The invention of the airplane has had a profound impact on how people are able to experience the world today, thus the airline industry can be credited with shaping travel in a way that was once perceived as impossible. Because air travel is a commodity, the airline industry has found itself an extremely competitive market, where creating more value for their customers is essential in order to succeed. United Airlines leaves no room for confusion that they recognize this necessity, as their mission statement is, “To be recognized worldwide as the airline of choice.” Incorporated in 1931, United Airlines has gone on to become one of the top airline carriers for domestic and international travel, and explained below are some of the operations management decisions that have helped United reach this status, and in recent circumstances, flown through some bumpy turbulence.
Service Design United Airlines formulates many different strategies in order to provide a quality travel experience to all of their customers, ranging from the traveling passenger to the transported freight. United has advanced its service design overtime in order to create an easier process for the end user. Many technological applications have been implemented in order to ease the process of booking, scheduling and maintaining flights. The aircrafts have also come to have many more amenities to enhance the actual flying experience, making it more than just a “travel process”. The service design of United Airlines is the basic guide for determining the operational decisions this company needs to focus on. In the coming sections, these will be introduced and explained in terms of the strategies that United Airlines have followed to implement them.
Quality
For all carriers in the airline industry, the service offered must be more than simply taking a customer from one location to the next. Providing quality that makes the customer recognize value in a certain airline is