Budget airlines, business strategy working well

Beginning with Ryanair, budget airlines world over have found the right fit of their activities to suit their business strategy so that they can easily beat their rivals, full service airlines. What is stunning is that even many of the leading names in airline travel are quietly floating subsidiaries in the budget sector. Here is why the budget airlines business strategy succeeding well: 

Understanding customer needs ranks first in the menu for success in strategy operation. Trade-off between cost and comfort is the key balancing factor. The higher the comfort level the higher is the cost anyway. What the budget airlines are doing is to bring a via media where the cost is pushed down as many of the frills are taken away while is convenience is calibrated taking into count the distance of the journey and requirements of passengers. Both checked and hand carried baggage are limited to suit many type of passengers such as business travellers.

Type of planes carrying travellers are chosen taking into count of their fuel   efficiency, maintenance cost and affordable in-flight décor. Almost all budget airlines use a single type of aircraft in their fleet. Boeing 747 Airbus 320 are most favoured types. Additionally budget airline make bulk order for similar type of aircrafts earning bulk discount and preferred service partnering leading to lower cost of service & maintenance.

This helps the in-flight personnel, pilots and flight attendants to familiarize themselves with the type of aircraft and switch over one to another at the end of journey seamlessly. Interestingly, every plane is operated with least waiting time between flights. This interval is often less than one hour. Readying the plane for next journey is done with extra quick time. A point in context is that none of these plane seats carry rear pouches for insertion of newspapers and other effects. 

Training and fitting flight personnel does not take much time because of the singular type of planes used. Pilots are trained in less than 3 months in operating aircraft. On the other hand flight attendants are trained to handle multi-tasking. In flight service includes catering and assisting air travellers in boarding and disembarking. Moreover they assist disembarked travellers to collect their checked baggage.

In terms of scheduling flights budget airlines operate point to point model. A lot of destinations are connected and aerodromes are selected nearest to the destination that are cheaper and do not charge heavy fees for landing and taking-off. Budget airlines shy away from the main hub of the full service airlines to compete with equal footing with their rivals.

On-board catering is the extra income generated by the budget airlines and only limited stocks are stored. Except for one or two free water bottles everything must be ordered and paid for by air travellers prior to departure or while on-board. 

Sacrificing quite a bit of comfort and hospitality that go with full service airlines, air travellers in budget airlines are now getting used to bland service that comes at stepped-down price of the normal air-ticket.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist