pdf [11] EU network carriers, low cost carriers and consumer behaviour: A Delphi study of future trends [12] http://www.icao.int/icao/en/atb/ecp/CaseStudies/Europe_LowCost_Fr.pdf [13] http://robertoigarza.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/art-eu-network-carriers-low-cost-carriers-andconsumer-behaviour-a-delphi-study-of-future-trends-ma.pdf [14] http://www.dbresearch.de/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_DE-PROD/PROD0000000000078753.PDF [15] http://www.ryanair.com/site/about/invest/docs/present/Full_Year_Results_2009.pdf [16] http://www.metman66.com/images/map%20easyjet.JPG [17] http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de [18] http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Planning/Travel/airportlounges.html [19] http://www.thetravelmagazine.net/i-2786--easyjet-beats-ryanair.html
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
Appendix
Others 23%
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis
200 160 120 80 40 0 0 200 400 600 Distance (km) 800
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Traditional airlines
Figure 3: Airline costs per passenger, and rail fares, from Barcelona [11]
MGT 6753
Industry Analysis