The Current Marketing Environment of the Airline Industry in Europe.
Airline Sales and Marketing
Introduction
This report will evaluate the current marketing environment of the airline industry in Europe. This will involve looking into different area of the airline industry such as deregulation and open skies, current economic conditions, distribution channels, pricing and revenue management. It has been proved that the airline industry is probably one of the most competitive and complex industry in the world. According to Mintel report (2009) in the past decade, air travel has grown by 7% per year. Travel for both business and leisure purposes grew strongly worldwide. Scheduled airlines carried 1.5 billion passengers last year. In the leisure market, the availability of large aircraft such as the Boeing 747 made it convenient and affordable for people to travel further to new and exotic destinations.
Distribution channels
In all areas of marketing links must be made between the customer and the product. These links are known as distribution channels. Airlines use a variety of these channels. All of them are giving rise to particularly intense debate at the present time, because the different channels result in different costs, and because they vary in the extent to which they allow airline to exercise proper and necessary control of the channel. S, Shaw (Airline Marketing & Management, Fifth Edition, Page 194).
Global Distribution Systems (GDSs)
It’s impossible to talk about distribution channel in the airline industry without mentioning GDSs. For nearly twenty years, the subject of Global Distribution Systems has been a controversial one in the airline industry, and it remains so today. S, Shaw (Airline Marketing & Management, Fifth Edition, Page 204).
Until the early 1970s, contact between airlines and their distribution outlets was mainly by telephone, this was both time consuming and costly and became unsustainable as the industry grew. As the 1970s preceded, the first, pioneering carries set out to
Introduction
This report will evaluate the current marketing environment of the airline industry in Europe. This will involve looking into different area of the airline industry such as deregulation and open skies, current economic conditions, distribution channels, pricing and revenue management. It has been proved that the airline industry is probably one of the most competitive and complex industry in the world. According to Mintel report (2009) in the past decade, air travel has grown by 7% per year. Travel for both business and leisure purposes grew strongly worldwide. Scheduled airlines carried 1.5 billion passengers last year. In the leisure market, the availability of large aircraft such as the Boeing 747 made it convenient and affordable for people to travel further to new and exotic destinations.
Distribution channels
In all areas of marketing links must be made between the customer and the product. These links are known as distribution channels. Airlines use a variety of these channels. All of them are giving rise to particularly intense debate at the present time, because the different channels result in different costs, and because they vary in the extent to which they allow airline to exercise proper and necessary control of the channel. S, Shaw (Airline Marketing & Management, Fifth Edition, Page 194).
Global Distribution Systems (GDSs)
It’s impossible to talk about distribution channel in the airline industry without mentioning GDSs. For nearly twenty years, the subject of Global Distribution Systems has been a controversial one in the airline industry, and it remains so today. S, Shaw (Airline Marketing & Management, Fifth Edition, Page 204).
Until the early 1970s, contact between airlines and their distribution outlets was mainly by telephone, this was both time consuming and costly and became unsustainable as the industry grew. As the 1970s preceded, the first, pioneering carries set out to
References: S, Stephen. Airline marketing and management, 5th ad. Published by Ashgate publishing Limited, England and USA. Reprinted 2005, 2006. Pages (175,176, 194,199, 201,204 and 205) P, Hanlon. Global Airlines, 2nd ad. First published 1996, second edition 1999, London/Oxford. Pages (33 and 222) R, Doganis. The airlines business in the 21st century. Published in the USA and Canada by Routledge. Pages (44, 76,79 and 126). Reprinted 2001 (twice), 2002