Summary
The airline industry is emerging due to the new competitors in the travel sector. In the past it was protected through government controls until the early 1980's. However due to deregulation, the industry opened to free competition. As a result, collaborations and alliances were formed and low budget airlines like Ryanair and easyjet were able to enter the market.
The purpose of my report is to present the current competitor analysis of the European Airline Industry, the positioning criteria used by both British Airways and Ryanair and how each airline has developed their brand.
I chose to look at Ryanair as a low budget airline and British Airways as a leader on the airline industry. My report was based on several information found in financial newspapers (The Economist, Financial Times etc.), from the internet (www.ryanair.com, www.britishairways.com and infotrac?) and independent analyst reports.
My findings where strategies used by British Airways and Ryanair differ a lot because Ryanair focuses on low costs and British Airways focuses on high quality service and strong brand. I also found that British Airways has a complicated situation in a weak industry as it has to make many strategic adjustments. Its diverse choice of prices and services underlines its current stability.
Finally the development of British Airways and Ryanair brands was looked at in grave detail, giving a detailed examination on how they both use their different strategies to develop their brand, one based on low fares and the other on quality.
From this project I have learned a lot about the European Airline industry and Service Marketing and especially how to develop and position a brand in order to help the cons ...