Delta Airlines Essay

The targeting strategy that Delta Airlines follows is a Single Segment Strategy. Business fliers are the main target for this airline. In order to reach their target market, Delta Airlines is conveying its message that it delivers everything business fliers need through advertising in broadcast media and other national media. A differentiation strategy is the extensive flight service and brand legacy of Delta Airlines is recognized throughout the airline industry as unique. There are several benefits of Single Segment Marketing. The company can gain more competitive edge. Their major competitors are United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, American Airlines, and British Airways. Also, the company can create more fine-tuned offerings at the right price for the specific market segments as well as have a clear picture of the

Delta airline uses merger so as to be able to expend its business. In 2008 the company merged with Northwest airlines. It operates in Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific regions. Once the merger was complete, Northwest Airlines and all its constituents become wholly-owned by Delta Airlines. The merger saw to it that Delta Airlines started operating in the Northwest for FY 2008. In the period of two month that is from October of 2008 the time the merger was completed to December of 2008, the company had increased it revenues to $2 billion. Having a flexible nature, allows Delta to improve customer services, and in the long run be able to achieve its strategic objectives.

This paper will give a historical overview of the company, discuss the ingredients to the company success, offer some financial strengths and present a final conclusion. Section I: Southwest's History Twenty-seven years ago, Rollin King, a San Antonio entrepreneur who owned a small commuter air service, and Kelleher, who was a lawyer at the time, got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion. If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make certain they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right. Within those 27 years, Southwest Airlines became the fifth largest major airline in America. Today, they have flown over 50 million passengers a year to 54 cities all over the southwest and beyond. They do it over 2,300 times a day with over 267 of the newest jets in the nation and fly only one type aircraft; the B-737. The average age of their fleet is only 8.4 years and they own over sixty percent of them. In May 1988, they were the first airline to win the coveted U.S. Department of Transportation Triple Crown for a month - Best On-time Record, Best Baggage Handling, and Fewest Customer Complaints. Since then, they've won it

The Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors – Since the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 over 1,300 new airlines have opened for business. However, most now are bankrupt or merged with the other carriers to stay workable. The established giants were Delta (merged with Northwest), American Airlines (merged with U.S. Airways), United Airlines (merged with Continental), and now Alaska Airlines (merged with Virgin America). Now the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are posing a massive threat which includes Southwest Airlines (merged with Air Tran), and JetBlue.

American airline industry is steadily growing at an extremely strong rate. This growth comes with a number economic and social advantage. This contributes a great deal to the international inventory. The US airline industry is a major economic aspect in both the outcome on other related industries like tourism and manufacturing of aircraft and its own terms of operation. The airline industry is receiving massive media attention unlike other industries through participating and making of government policies. As Hoffman and Bateson (2011) show the major competitors include Southwest Airlines, Delta Airline, and United Airline.

When it comes to airline financial information there is much available. One of the companies with a very long and storied history of financial success has to be United Airlines. This is a company that has been around since 1926 and claims to be the oldest commercial airline in the United States. Any company that has been in existence for 89 years is obviously successful financially but has also weathered through some lean or troublesome times, and United is a gleaming example of this. For this report covering a company with such a long history it would be beneficial to focus in on a specific time in its history, therefore the last 15 years will be discussed.

The domestic US airline industry has been intensely competitive since it was deregulated in 1978. In a regulated environment, most of the cost increases were passed along to consumers under a fixed rate-of-return based pricing scheme. This allowed labor unions to acquire a lot of power and workers at the major incumbent carriers were overpaid. After deregulation, the incumbent carriers felt the most pain, and the floodgates had opened for newer more nimble carriers with lower cost structures to compete head-on with the established airlines. There were several bankruptcies followed by a wave of consolidation with the fittest carriers surviving and the rest being

Delta Airlines is a commercial airline company that has been around since 1924. They fly to many destinations all over the world. Their fleet of airplanes consists of 822 airplanes. Delta Airlines is currently headquartered out of Atlanta, Georgia. Getting from point A to point B with Delta would be easy and plausible with their ability to service over 325 travel destinations all over the world. They are even able to broaden their horizon with their seven airline partners making it easier for their clients to get where they want to go around the world. Delta has top of the line pilots with stringent requirements ensuring their pilots have the ability to safely and accurately fly from point A to point B.

As the new century unfolded, Delta Air Lines continued exponential growth becoming one of the largest airlines in the country. A merger with Western Airlines in 1987, the acquisition of Pan Am’s transatlantic routes in 1991, and a final merger with Northwest Airlines in 2008 meant Delta now had routes all over the world. Delta like many other airlines faced very difficult times post 9/11 and during the recession. The airline made significant cost improvements across its operation and the merger with Northwest Airlines ended up pushing the airline back into profitable business.

Oligopoly Behavior in the Airline Industry. Case Analysis This case illustrates the pricing behavior of firms that are oligopoly whose market is characterized by the relative few participating firms offering differentiated or standardized products or services. Such firms in an oligopoly have market power derived from barriers of entry that wards off potential participants. As seen in the case, it is clear that because there are a small number of US Airlines firms competing with each other, their behavior is mutually interdependent – thus, the strategies and decisions by one airline management affect managements of the other airlines whose subsequent decisions then affect the first airline. In the airline industry, such oligopolistic

In April 1992, American Airlines launched "Value Pricing" -- a radical simplification of the complex pricing structure that had evolved over more than a decade following deregulation of the U.S. domestic airline industry. American expected that the new pricing structure would benefit consumers and restore profitability to both American and the industry as a whole. The critical issue raised is: Would American's bold initiative work?

This paper will review the case study of Delta Airlines which was suffering like all its competitors with rising fuel costs which averaged anywhere between 30 to 50 percent of its total operating costs. This paper will answer six questions which will help identify what the company did to handle the high cost of fuel. The questions that I will answer will include the following.

Low-cost carriers pose a serious threat to traditional "full service" airlines, since the high cost structure of full-service carriers prevents them from competing

Through similar mergers in the 1980s and 1990s, Delta extended its reach into trans-continental and international markets (Rivkin 7-8). According to its stated position today,

Upon review on a profile of a successful company we see Southwest Airlines as a prime example. Their ability to recognize weakness in their management system and adjust strategies has allowed them to emerge as a leader in the US airline industry. Southwest is the largest US low fare carrier with low fare rates, no additional fees and excellent customer service. Southwest Airlines currently has one of the most innovative management practices in the US to date. A review of the critical elements of Southwest Airlines proves to be effective and innovative.