American Airlines Strategy Paper Essay Example for Free

American Airlines Strategy Paper Essay Currently the airline industry as a whole seems to be on the road of recovery. We, American Airlines, the fourth largest carrier recently avoided bankruptcy, but had a summer full of pressure due to ongoing union struggles and questionable executive compensation packages. After having incurred such big losses, this recovery has come about because of the government bailout and many of our large competitors’ abilities to survive the turbulence in the industry. So far, the prospects look promising. Revenue has improved across all regions of the business. Domestic unit revenue was up almost 10 percent and Latin American revenue has increased by close to 11 percent in the last quarter of 2012 compared to the same period the prior year. We are performing better than other airlines that have filed for protection and have done so without slashing capacity. In short, American is doing the right things to return to business efficiency and customer effectiveness. In order to establish a sustainable position for the future, American Airlines must adopt a three-pronged strategy moving forward. First, we should focus on low priced operations and increased marketing strategies to improve customer demand. We have to enhance customer experience and our volume of loyal customers to build a stronger presence in Airline Industry. Second, we must focus on increasing and improving the routes to cater to large customer base. Lastly, we must address the difficulties our company might face in integrating with the culture of US Airlines. Our future success is highly dependent on these two entities efficiently operating as a single organization. Industry Analysis Current Position US Airline industry today is dominated by five major domestic carriers. United, Delta and Southwest each has more than 15 percent market share. American is fourth, with around 12 percent and US Airways is fifth with around 10 percent. Four of these five are profitable — all but American. We lost $2 billion in 2011 and $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Future Strategy Our emphasis in 2013 is on operational flexibility, international growth through alliance and selective network expansion, and domestic partnerships to reduce operational and balance sheet risks. Americans market differentiation is based on emphasizing and meeting the needs and expectations of high value customers (particularly large global corporates) and better alignment with the one world airline network and value proposition. Also, being the lead carrier between not only the United States and Latin America but, increasingly, the world and Latin America—connecting through Dallas, Los Angeles, or Miami. This strategy makes sense; if they can get all labor work groups on board, they should be able to make it happen. That is still the main challenge, as is competitor contestation, particularly from larger traditional rivals like Delta and United. Improve Customer Demand Lower Operational Costs American passenger division which already has 57 fewer planes in service than an year ago, should further shrink by another 57 planes this summer. This would improve operational efficiency. Current service levels include 275 cities with a fleet of over 1000 aircraft. American carries about 80 million passengers daily and receives more than 329,000 reservation calls, handles more than 293,000 pieces of luggage and flies more than 4300 flights in one typical day. In order to reduce costs further over 27000 jobs will have to be eliminated. Because of high competition in the industry, substantial price fluctuations occur related to fares. Enhance Customer Base Increase value added services offered through our interactive website, AA.com. Any differentiation that convenience added capabilities offer is the center of focus. Busy hiub systems and schedule patterns need to be looked at to improve efficiency and routing effectiveness, thereby enhancing customer experience. We need to do rigorous marketing to attract more customers. Our marketing is currently focused on seasonal and business travelers and much analysis is taken in order to optimize peak travel seasons as well as frequent flier miles programs and pints systems. The Making More Room in coach program is the original marketing ploy of American to project a perception of higher passenger comfort levels. As increased advertising and intense market share is gained, we will continue to remain a key player assuming passenger demand goes up as projected. We will focus on upgraded in-flight entertainment systems, football game special fares, and buy-on board meal options to further enhance customer experience. Improve Network American Airlines new network strategy is designed to improve profitability by offering the routes and schedules that attract and retain not only their own high value customers but also those of alliance partners, an important source of revenue through codeshare agreements and closely aligned loyalty programs. The network is the core product that works in concert with lie-flat seats, onboard amenities, and customer service. Latin America is a prominent focus, due in part to our strong presence in key hubs to Latin America such as Dallas and Miami. This is where the profits are. Passenger growth forecasts for Latin America for 2013-17 are 6 percent for Latin America North (Central America and the northern rim of South America) and 8 percent for Latin America South (southern cone countries such as Brazil and Argentina). This compares with 3.6 percent for Europe and 4.4 percent for Asia. Increase International Routes To follow the growth markets, we must change our portfolio mix to focus more on international rather than domestic routes. This is a gradual process, moving from 38 percent international and 62 percent domestic capacity in 2013 towards a 44/56 percent balance by 2017. As we refocus more of our flying towards international opportunities, it is likely to look towards increased code-sharing with domestic carriers like Alaska Airlines, jetBlue, and others to further enhance our network in places like Los Angeles and New York City. This is likely to have initial teething problems, due to terminal colocation and product disparity issues. For instance, the business passengers that we are pursuing may be disgruntled by jetBlues more restrictive carry-on baggage policies or by extra time and added security checks if they are required to change terminals. Refurbish domestic feed Our plan is also to diversify our domestic feed by increasing the number of regional carriers with which we do business to reduce operational and balance sheet risk. Today, we primarily get a feed from our wholly-owned subsidiary, American Eagle, which has higher costs than some other regional carriers. American Eagle is going through its own restructuring to lower its costs, and it may ultimately be spun off. Synergies with US Airlines Merger with US Airways will result in the largest carrier in US. It would create roughly $1.2 billion in financial benefits.

The Military Career of George Washington Essay -- American America His

The Military Career of George Washington Most people today think of George Washington as the first President of the United States. Perhaps they may remember that he was also the commanding general of the Continental Army. However, George Washington had much experience in the military before the Revolutionary War. Because of his experience, he was ideal for the responsibility of leading the new nation to victory over the British. In 1752, George Washington was 20 years old. He had no military experience, but his brother Lawrence had served in the British militia and this motivated George to join up (George 74b). Before the Revolutionary War, George Washington actually worked for the British. He showed his natural leadership right away. At the age of twenty, he was assigned to train militias in Virginia. The young Major Washington showed he was brave and ambitious. In 1753, he heard that a man named Robert Dinwiddie, who was the acting governor of Virginia, planned to send a message to the French troops that they needed to withdraw from the Ohio River Valley. The French wanted to hunt and trap there, but the British wanted the land for farming. Washington went to Dinwiddie to volunteer to be the messenger. Dinwiddie had enough confidence in the young soldier to let him go. Washington did not go by himself. He took a frontier guide, an interpreter, and four frontiersmen. It was dangerous wilderness and it was the middle of November. The group traveled until the middle of December. It was a long and cold journey. The French rejected the British instructions. Washington had to make the journey back to Virginia in the bitter winter weather. Indians and other dangers surrounded him. He finally returned in the middle of Ja... ...and had my commission taken from me, or in other words, my command reduced, under pretense of an order from home†¦I have been on the losing order ever since I entered the service†¦"(George 74d). However, as a result of Washington’s early military career, he learned many skills and strategies that he would later need. He also won the respect and admiration of the colonists. When he resigned his commission in 1759, the House of Burgesses passed a resolution to grant Colonel Washington the "thanks of the House†¦for his brave and steady behavior" (Fleming 34). He was well on his way to becoming "first in war†¦and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Works Cited Fleming, Thomas, Liberty! The American Revolution, Viking, 1997. Sellers, Charles and May, Henry, A Synopsis of American History, Rand McNally & Company, _ _ 1963. The World Book Encyclopedia. 1994.

Mansion of a serial killer – Creative Writing

It was a cold rainy day school felt like it had being on forever, but it was only 11:45 oh well, at least I have lunch to look forward to. As I walked in to the dinner hall, I saw my best mate Kobe staring out of the window at the other side of the canteen. I walked over and asked what he was staring at. He replied â€Å"I was thinking about what it would be like to spend a night in that old mansion† â€Å"I think that's a stupid idea † I replied â€Å"why? Are you chicken?† He said â€Å"No of course not I will prove to you i'm not chicken Said I â€Å"Fine we will both stay in the mansion on Saturday night † After lunch Kobe and I went to play basketball on the inside courts, I was still thinking of the dare. I'm always scared to do things which could get me in trouble. I am really small and skinny with long brown hair and blue eyes. Kobe is nearly the opposite of me he is tall, slim, with dark skin and a shaven bald head he is always in trouble and he is really brave. All the kids in school are scared of him even though he is big and tough on the inside he is really quite a nice person. I am lucky to be friends with him. We made friends when we were 12 I use to get bullied every day and one day Kobe saw the lads bullying me so he came over and sorted then out ever since then we have being best friends. After school Kobe and I walked home he lived just across the corner from me on the way we passed the mansion. We stopped and looked up at it; it had being abandoned for years. It has really old stone work all the bricks are dirty and have bits of moss growing on them, the roof slates had fallen off and broke to a hundred pieces on the floor, most of the windows were boarded up and the ones the weren't were smashed, their weeds all over and the garden looked like a jungle with all the long grass. Kobe started to walk on so I followed him we walked to our street and said good bye. The street we lived on was quite a poor part of town their were giant pot holes every were, the houses were small and packed tight together quite a lot of people have windows put out from the rebel youths that live up the road. Later that night' I came down stairs for tea. Mum was sitting at the table on her own because dad was away for the week working. I asked mum about the mansion â€Å"Mum you know that old mansion? Who use to live there and what happened?† She said â€Å"a young couple use to live their who were very odd and never spoke to anyone but one mourning they were both lying dead on their beds with slit throats and wrote on the wall with blood was the words I will be back! So that's why nobody wants to move in† Trying to get to sleep that night was almost impossible that night my imagination was going crazy and scared me. The curtains were stirring and it sounded like rusty razor blades. I was thinking maybe I shouldn't do it but the I remembered this was to prove i'm not as scared as people think I lay thinking about the next day until 2:00am when I decided to get some sleeping pills from down stairs. I woke up in the mourning feeling really tired I went downstairs to get something to eat. Mum was out at work so I sat down on my own eating my cereal trembling to think this could be my last bowl. I wrote a note that read gone to stay at Kobe's see you tomorrow I left it on the kitchen table and left to go to Kobe's house it was a cold wet day pouring down with rain as I got their I knocked on his door and walked in he was just finishing his toast. We went upstairs to his bedroom. He already had his stuff packed, so we just played board games for the day as dawn came upon us, we went down stairs and told his mum he was coming to stay at my place she said â€Å"Ok† And we were on our way. As we stepped out it was starting to get really dark, the clouds were bid and grey and looked like they were about to spit rain at any minute. We set off towards the mansion. The time seemed to drag and it seemed like the longest walk ever Finally we reached the mansion the big black rusty gates were crashing together, sending shivers down my spine as we walked towards the door. I was shaking and my teeth were shattering together while Kobe just walked calmly to the door and turned the handle. The door opened with a massive squeaky creak. The smell of old and rotten hit me straight away, the floor boards creaked as we walked on them. Every thing was covered in dust; there was a spiral stair case in front of us and a grandfather clock ticking in the corner. As Kobe shone the torch on the wall and on the floor there were lots of red stains which freaked me out. BOOM all of a sudden the door slammed shut causing us to jump and shout as we turned back to look at the stairs. There was a tall dark figure standing there it said in a deep low voice â€Å"GET OUT!!† We turned quickly to get out the door but it was locked. We turned and sprinted to go down the cellar. We jumped behind an old book case when we heard the stairs creak. The guy entered the room and switched the light on. As I lifted my head to look around, I saw dead bodies everywhere. Some all bones some rotting and some fresh ones hung on the wall. Kobe looked at me and gulped I had never seen him scared but I could see the sheer terror on his face. I looked around the corner and saw the guy he had long greasy black hair hanging over his scared mangled face a long dark leather coat and jeans. He was holding a large knife in his hand, he started to walk over to the book case

Leadership, Communication, And Citizen Compassion

Those whom have obtained the presidency have done so based on successful political careers. However, not all whom have held presidential office have endured the fortune of a successful presidency. Many are the theories that seek to identify the qualities of a successful president. Yet the question remains, why have some been able to transfer the success of their political careers into the Oval Office while others have had lackluster terms? What variables are possessed by some that enable success while others struggle during their four years as commander in chief? Undoubtedly, successful leaders must have the ability to properly and effectively communicate, adapt to situations quickly and efficiently, and relate to those being led.†¦show more content†¦The third determinant of presidential success is communication aptitude. Presidents’ communication skills are constantly on display in the forms of speeches, letters, or press conferences. In addition to the obvious adv antages of good communication, such skills also play a major role in bringing adaptive leadership and citizen compassion to the forefront. In the modern era, a president’s communication skills have allowed him to showcase his adaptive leadership and citizen compassion. Situations do not seem to directly affect a president’s communication skills; instead, communication skills affect the situation. Yet the relationship between communication skills and situations is especially evident in times of controversy, when a president must explain why he is not at fault for a particular incident. Franklin Roosevelt transformed the role of the federal government and the nature of the presidency. He was more exposed to and better known by the American people. He entered the presidency during turbulent and difficult times and was a successful president. Faced with a myriad of issues that ranged from overseas conflict to an alarming economy, Roosevelt managed to lead America into a better state and prosperity. Yet Roosevelt’s presidency was not without setbacks. His battle against the Supreme Court provides a perfect example of adaptive