Impact of Domestic and Non-Domestic Forces - Research Paper Example

The above figure portrays that fleet planning is a very crucial part of the airline operations and the CEO of the airline or higher management plays an important role in this function. In case of a bigger airline (like Singapore Airlines), it has been noted that they have inculcated completely different kinds of aircraft and that too with as much success as they have the financial and operational wherewithal and scale to do so. Again, in the case of smaller companies, they would like to go for a particular type of aircraft as that would mean synergy in operations and in terms of resources required to maintain that type of aircraft.

The manufacturers of the aircraft also play a very crucial role in this respect. It has been seen that the manufacturer of the aircraft and the airline who is buying their product get into a partnership which ultimately helps the former in understanding the business perspective of the later and thus offer him products which would meet the airline’s needs, requirements and business objectives. Fleet planning needs a long-term perspective so any decision regarding this context has to bear the long-term economic realities; generally on a 5 to 10-year perspective.

Governmental regulations also have their effect on fleet planning as that signifies what kind of aircraft would be allowed where and what kind of pollution norms would be prevalent when. Long-term thinking is crucial to successful fleet planning as inherently over a longer time period the economic uncertainties increase and therefore the strategic planning should be such that it matches faces those uncertainties with enough resources in terms of proper fleet planning. In this kind of scenario various airlines, especially the smaller ones go for leasing aircraft as this provides them with increased flexibility and they can inculcate aircraft into the fleet on a short notice, as and when required (Clark P., 2007).