Overview of British Airways and France Airline - Case Study Example

Running Header: Overview of British Airways and France Airline Student name: Instructor’s name: Course Code: Date of submission: Overview of British Airways and France Airline The British Airways is the main airline company that operates in the United Kingdom and is one of the largest airline companies operating in Europe with over 550 destinations. The company is the third largest airline in Europe after Air France and Lufthansa respectively. The company operates on two main airports in the United Kingdom i.e. the London Gatwick and Heathrow and transports approximately 888, 000 tons of cargo and about 37 million passengers every year worldwide (Nils 2007, 14). The company is also a member of the One World alliance together with the American airlines and Finn Air. The three companies serve more than 18% of the world’s airline passengers. On the other hand the Air France is based in Paris. The company is currently known as the Air France-KLM after owning the Dutch airline by a French airline on 1st May 2004 (Nils 2007, 16). The company is currently holding two subsidiary companies: the Air France and KLM airlines. Over 45% of the company’s revenues are generated from flights made within Europe (Nils 2007, 43). This is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue generation and passenger traffic. The primary services of the company include: passenger and cargo transportation as well as the aircraft maintenance services. The air France is also a member of the SkyTeam alliance which is the second largest airline alliance in the world. Figure1. V-Chart for British Airline and Air France operations Analysis As indicated in the chart above, the two operations that have been identified for each company have some significant role in the company. For example in the case of the British Airline we have two operations: fleet operations and marketing operations while in the case of Air France we have the testing operations and production and delivery operations. The marketing operation in the case of the British Airline has been given much consideration as shown from the chart as compared to the fleet operations perhaps because of the importance of the operation to the company in terms of attracting more customers (Frederic et el 2009, 78). On the other hand, in the case of the Air France, the production and delivery operation has been given more consideration as opposed to the testing operations. This is because the company is more interested in reaching more customers by improving delivery of its services to the customers. British Airways Fleet operations In order to continue enhancing its fleet operations, the British airways since its introduction in 1972 has embarked on bringing into services a number of aircrafts as one of its operations. The ultimate goal of increasing these fleet operations is to ensure that the company is able to support airline services both within the country and outside the country by serving the wider market that is in need of the airline services. For example since 1972, the company has managed to introduce over four categories of aircrafts starting with the Boeing 737 and the Boeing 757 in the 1980s and then the Boeing 767 and the Boeing 777 in the 1980s (Nils 2007, 10). Although the company for long has continued top depend on the Boeing Fleet, it has also continued to rely on some other aircrafts produced by other manufacturers (Osborne 2011, 123). In order to save on its fuel costs, the British Airways had replaced the Boeing with Tri-jet aircraft which is more cost effective in terms of fuel. At the moment, the Boeing 757, has been replaced from the market and is awaiting disposal. This is because the company is interested in making sure that its flights are quick and cost effective. Refer to appendix 1 of the latest aircraft that has been introduced by the British Airways. Marketing operations One of the major managerial operations that have continued to evolve at the British Airways is the marketing operations. Unlike other brands, the company’s brand for long has remained as one of the marketing strategies of the company. The company’s brand is based on the ‘SpeedBird Logo’ which signifies the speed of the company aircrafts. Refer to appendix 2 the company’s logo at the entrance to London Heathrow Terminal (Frederic et el 2009, 48). As one of its marketing operations, the company has used the musical theme as advertising tool entitled ‘The Flower Duet’ by Leo Delibes. This slogan was introduced in 1989, as one of the company’s slogans meaning “The World’s Favorite Airline” (Brothers, 2008). However, with change in competition, in 2007, the duet was changed to “Flower Duet” which means “Upgrade to British Airways” "The World's Favourite Airline", "The World's Best Airline", "We'll Take More Care Of You", and "Fly the Flag". As one of adding to its marketing operations, in September 2011, the company launched the 90-second video advertisement celebrating the 90 years of excellence for the company (Osborne 2011, 4). Air France Testing operations As one way of winning customer trust, unlike the British airways, the Air France for long time has embarked in testing operations of its aircrafts as one way of ensuring customer safety and comfort. For example, the Five A380s was tested and later unveiled as one of the company’s safest aircrafts on January 2005. The main purpose for the company to engage itself in testing operations is to ensure that its aircrafts are safe both to the environment and the passengers as one way of attracting more customers (Brothers, 2008). The testing operations were also intended at determining the speed of the aircraft in delivering the passengers to their intended destinations. In 2006, it was found that A380 aircraft was the only the only aircraft that could fly on higher altitudes after landing safely at Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa. Refer to appendix 3. However, this aircraft was tested before in August 2006 when it carried over 484 airbus employees from Toulouse and then later landed very safely at Paris (Kostas & Mauro 2007, 46). These test operations have proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Air France aircrafts are among the safest airlines in the world. Production and delivery operations One of the major challenges of the Air France Company has been how to manage its production and delivery operations. During the initial introduction of the A380, it was found that the aircraft had some challenges in terms of speed that were caused by the complexity of the cabin wiring within the Aircraft. Since then the company has embarked itself in producing high level customized aircrafts with very minimal failures and change control challenges (Brothers, 2008). However, the first late delivery by the company was reported in June 2005 when the company took more than six months its goods to the respective destinations. The same delay in delivery was experienced in June 2006; however, since then the company has embarked on reducing delivery operations by ensuring that most modern aircrafts were introduced (Kostas & Mauro 2007, 89). Common challenges Like many other global companies, the British Airways and France Airline are also faced with the challenge of global economy whereby the cost of acquiring and maintaining the most appropriate has become so enormous that once a company decides to invest in a certain operation then it must be willing to reduce its capital base by spending it on business operations. Fundamentally, the new world economy is reshaping the industry and the implication is that the companies must change its managerial operations in order to equip themselves properly for any external threats such as global threats. The most challenging responsibility for the operations managers is build on how to deal with competition and declining world business which has resulted to decrease in customer base. The other challenge that is facing the two companies in their day to day operations is the continuous evolvement in technology. However, much excitement the new technology has brought into the airline industry in terms of communication and service, the main challenge has been how to deal with the ever changing technology. This is because every time the companies need to change marketing and service delivery operations in such away that they are current and readily satisfy the customer needs. However, for the companies to achieve its goals, they must persistently plan and invest for new technologies (Slack & Johnson 2010, 27). Distinctive challenges In terms of results, the British Airways operations are expected to bring into board a number of different outcomes. First, it will be an obligation of the company, to cut down some of the cost expenditures in some activities that will not add value to the business as one way of getting to mobilize its resources to put the business operations into action. On the other hand, it will be for the benefit of the business to establish more service promotional channels such as both print and electronic media as a way of getting in touch with the target market (Brothers, 2008). The British Airline Company need also to identify the role advertising through the social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and YouTube can play for the business. The overall implication that the operations will mean for the management is that internal restructuring such as the introduction of modern communication technology will be required. To some level, the management may be forced to hire or lay off some of its employees as one way of accommodating the new strategy. On the other hand, the ultimate goal of the company is to advance both its testing and production and service delivery operations. The resultant implication of these operations to the company in terms of finance is that the company will always be forced to plan and budget for a number of business operations within a single time (Slack & Johnson 2010, 90). In order for the France Airline to continue with its business operations, the company is expected to continuously evaluate capabilities in terms of skills and financial resources and whether they are compatible with the business operations of testing the aircrafts and ensuring that production and delivery of airline service are done in a more effective and efficient manner. Performance objectives Fleet operations 1. Increased customer satisfaction 2. To be the quickest company in providing transport services 3. Consistency in service delivery 4. Reliability 5. High level of effectiveness and efficiency Testing operations 1. Safety airline services 2. Modern crafts that are quick in terms of speed 3. Attaining of sustainable business operations 4. Increased variety of airline services 5. Reduced cost of maintenance and acquisition of new aircrafts Planning and control tasks Coordination Regardless of whatever controls that are put in place, there will be no success in business operations unless there is coordination among the various functional units within the company. This means that the planning and controlling team is expected to ensure that there is an organizational structure that is supportive of the business operations. The ultimate goal of coordination is to assist the management in ensuring that the company operations are in line with the company vision. Coordination is important in eliminating any confusion in terms of responsibilities that might exists between the employees and various functions of the business. Coordination is also essential as it can be used as tool for tracking and accessing information that may be necessary for business use (Slack & Johnson 2010, 39). Evaluations Evaluation is a planning and controlling team responsibility whereby information on key business such as marketing, product re-engineering and company financial capabilities is collected and analyzed for aiding the decision making processes. Evaluation can take different forms in an organization environment (Slack & Johnson 2010, 42). For example in the two companies, evaluation may involve assessing the performance level of the business as well as the effectiveness of different business operations towards company goals and objectives. In the case of the British Airways and the Air France, evaluation can be done to ascertain if the operations that have been identified which include: marketing, production, testing and fleet operations to find out if they are real truthful to the business or not by looking at the revenues once those efforts are made. Performance Management Performance management is used as planning and control device in order to ascertain company’s performance at different levels which include departments, programs and projects as well as the employees. In evaluating the situation that is underlying in the two companies, it is evident that one way that the companies must ascertain the level of its performance is by use performance reviews which will involve different aspects of the business. This is important because through performance management, the planners and other senior level managers will be able to tell how well the companies are being and if there is need to change any of the business operations (Kostas & Mauro 2007, 90). Policies and Procedures Policies and procedures are developed by the planning and control team as one way of ensuring that both company regulations and state laws that govern such as operations are adhered to. On the other hand, a procedure provides a step-by-step framework that should be used in carrying out certain case. In relating with the two companies under consideration, policies and procedures are important in ensuring that the company operations do not contravene with those of the other companies from the foreign countries. Under policies and procedures, employee’ rights are also taken care of in the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Evaluation of planning and control activities Evaluation of planning and control activities of the company involves the process of assessing whether those tools that have been put in place as planning and control measures are functioning as expected or not and this can be checked from point of company goals and objectives (Kostas & Mauro 2007, 87). In relation to the British Airline, the effectiveness of its planning and controlling activities will be determined by the level at which the company will be able transform the fleet and market operations into profits. In other words the effectiveness of the planning and controlling activities will be achieved if the company is able to increase its number of destinations to serve more customers while keeping its operational costs at minimum. On the other hand, in the case of the Air France, effectiveness of planning and controlling activities will be evaluated in terms of reduced number of accidents and increased number of production and delivery of services (Frederic et el 2009, 24). References Brothers, C 2008, British Airways in Merger Talks: The New York Times, Viewed 31 Oct. 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/business/worldbusiness/30air.html Frederic, P et el 2009, British Airways: Imperial Airways Ltd., British Airways Destinations, British Airways Franchise Destinations, British Airways Liveries, Robert Ayling, Willie Walsh, London, Alphascript Publishing. Kostas, L & Mauro, O 2007, Airline choices for the future: from alliances to mergers, New York, Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Nils, K 2007, Marketing Differences between Traditional Airlines and low cost in Europe, New York, GRIN Verlag. Osborne, A 2011, British Airways chief Keith Williams's fresh start with crew: The Telegraph 1 Nov. 2011, pp. 123-214. Slack, C. & Johnson, M 2010, Operations Management, 6th Edn, New York, Prentice Hall. Appendixes Appendix 1. Airbus A319 takes off from London Heathrow Airport Appendix 2. British Airways' speedbird logo at the London Heathrow Terminal Appendix 3. A380 MSN001 about to land after its maiden flight Read More