Airlines offer a variety of products ranging from the no-frills air transportation to international first class featuring amenity-filled cubicles with fully reclining seat/beds and attentive in-flight service. This assignment is intended to illustrate the variety of airline product offerings available and stimulate thinking about how best to serve the diverse wants and needs of passengers.
Europe’s Ryanair is well known for its cheap fares and bare-bones service. Europe’s old line network carriers including British Airways, Air France/KLM and Lufthansa, on the other hand, offer more choices and features within Europe and to major destinations worldwide. In Asia, low-cost airlines are rapidly expanding in the marketplace. Air Asia and Jetstar are two of the larger LCCs (along with their various subsidiaries). Asia also is home to many full-service airlines such as Japan Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific, Singapore, and Korean Air.
In a short research paper, compare and contrast a chosen LCC with a full-service airline using Doganis’ 5 key product features as a framework (price, schedule, comfort, convenience, and image). Choose one or two city-pairs served by both carriers on which to base the comparison. Summarize your findings and emphasize critical differences. Extensive data, such as the ancillary fee structure, may be best presented in a table. Discuss the passenger segment(s) targeted by each airline. Conclude with an evaluation of each carrier’s overarching business strategy. Explain your assessment of the most profitable strategy.

Solution Preview

Introduction

Different airlines offer different services that they offer to the customers. The services that are offered as well cost differently from one trip to the other depending on the airline that is used. Nonetheless, the study by Brueckner, Lee, Picard, and Singer (2015) indicate that the differences are useful for the differing competitive market and can be able to meet the demands of the customers. The differing products depend on the market that is being served as well as the size of the airline. In this consideration, this short research paper provides a discussion that on the similarities and the differences between a local cost carrier and a full-service airline using the Doganis’ 5 key product features as a framework. Precisely, the airlines that will be compared are the American Airline, and Spirit Airline and the city pairs that are used for comparison are Dallas and Philadelphia.

Prices

The airline charge different prices for the same pair of cities. As indicated by Pearson and Merkert (2014), airline has different charges depending on the service that they offer to their customers. However, there are airline that will have hidden charges. For instance, the charges that are made from Dallas to Philadelphia are different and the variations go up to 40 percent. The one-way price for the case of Spirit airline is 81 dollars while that of American Airline is 113 dollars. In this view, there is a high difference in the costs of using the airline.

 Nonetheless, there are cases that the cost may be reduced since there are charges that are called for by Spirit airline that are not considered by an individual while making arrangements. These charges include the onboard amenities charges, the checked in baggage, and the food and drinks. As such, one finds themselves having spent a good amount of cash even after using the Low-cost carrier.

American Airline allows the customers to earn revenue based miles depending on the price of the ticket. As such, one can be able to redeem the earnings and use it on a flight. However, the unique thing about the airline is that one can earn the advantage even if it is the spouse that is traveling….

(click here to get full solution)