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JetBlue: Fighting for a Bigger Slice of the Pie in the Sky
In the highly competitive commercial air travel business, earning a profit and earning the loyalty of customers generally go hand in glove. And as to profit, airlines that offer the most destinations and the most customer perks, snacks, and promotions are not necessarily the most profitable. JetBlue has a mountain to climb to be able to compete head-to-head with the dominant companies -- American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest -- but the #5-ranked airline is gearing up to expand its services, its destinations, and it is launching strategies that could place it higher in the airline pecking order. This paper reviews JetBlue's merger options and potential partners, its entrance into the retail apparel market, its expansion opportunities, its quest to find and train highly skilled marketing talent, and its crusade to transcend the ordinary commercial flight into a uniquely interesting and high quality experience the traveling public prefers. Service is one area where an airline can be truly differentiated, and while JetBlue is also a low cost airline, it knows that delivering great customer service improves brand loyalty, and often does not cost that much extra.
The new mission statement for JetBlue is "To become a top 4 airline in the United States, differentiated by exceptional customer service." The new vision statement will be "JetBlue will lead the renaissance in American air travel, restoring the industry to the days when people looked forward to flying."
The vision statement is bold -- and visionary -- and can be inspirational in nature. By tapping into the forgotten romance of air travel, both customers and employees can be inspired by this vision. The vision also ties into the mission statement quite well, because service really defined that era.
Background Organization
JetBlue was founded by David Neeleman in 1998 as a low-cost airline focused on passenger travel; the company began servicing customers in early 2000. The company's original strategy provided customers with discounted prices, superior customer service, sensibly priced upgrades and free satellite television. JetBlue's operations focused on routes with direct point service originating or arriving in either, New York, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Orlando and Puerto Rico. The point-to-point service attracts customers with the highly desirable non-stop flight itineraries, which provides…
JetBlue's operations revolve around 15,000 employees and an average of 800 flights daily. The company currently services 82 cities, 25 states, and 15 countries, including Latin America and the Caribbean. JetBlue's fleet contains Airbus A321, Airbus A320 and EMBRAER 190. These chosen aircraft provide more seats and larger cabins than competing airlines. JetBlue is the only airline in the United States to offer the "The Customer Bill of Rights." This document provides for customer's compensation in particular situations that involve the irregularities of air travel. The company is diligently working towards finding new ways to maintain a low cost structure, expansion and providing the customers with exceptional amenities and service (SEC Form 10-K, 2013).
Industry Analysis
The airline
JetBlue Mission and Vision A company's mission statement should reflect its "unique purpose and reason for being" (Zain Books, 2014) Now, realistically, companies exist to earn their shareholders a return, and the mission of the company is therefore to increase shareholder wealth (Friedman, 1970). But this is not something that can be sold to the other stakeholders of a business, especially not the employees. They need to feel that they are contributing
JetBlue is an airline based in New York City, operating both domestic and international routes. JetBlue was founded in 1999 by David Neeleman, a former Southwest Airlines executive, using much the same business model. The company received 75 landing slots at JFK later that year, and by December had taken delivery of its first aircraft from Airbus. The first flight was on February 11th between JFK and FLL (JetBlue.com, 2015).
Qantas Airlines External Environment Threat of New Entrants -- Medium Supplier Power -- Medium Buyer Power -- High Threat of Substitute Products - Low Competition -- High Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Qantas's Strategy for Competitive Advantage Recommended Strategy Cutting Costs Finding New Innovation External Environment Threat of New Entrants -- Medium Australia has deemed that it is good for the public if any international airline that is foreign owned is allowed to operate in Australia's domestic markets. While this may be good for the overall level of
Business Studies Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines has been a highly successful airline, it has been one of the most successful airlines in U.S. history with the low cost carrier model created by Southwest emulated successfully by many other airlines across the world. Today it is the largest domestic carrier in the U.S. And has a history of consistent profits, with on a few quarters in the recent recession showing losses (Southwest Airlines,
And many have got successful too in earning the market share. The emerging competition by new companies is a growing threat for the company and it should be tackled properly to avoid any future disturbances. In order to further describe the competition Southwest Airlines is facing a Competitive Profile Matrix is designed. The following Competitive Profile Matrix tells about the tough competitors which are in a good position to have
By the turn of the century, though, these low-costs carriers had become profitable or at least had significantly reduced their losses due in large part to concomitant increases by major carriers that were increasing their prices in response to decreasing yields and higher energy prices (Doganis 2001). By and large, passenger traffic across the board increased significantly prior to September 11, 2001 and all signs indicated it was continue to