Major institutional, regulatory, and structural changes have occurred in international air transport during the past two decades. Many countries have deregulated their domestic airline industries and open skies continental blocs have formed in Europe and North America A movement is now underway to create a liberalized continental bloc in Australasia. International air transport has been substantially liberalized due to the diminishing role of lATA as an industry cartel, and via a series of liberalized bilateral agreements signed between many countries, including the u.s. and UK Increased liberalization and continentalization have induced major airlines to create global service networks through inter-carrier alliances. And all these changes are intensifYing competition between major carriers in both domestic and international markets. The increased competition and economic recession in the early 1990s led many airlines to massive fmancial losses, forcing them to undertake major restructuring to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Although it is important for an airline to map out proper strategies in the globalizing airline industry, the ultimate ability of a carrier to swvive and prosper in increasingly competitive markets greatly depends on its productivity and cost competitiveness.

Klappentext

Winning Airlines: Productivity and Cost Competitiveness of the World's Major Airlines examines the supply side of air transport services, where airline management has considerable control. This volume focuses on fundamental issues related to productivity, input prices, exchange rate dynamics, global sourcing of airline labor, maintenance and other services, and unit cost competitiveness of the airlines. It also examines underlying trends in the airline industry and provides systematic analysis of airline productivity and cost competitiveness using the latest available data. Winning Airlines: Productivity and Cost Competitiveness of the World's Major Airlines aims to accomplish four major goals: to provide a review of trends in international air transport's regulatory and business environments; to provide practical insights into the key issues determining airline cost and productivity performance; to improve existing methodologies for comparing the productivity and cost competitiveness of various airlines; and to identify aspects of airline strategy, planning and operations where airline management and public policy makers should focus their efforts to enhance competitiveness in the globalizing airline markets.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 The International Air Transport Industry.- 3 International Regulatory Environment.- 4 Operating Environment and Input Prices.- 5 Partial Factor Productivities and Input Efficiency Indices.- 6 Airline Productivity and Efficiency.- 7 Preliminary Cost Analysis.- 8 Cost Competitiveness.- 9 Yields, Costs and Financial Performance.- 10 Summary and Conclusions.- References.