Asian Airlines Research Articles

Preliminary Results for International Tourism in 2002; Air Transport after 11 September

Preliminary results for 2002, as presented by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), show a reasonable improvement in tourism demand with international tourism worldwide increasing by an estimated 3%. Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East led growth, Africa grew above the world average and Europe below, while the Americas slightly decreased. In the second part of this issue's Databank, the author takes a closer look at the evolution of air transport after 11 September 2001, drawing on data from ICAO and various regional airline associations. The monthly traffic data reported by ATA, AEA and AAPA, the regional associations for, respectively, the major North American, European and Asian airlines, constitute a valuable source of timely information on the short-term evolution of this part of the tourism flow over the last few years.

Work-Family Conflict for Employees in an East Asian Airline: Impact on Career and Relationship to Gender

This article contributes to the limited research on the conflict between work and family demands experienced by women in East Asia. It focuses, in particular, on the impact of work-family conflict on women's organizational careers. The article reports the findings of a case study of 'East Asian Airlines'(EAA), a flagship company located in Hong Kong. The case study employed questionnaire and in-depth interview surveys that included both women and men. The study found a sharp decrease in the number of women, especially women with families, in EAA's higher grades. Indeed, women were absent from the top grades. This finding, coupled with the finding that men with dependent children had relatively greater experience of work-family conflict, suggests that this sharp decrease may be due to women with family responsibilities quitting EAA employment. Alternatively, this decrease may be due to women lowering their career ambitions and not seeking promotion to higher grades in anticipation of intolerable work-family conflict if they pursue ardently their organizational careers. The study compares and contrasts work-family conflict experiences of women in EAA with those reported for women in the West, and assesses the impact of differences between eastern and western societies in terms of the perception of women's role at work and in society, societal emphasis on equal opportunities and availability of help for domestic duties.

Developments in air transport: implications on investment decisions, profitability and survival of Asian airlines

The investment decisions and profitability of airlines encompasses elements such as air traffic forecasting, the cycles of orders and deliveries, profit cycles, airline growth and survivability in Asia. Regression analysis showed that air traffic growth rates are positively associated with GDP growth rates. The study of the cycles of aircraft orders and deliveries reveal that Asian carriers usually place orders for new aircraft a year after making good profits and these aircraft are delivered after 2–3 years. The delivery of aircraft results in over-capacity, and the decrease in load factors depresses airline profits. Economic cycles are amplified in the industry by capacity investments. The Markov Model was adapted to test the relationship between airline growth and profitability and to predict the survival probabilities of Asian carriers. The results of the study indicate that an airline's growth and profitability are positively related. The survival probabilities of airlines increase as asset size and profits increase. The key implications for Asian airlines are to improve their forecasting techniques, capacity flexibility and responsiveness to the changing environment.

The impacts of the Asian Economic Crises on Asian Airlines: short-run responses and long-run effects

The optimism shared by agencies such as IATA and the Air Transport Action Group on the growth in the demand for air travel has been temporarily derailed by the Asian economic crisis which appears to have dimmed the prospects for growth of many Asian carriers. Prospects for growth and expansion appeared to be excellent and were the driving force in setting the agenda for privatization, liberalization and the formation of new airlines. This paper discusses responses by Asian airlines with respect to redefining the scope of operations, capacity decisions, cost competitiveness, alliances and service decisions. It concludes with an argument that economic crisis appears to have shifted air transport policies in the direction of greater liberalization.

Tourism in Hong Kong: After the handover

Hong Kong has experienced strong growth in inbound tourism in the last decade. Being the hub of many Asian airlines, Hong Kong has been one of the most popular travel destinations in Asia. The change in sovereignty on July 1, 1997 has drawn tremendous attention from the whole world to Hong Kong on one hand and raised concerns about its future on the other. Since March 1997, four months before the handover, total tourist arrivals to Hong Kong began to decline. Japan, which is the biggest inbound market for Hong Kong experienced the greatest drop. This paper aims to discuss the political, economical, social and environmental challenges that Hong Kong is facing after the handover and make recommendations for future marketing strategies.

Overview of regulatory changes in international air transport and Asian strategies towards the US open skies initiatives

This paper identifies major issues facing Asian airlines and governments when they deal with the US open skies initiatives directed towards Asian countries, and suggests how they might deal with those issues strategically and practically. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 is a brief history of internal air services regulation including the recent US initiatives for open skies and the creation of a European single aviation market. Section 3 identifies some key problems associated with traditional air services treaty negotiations. Key lessons from the US-Canada Open Skies agreement are described in Section 4. Section 5 identifies major challenges that the US open skies initiatives bring to Asian carriers and governments. Section 6 describes the suggested strategies for Asian carriers and governments to deal with the US open skies initiatives. The paper ends with a summary and conclusion.

The Use of Scheduling and Inflight Customer Service Quality as Competitive Marketing Tools in the Asian Airline Industry

The Use of Scheduling and Inflight Customer Service Quality as Competitive Marketing Tools in the Asian Airline Industry

The New Dimension of the Fifth Freedom – The Conflict of Interest between Asian and American Airlines

The New Dimension of the Fifth Freedom – The Conflict of Interest between Asian and American Airlines

Contracts

Following an order in the latter part of 1994 from a South East Asian airline, a further airline from the Far East has placed an order for a blade tip grinder from Newall Aerospace Limited. The machine will be used at the airline's overhaul facility to grind the Pratt & Whitney 4000 series, CFM56 and JT 9 engines. Newall Aerospace Ltd, based in Yorkshire, continues to dominate the aerospace market for process grinding systems. This latest order will represent the 44th machine supplied by the company out of 52 sold throughout the world.

Matching global competition: Cooperation among Asian airlines

The sluggish airline industry in America and Europe has pushed major international carriers to offer bargain fares and concessions in order to survive. Though Asian airlines are performing well and are profitable, the global competition has increased pressures considerably and led to reforms in the regional market. After reviewing the drivers that are causing change and affecting airline performance, the discussions shifts to the emerging strategic alliances between carriers. The introduction of frequent-flyer programmes in Asia serves as an illustration of how regional airlines are attempting to cope with the challenge of global competition.

Air Transport in the Asian–Pacific Region

SummaryAir transport in the Asian–Pacific region is growing faster than anywhere else. Asian airlines (other than Japanese) are the lowest cost operators in the world. But like all airlines, they operate in a tightly regulated framework. Some 2000 bilateral air service agreements among 160 countries specify which airline flies on a route, what capacity it offers and how much capacity third–country airlines are allowed. The regulatory system is now coming under various pressures: from the growth of a tourist industry demanding lower fares, from increased competition with the emergence of a new generation of low–cost airlines, and from the US ‘mega carriers’ and their alliances. The airlines of the region have the opportunity to benefit from these changes in the regulatory environment. But this will require a more trade–oriented approach to aviation than some countries of the region now have.A number of guiding principles for civil aviation policy in the 1990s suggest themselvesMore liberal arrangements for the allocation of traffic rights would benefit the regional economiesSuch liberalization is possible within the current bilateral system, but faster progress would be achieved through regional negotiationsSuch regional negotiations are likely to make greater progress if conducted jointly with other trade issuesThere remains a role for GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) type arrangements, especially in relation to so–called ‘soft rights’, and in laying down ground rules for regional negotiations.