Airline Industry Essay -- Transportation, Commercial Aviation

One of the world’s most competitive and prominent industries is the airlines industry. It generates huge amounts of income as well as employment each year. Some of the common names in US air travel service providers are Alaska, Northwest, Southwest, US airways, American etc. According to the latest statistics given by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airline sector will post a profit of $9 billion in 2011. After the recent credit crunch, economies are now coming back to normal, business travel is increasing and investments in the airlines are now rising. Political/Legal influences Privatization Over the years airlines have undergone large-scale privatization; previously a significant portion of airlines industry was government-owned. Privatizing the industry has led to drastic increase in the number of air service providers and the airline travellers. Legal provision Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was established to control the activities of the commercial Airline industry; it used to set the rates and even the mergers in the industry till the first forty years after its establishment. Then Airline Deregulation Act 1978 was adopted to make the industry more efficient and privately owned. This act removed the powers of CAB, subsequently CAB was wound up in 1984. This act still gives the authority of regulating air safety to government through Federal Aviation Administration. All airlines need to have 2 certificates: 1. Fitness certificate (issued by Department Of Transportation): To ensure the airline is financially and management-wise strong enough to carry on the services adequately. 2. Operating certificate (issued by Federal Aviation Administration): To ensure that the airline maintains it cre... ...er before. Manufacturers of large aircrafts are conducting large scale outsourcing of key components especially from japanese manufacturers. Better communication Over the years, airlines have introduced new ways of adding value to the firm, for instance online reservation system and forwarding information to the system have opened new avenues to reach customers. (Lars Perner, 2007). Improvements in air-traffic management are also being implemented to ensure flight safety and cordination among aircrafts and various aviation companies (Capoccitti, Khare, & Mildenberger, 2010 ). The role of research in military technology has contributed a lot to the commercial jets (Collopy, 2004). The commercial airline industry has gone way ahead than the military aircraft industry, due to its public outreach. However the technology in military aircrafts is still way ahead.