Public Relations in Icarus Airline Company - Case Study Example

Public Relations Name: University Name: Course Name: Date: Good morning ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for taking the time to be with Icarus Airline today, As the CEO of Icarus Airline I am pleased to be making my inaugural address to CEO’s various companies who want to partner with Icarus Airline. Ladies and gentlemen, I can only agree with the company’s chairman. 2012 was a year of challenges to the company. The airline had two perspectives to manage. On one hand the financial and operational side and on other the criticism directed at the airline concerning our investments in Australia. Throughout our 25 years of operations, the airline has remained agile in its ability to capitalize on new opportunities. Icarus Airline has continued to challenge the convention around low-cost travel around the globe. Ladies and gentlemen, it is just over two years since Icarus Airline announced to the Australia public that the airline will be launching its first maiden low price flight in Australia and put an end anti-consumer monopoly of large aviations companies operating in the country (Hanlon, 1999). A lot has happened since then, so I am happy to be back to Queensland to reflect on what has been achieved by Icarus Airline since that announcement was made two years ago and also I am here today to outline what is next on the airline’s agenda. Ladies and gentlemen, the airline is focused toward developing its products and services here in Australia. Also, the airline has continued to develop its network across the Asia Pacific region. Icarus airline is the only low-budget airline to have operations in the world’s major growth markets in this region, with services to Pakistan- we add Karachi to our network on August 1st. The airline will be the only low budget airline to serve mainland China, South-East Asia, domestic services within Australia and international services to Australia. Ladies and gentlemen, our entire network is operated Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 aircraft, offering considerable cost efficiencies (Pandey, 2010). We have also ordered five Airbus A320 aircraft, due to be delivered from August 2014, these new airlines will enable the airline to introduce revolutionary product and service innovations (Pandey, 2010). Five Airbus A340-600 will also form part of our growing network form early 2014, whilst 2 of the new Airbus A320-200 will start operation across our growing network in July this year. Ladies and gentlemen, we are also a member of Star Alliance family- a huge market potential covering Europe, China, Africa, America, the Russian Far East and America with more than 2 billion people living within just 6 hours flying time of Europe. Ladies and gentlemen, with the addition of new base in Russian Far East and North America, Icarus Airline will have the widest geographic coverage of any low budget airline in the whole world. Icarus Airline flights will operate from Montreal to Queensland- making Icarus Airline the world’s first long haul low budget airline. Ladies and gentlemen, you will be happy to hear that even though our main competitors can’t help at taking sideswipes at us. As the Airline’s CEO I am going to use this opportunity to say how much better we are than our main competitors because Icarus Airline has the lowest costs of operation as compared to any other airline in Australia. Also, the airline has always translated that cost advantage into providing lowest cost fares (Hanlon, 1999). Ladies and gentlemen, I will also take this opportunity today to make a major announcement. Although the airline does not fly to NSW, sorry Queenslanders you will being paying those high fares at least for now. Ladies and gentlemen, when Icarus Airline released its expansion plan to Australia the airline had a host of people tell it there was no room for another low budget airline in Australia. Let alone some of the low budget airlines that were in already in Austria aviation industry stated that their sole goal was to offer rock bottom fares on a consistent basis. Many commentators pointed to the various “no frill” airlines that had come, and gone, before us and concluded that there was proof that the expansion plan couldn’t be done. Ladies and gentlemen, we found their comments to be perplexing, commentators and aviation industry analysts alike were ignoring the fact that there was no real domestic competition in Australia. If you like, both the aviation industry analysts and commentators failed to see the gap in the flying market- a market segment in Australia that was crying out for our new product and services and had been snapping up our low fares that were available on international services from Australia for more than decade (Lowson, 2002). Ladies and gentlemen, with the greatest of respect, it is a wistful claim by Aviation industry analysis to continue to describe the monopoly that has existed in the aviation industry as one of the most competitive aviation environments globally (Grant, 2000). Maybe many aviation analyses have not spent their time to understand the real competitions that exist in markets like Europe and the U.S. As the CEO, I am in-charge of an airline that was head-to-head with Jetlink and Ryanair in the United Kingdom- that’s real competition (Lowson, 2002). Ladies and gentlemen, when we compare Australia’s aviation industry with other major markets across the globe, travelers in Australia have been paying high cost in their air travel, for so long. They deserve better. Ask any Australian consumer and they will tell you that domestic cost for flying are higher as compared to airfares they seen available in Europe or Asia. Ladies and gentlemen, Icarus Airline has changed that, with over 80 per cent of all our tickets being sold across the country for fewer than 150 dollars. The airline will continue to provide such low airfares, it is what the airline does, and the airline really is a low fare airline (Hanlon, 1999). Ladies and gentlemen, those airlines that were before use did a great job at pulling the wool over everyone in the aviation industry. They managed to hide the fact that there wasn’t a true no-frill airline in the Australia’s domestic market, even as they all made record profits. Ladies and gentlemen, the good news now is that consumers have been given alternatives to choose from. When other airlines before us that have established their no-frill airlines, most of these airlines wanted to protect their market share, and by attempting to adopt the cost efficiency of our airline’s model but without the consistent of low fare and internal cost discipline of a real low fare airline (Lowson, 2002). Most of these airlines have ended up which bears little resemblance of Low Cost Carriers (LLC) rather it is lower cost/high fare airline (LCHC). Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot fail to mention the role that the Australia’s government has played in creating the right environment that has enabled the aviation sector to flourish in the country. The launch of the airline cargo business earlier this year also means that Icarus Airline is largely involved in all four key sectors of Australia’s economic diversification: tourism, transportation, logistics and trade. These have enabled businessmen to frequently fly with use since they are able to travel to many destinations at cheaper airfares. Ladies and gentlemen, Icarus Airline has realized the importance of technology as an important macro-environmental factor. The airline has e-ticketing technology with has benefit both the customers and the company. Through our e-ticketing services, a customer wanting to fly with us is able to book online at the “strike of mouse”. Our e-ticketing services provides a relaxing experience to our customers, as it provides a sense of security as an e-ticket cannot be mislaid, lost or stolen (Grant, 2000). The reasons for this are that every e-ticket purchased by a customer is safely stored on our database reservation system. And when a customer notifies Icarus Airline that his or her e-ticket has been misplaced or lost, a duplicate e-ticket is e-mailed on request to the customer. Travelling using an e-Ticket also provides the customer to easily make changes to his booking where permitted at any time in person or by phone without the customer required to visit one of our offices as his flying itinerary is stored safely with Icarus Airline. Ladies and gentlemen, the airline has this special package for employees who travel in a group of then or more people. The airlines Group Travel Program is for companies! This program gives extra discount and flexible air fare to help an organization to make their travel experience easy, affordable and fun (Grant, 2000). Some of the characteristic of this special package include: the group will receive special discounts off published fares through the airline’s travel reservations centers. In addition, there are no minimum or Saturday night stay requirements and no blackout dates. The companies choosing this package have an option to purchase non-refundable or refundable fares (Grant, 2000). Ladies and gentlemen, the company understands that planning for a holiday for employees can be stressful, so let our company’s experienced consultants take some of the stress away from your company (Grant, 2000). Your organization will no need to tell us your final destination until one week before you fly, so as a CEO you can relax knowing that you have secured your flights for the best price without having to advise us of all the small details (Lowson, 2002). Conclusion, Icarus Airline start-up in Australia has been a success, but as you can see we have only just begun. In closing I would like to thank everyone who attended this event. Thank you for time and patient and I am happy to take any questions you may wish to ask. Rationale In any company, strategy management is the key to its success. Numerous theories that have been developed on this assumption states that without a proper planning and strategy, it is difficult for any company to prosper irrespective of its size. It is important to note that major organizations have been able to establish themselves, thanks to their strategic planning and implementation. Strategic management has many definitions. Wheelen and Hungers (2006) defines strategic management as a set of managerial actions and decisions that determines the long term performance of an organization. Strategic management involves environmental scanning (both internal and external), strategy formulation (long range planning or strategic), strategy implementation, and control and evaluation. One of the main selling point for Icarus Airline is its cheap fares that are offered to the public. This airline offers cheap fares because they let customers choose the amenities and services they want in an “a la carte” style. Cheap fare is a strategy for the airline that help the airline to differentiate itself from other airlines that offer have expensive fare for similar routes (Grant, 2000). For example, cheap fare will allow travelers to build a flying experience that suits them, and to avoid paying for unnecessary services. The membership scheme that the airline provides to its customers provides data to the airline that will enable it to continue improve its services. The airline is in a position to understand its customers’ flying patterns. The airline’s marketing insight business, provides analysis to the airlines which they feedback into their business model, thus helping them to shape their product and enabling the airline to offer to its customers best products and promotions for their particular needs. The airline has integrated latest technology which has been the primary focus of its customers because of its vital role in the aviation sector success. Adoption of technology has helped the airline to integrate its entire services so that each step is effective and efficient. For example, e-Ticketing has enabled the customers to book their flight online. In addition, customers are able to know the flight schedule, price and various destinations that the airline operates. Market segmentation is a concept found in economics and marketing. Market segmentation may be gender, price, gender or interest related. Organizations may develop their own market segments and usually is involved in creation of product differentiation strategies, which enable the company to exploit these segments (Haley, 2000). Market segmentation often gives a company a commercial advantage. Market segmentation aims at identification of potential customers and groups of customers with similar needs and wants (Haley, 2000). The company is able to respond to these needs and in return improve the revenue of the company (Lowson, 2002). Market segmentation can also result in marketing effectiveness of the company. In our case, the airline has one main stakeholder: companies. Thus, the airline has been able to formulate its various strategies based on this market segment. Many low-cost airlines keep expenses down by flying out of secondary airports, avoiding major hubs where takeoff and landing fees are much higher while still getting passengers close enough to their destinations (Oum, Park, and Zhang, 2000). As the routes offered by low cost airlines are mainly short, domestic routes which may only take one to two hours, travelers might be fine with no amenities on flights (Hanlon, 1999). References Brueckner, J. The economics of international codesharing: An analysis of airline alliances, International Journal of Industrial Organisation, 19, 2001, pp.1475-1498. Grant, R. M. (2000) .Contemporary strategic analysis., Blackwell Business, Oxford, p.255. Hanlon, P. (1999) .Global Airlines., Butterworth Heinemann, second edition. Oum, T.H., Park, J.H, and Zhang, A. (2000) .Globalisation and strategic alliances., Pergamon, Oxford. Lowson, R.H. (2002). Strategic operations management: the new competitive advantage. New York: Routledge. Pandey, Mohan (2010). 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