SM Assignment

A competitor Analysis of
The Indian Airline Industry
Jet Airways
Future Goals:
(a) The future goals might be to sustain market leadership in domestic operations, build domestic
and international as equally strong pillar.
(b) Achieve profitable growth and operate a young and modern fleet.
Assumptions:
(a) The company saw itself as the market leader.
(b) It had this perception that it provided best services to the business class passengers.
(c) It did not anticipate Kingfisher to acquire its customers and thus took a period of 12-18 months
to respond to it and regain its customers.
Current Strategy: Current strategy is to maintain product and service excellence
Capabilities: It is a pioneer of frequent flyer programmes, installation of in-flight entertainment along
with excellent services. It positioned itself strongly as the airline for business community. However,
there were several weaknesses as there was lack of infrastructure facilities of airports and high ATF
prices which led to increase in the costs of company.

Kingfisher Airways:
Future Goals: Seek additional distribution channels such as more tie ups & collaboration, try seeking
collaboration with international carriers, bilateral discussions over seats and market penetration.
Assumptions:
(a) The Indian aviation industry is a growing industry with a growth rate of nearly 24%.
(b) There has being a growth in the disposable income of the people especially in the middle class,
therefore more people can afford to fly by a luxury airline.
Current Strategy: They wanted to establish themselves as modern, trendy with a very well rounded
marketing strategy and to provide luxury at low cost thereby acquiring market share.The airline is
deliberately positioned as A never before experience and Funliner
Capabilities:
Strengths:
(a) Kingfisher Airlines has a strong financial support from the parent company UB Group and
Kingfisher itself is a well established brand.
(b) The customer service provided on Kingfisher is extremely exceptional for a domestic airline,
hence providing an ultimate flying experience.
(c) Kingfisher Airlines is well known for its highly trained and attractive staff.

Weakness:
(a) The company has an immature organisational structure.
(b) Loads are lesser than that of its competitor Jet Airways which is a reflection of its marketing and
sales capabilities and weak financial planning.

Air India
Future Goals: The future goal of Air India &Indian Airlines could be to remain market leader using its
dense domestic network covering the length and breadth of country, as well as leveraging its
Government patronage.
Assumptions: Due to regulatory policies of the government, Air India and Indian Airlines retained a
monopoly over civil aviation for a long period of time. As a result, the company the airline was not very
aggressive in the expansion policies.
Current Strategy: The two airlines were merged into a single entity Air India for streamlining their
business. The merger led the way for the approval of major fleet expansion plans.
Capabilities:
(a) Strength- Air India was a government airline. Therefore, the airline always had the patronage of
the government.
(b) Weakness-Being a government airline, employees were accustomed of a relaxed work culture
which resulted in a lower operational efficiency.

Indigo
Future Goals: The future goal of Indigo was to capture the domestic market of Indian Airline industry
using a low cost airline model.
Assumptions: Indigo perceived itself to be an emerging airline. The company was very optimistic about
its growth.
Current Strategy: The airline followed a low cost airline model which provided competitive fares. The
company also laid stress on the punctuality of the flights which resulted in high customer satisfaction.
Capabilities:
(a) Strength- The high operational efficiency of the airline was its biggest strength. Indigo achieved
this by using a single aircraft, a single class of service, point to point operations, and no frills
approach.
(b) Weakness- Indigo did not offer long route services.