Indian Airlines Research Articles

Corporate Social Responsibility within the Dynamics of Aviation Industry with Special Reference to India

Airlines sacks 1900 Employees!! Aviation Industry suspected of Cartelization!! Noise causes problem to the dwellers near airports!! In the year 2008, the Airlines sector was in news for all bad reasons. However, another side of the coin is brighter in the form of low-cost airline service providers entering the market, Indian Airlines receiving the GETW Awards Special Category for its CSR initiatives. Whether providing low-cost airlines service is CSR? CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility has become the buzzword for corporate sector. Often CEOs of the companies use this abbreviation in their speech to speak about their companies’ social concerns. Whether aviation industry has sufficiently addressed on CSR is a question searching its answers. Second half of this paper finds out the CSR initiatives taken by the prominent Indian and foreign airlines players. CSR is no longer only associated with the philanthropic functions of a company; rather it has acquired an ingrained status in the corporate culture. CSR has become a barometer to test the permeation of a company into society. Society, now, to an extent judges a company on the basis of its ‘CSR Quotient’. CSR now is turning to Corporate ‘Strategic’ Responsibility, where a corporate does a strategic investment in its CSR initiatives. No longer has it remained a voluntary exercise; and at times even is pressurized by various stakeholders. However, CSR in the aviation sector has not seen that strategic level of investment compared to steel industry or a consumer product company. At times it is ‘just pious words with little or no action.’ CSR by companies is demonstrated by various means, opening hospitals, schools, devising environmental protection programs, or even funding some charity. There is no coherence in the investment made by companies in CSR. Same applies to the aviation industry. The present paper makes an humble attempt to suggest that CSR investment should be strategic keeping into mind the sector in which the company is operating, for e.g. in the aviation sector, investment could be on environmental programs in developing fuel efficiency, controlling emission, controlling noise pollution, expenses on training and development of infrastructure. There would be a suggestion to draft model guidelines by IATA or ICAO about voluntary CSR investments, which would suggest the investment objectives and provision for incentives in the form of awards/recognition. There are two prominent views about CSR; one is the positive one which supports it and even extends to develop a more wider concept of ‘Creative Capitalism’ whereas the other view treats CSR as one of the tools to decrease shareholders value, a model just to have publicity or a public relations tool, and at its worst a model of ‘greenwashing’ or ‘bluewashing’ to hide illegalities of a company. Initial pages of the paper take a brief inroad into these discussions while discussing the concept of CSR.

An Analytical Framework on Service Perception in Indian Airlines before and After Corporate Restructuring

An Analytical Framework on Service Perception in Indian Airlines before and After Corporate Restructuring

India's New Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Regime in the Airline Industry: Changes and Challenges

By 2022, India is forecast to become the third-largest civil aviation market after the U.S. and China. Since 2010, the market has grown 27% per annum domestically and 7.7% internationally. Yet there has been an imbalance in regulatory evolution. Consequently, regulators have been holding back even faster expansion and sustainability of India’s aviation sector. The Indian Government is finally tackling these challenges and proposing reforms via two policies: the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 and the Consolidated FDI Policy Circular of 2016. The National Policy proposes deregulation of 22 areas in order to remove constraints and foster growth. The FDI Policy proposes relaxing the FDI rules for important sectors including civil aviation. This paper discusses possible changes in the Indian aviation sector resulting from the FDI policy. This includes to what extent joint venture airlines (such as AirAsia India and Singapore Airlines-backed Vistara) can benefit from the new FDI policy. Are the benefits as expansive and significant as discussed in the media? This paper will also analyze the remaining obstacles preventing Indian airlines from flourishing on the international stage.

AIR TRAVELERS' PERCEPTION TOWARDS SERVICE QUALITY OF INDIAN DOMESTIC AIRLINES

This study makes an attempt to measure the customer satisfaction level based on service quality as perceived by air travelers among five Indian domestic airlines. Service quality attributes included in the study are Ticket booking experience; Check-in process; Luggage handling; In-flight experience; Cabin crew; Arrival services and Complaint handling approach of domestic airlines operating in India. A questionnaire was designed with above set of attributes and responses of 120 travelers of five domestic airlines viz., Go Air, Jet Airways, Indigo, Spice Jet and Air India (Domestic) were recorded on a five point Likert scale. About 120 respondents were interviewed from different tourist destinations in the four districts of Sikkim state of India. A convenient sampling method was followed. Perceptions of only those travelers were captured who had actually undergone the experience of travelling by at least two domestic airlines. Using Kruskal-Wallis test, it was checked whether travelers perceive any significant difference between satisfaction levels among five airlines for each of the above sevem identified attributes. The domestic airline preferences of customers with respect to each of the service quality attribute were also traced during the study. It was observed that Spice Jet has scored highest preference on 'ticket booking', 'in-flight experience' and 'cabin crew' service attributes; whereas the perception of travelers towards 'check-in process', 'luggage handling', 'arrival services' and 'complaint handling' attributes of Jet Airways, was significantly different from the others. Indian customers also see the quality of services in connection with the value to money.

Competitive service quality benchmarking in airline industry using AHP

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure competitive service quality (SQ) performances of domestic full service airlines in India by providing a framework based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP), in order to benchmark their SQ thus, enhancing competitiveness and gaining competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – The present study has used the AHP methodology to benchmark the SQ of airlines in India. Subsequently, competitive SQ gap analysis is performed to evaluate and compare strength and weakness of focal firm (Airline “B”) against its competitors. Findings – In this research work, total of 23 SQ attributes and five dimensions have been identified based on extensive literature review, focus group brainstorming and experts opinion from the Indian airline industry. The study reveals that air travelers rate assurance as the most important criteria and safety as the most important sub criteria followed by on time performance, performing the services right, the first time and remedial process for delayed or missing baggage. Furthermore, based on AHP methodology, the result shows that Airline “A” has emerged as a market leader and is considered as a benchmark airline. Practical implications – This framework will help airline management and policy makers to identify area of service improvements and identify SQ gaps with respect to the benchmark airline. This will help in formulating suitable competitive strategies for SQ improvements, thus gaining competitive advantage. Originality/value – In this research work, AHP-based SQ framework have been applied in Indian domestic aviation industry for competitive SQ benchmarking which is a novel contribution, thus widening the existing knowledge base in aviation SQ literature.

COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED METHOD TO MANAGE THE LOAD OF INDUSTRIES WITH PERISHABLE INVENTORIES

A lot of industries now-a-days provide services using perishable commodities. A perishable commodity is one which when goes unused incurs heavy losses, on the contrary if used to full efficiency can lead to huge profits. Various Industries which use perishable inventories are airlines, Hotels, Movie Theatres etc. On the basis of a recent survey it was accounted that between January to June 2015 domestic airlines in India had 7,584,088 vacant seats. Even if they had been sold out for Rs 2500 per seat airlines could have made 18,960 million Indian Rupees. The proposed solution to solve this problem is Yield Management. Yield management is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource. Along with this the concept of Dynamic Pricing is also used. For developing the front end Basic JavaScript, HTML, Ajax, Spring Framework and Play Framework has been used. Java Script and HTML have been used to create forms. Spring is used to develop a Java Web Application on top of the Java Eclipse EE Platform. Also, Play framework has been used to optimize developer productivity by using convention over configuration, hot code reloading and display of errors in the browser. For the payment portal payment gateway has been used. SMS service is provided using SMS gateway. The Yield Management algorithm has been modified to incorporate the dynamic pricing feature. for the backend ORM has been used. For Version Control GIT has been used. Amazon Aws is used for hosting and Tomcat for making server.

A combined confirmatory factor analysis and fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process-TOPSIS (CFAT) framework for measurement of airline service quality

The purpose of this study is to present an integrated CFA-FAHPTOPSIS (CFAT) framework that uses a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for measuring multi criteria airlines service quality dimensions. The proposed CFAT framework is an integration of CFA, FAHP-TOPSIS. This paper validates the CFAT framework for measuring service quality in the Indian airline industry. For this purpose, we developed six main criteria and 28 sub-criteria based on review of literature. The validations were carried using confirmatory factor analysis and were based on data collected through a sample survey on 300 air passengers from India. Three experts were used to rank the identified criteria across four domestic airlines in India. The final ranking of the airlines were based on FAHP-TOPSIS. The study revealed that cabin service, was the highest ranked service quality dimensions followed by booking service, check in service and responsiveness. Timeliness of flight and special offers and freebies scored low on the ranking.

Unbundling services: the route to profitability for airlines in India

Purpose – This paper aims to explain how airlines in India and customers can both benefit by the unbundling of services. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores how a recent regulatory change allowing unbundled services will affect the airline industry in India. Using illustrations, it highlights the benefits to the airlines and to the customers. It recommends the strategies that airlines can follow. Findings – Airlines in India can now offer unbundled services. However, regulatory authorities need to allow greater flexibility to airlines. Given more flexibility, airlines can design offerings that will improve their profitability while simultaneously benefiting customers. Practical implications – The government needs to go beyond the current regulatory changes. Providing increased flexibility will benefit both airlines and customers. Airlines would need to understand customers more intimately, experiment in the market, lobby for flexibility and develop strategic agility to benefit from the changed regulations on unbundled services. Social implications – It concedes that airlines can now design unbundled services such that only those customers who value a service get charged for the service. Those customers who do not need a service can get away by paying a lower fare. The government has taken the first steps in the right direction. Once it provides greater flexibility, the airlines in India can benefit significantly. Originality/value – The paper considers the unique context of the airline industry in India where recent regulatory changes are likely to make the industry more dynamic and improve profitability of airlines. It provides insights in to the challenges faced under the current system and recommends strategies for the government and companies to follow.

A DEA study of airlines in India

The objective of this study is to investigate the technical and scale efficiencies of all airlines across service type, size and ownership structures operating in India during 2006–2010. The variable returns to scale (VRS) model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with two inputs and two outputs is used. For additional insights, Input Efficiency Profiling (IEP) model of DEA is also used. The key findings are: a large majority of budget airlines have been found to be efficient; while smaller private sector airlines have been efficient, both the larger and smaller public sector airlines have also been efficient; the public sector airlines, although incurring financial losses, are also operating at their most productive scale size; of the two inputs, there is greater inefficiency with respect to the operating cost input. These findings are consistent with other studies of airlines that found size, type of service and ownership to impact efficiency.

Fuzzy-VIKOR analysis for customer performance index of civil domestic airline industry in India

Article history: Received September 28, 2014 Accepted 15 January 2015 Available online January 23 2015 This paper considers the factor influencing on an airline carrier based on operations of an airport on the routes flown out of that airport. This study deals with evaluation of the Customer Performance index (CPI) of distinct domestic civil airlines in India. CPI consists of various parameters; among them many disembodied parameters, which are difficult to measure. In this context, initially we identified the prime factors that are crucial for evaluation of performances provided by various airlines in India. Thereafter, in order to determine the hierarchy among these factors; modified digital logic (MDL) approach is employed and cost is found to be the most important criteria. Furthermore, CPI is calculated using fuzzy-VIKOR approach. Such approaches can help the airlines in re-evaluating their current policies and then formulate comparatively more efficient market strategies to improve performance quality and to gain customers’ loyalty. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 5 © 201

Service Quality Perceptions of Domestic Airline Consumers in India - An Emperical Study

Services are intangible by nature. Services are heterogeneous and airline services are no exception to this. Services provided inside aircraft are intangible and highly variable. Airline services are highly personalized. The airline product is a highly perishable one. The airliner companies Management’s believe that, they are providing committed quality of service to the customers, but in the point of view of the customer, airliners’ are lacking in quality service. Airliners’ lacks in awareness about service quality and are not aware that giving better service to the customers helps in better company performances In view of the above there is ample scope of research in the area of Service offerings with a view of Customer Service in domestic airlines arena which has potential research possibilities in Indian Airlines Industry. This paper showcases some of the findings in this direction with respect to Indian Domestic Airline Industry. It highlights to examine how the customers are feeling about the company’s services and its service quality. The two main constituents are the “quality expected or experienced” and “quality perceived” by the customer. As study on these variables, the Airlines best conforming to customers’ perceptions are Kingfisher Airlines and Indigo Airlines.

Marketing Strategies & Service Excellence for Low-cost Airline in India

Despite poor financial performance of the airline industry for last many years, a select number of “no-frills” airlines have successfully stood out of the crowd due to their innovative service quality management and unique marketing strategies. These efforts have led to higher customer satisfaction and stronger brand image of the companies. A study was recently conducted to capture the customer expectations from Low Cost Carrier (LCC) companies and identify service excellence parameters as tools for marketing. Based on standard service quality and performance parameters adapted to the low-cost airlines in India, a set of basic as well as desirable parameters were identified that LCC companies should address to be competitive and successful. It was also apparent that the airline should be clear about what it wants to offer to its customers and should communicate and deliver what it has promised. Role of technology in improving customer satisfaction and brand image has been explored. Marketing communication strategies that are practically feasible and work best for such airlines have been identified. Caselet of Indigo Airlines as a successful LCC in India has also been taken up. This paper presents facts mainly based on qualitative analysis and basic statistical computations on the collected primary data.

Impact of Services Mix Variables in Building Customer Brand Loyalty : A Study

With the demand for national economic developments, technological advancements, and other aspects of community life, as well as effects of globalization, there had been changes in the business climate of commercial flight services in India. The changes in the business climate, characterized by the government deregulation in the air transport industry, had created the emergence of new competitors for the Indian Airlines (now amalgamated with Air India). Each of the new airlines would be competing in the existing market. The competition is indeed escalating. Some airline companies have used market gimmicks to draw customers, from offering no frills pricing and special discounts with low prices and refunds apart from some of the best customer services like personalized services etc. All these efforts are to attract the customer in the highly competitive emerging market to provide better services to customers of domestic airline so as to attract the Customer Loyalty and in turn emerge as the best brand and increase/improve market share.

Carbon competition up above: estimating greenhouse gas emissions of Indian domestic airlines

The Indian domestic aviation sector is on a growth path and this progress can be attributed to several factors such as an expanding economy, an increase in the average income of Indians, low and economic air fares, more schedules and options available to a traveller, and a reduction in the differential fare between air travel and air-conditioned train travel. It is well known that air travel has high carbon footprints among various modes of travel, even though domestic aviation emissions have so far remained outside any credible cap-and-trade regimes around the world and also international aviation emissions are not assigned to any nation's greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. However, signs of carbon consciousness are emerging in the domestic and international aviation sector all over the world, including carbon off-set purchases by passengers. This article ranks airlines operating in the Indian domestic sector on their per passenger-km GHG emission basis. IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet were the three most ‘clean...

Perception Mapping of Travellers: Case of Six Indian Domestic Airlines

A comparison of customer satisfaction based on service quality as perceived by air travellers was done among six domestic airlines. Literature review suggested that flying experience has three stages: Pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight and a set of six variables can be used to measure satisfaction. These variables are: Ease of bookings through the website/ Call Center; Hassle free check in/Efficient ticketing staff/Regular announcements during flight delays at airport; On Time Performance of flights; In flight Experience; Baggage handling and Value for money. A questionnaire was designed with above set of variables and responses of 150 fliers of six domestic airlines viz., GoAir, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Indigo, SpiceJet and Air India (Domestic) was recorded on a five point Likert scale. 150 Respondents were interviewed from different places in NCR: Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, and Faridabad. A convenient sampling method was followed. Perceptions of only those travellers were captured who had actually undergone the experience of travelling by an airline. The range for the number of respondents was between 103 (for GoAir) and 133 (for Jet Air). Using one way ANOVA, it was checked whether travellers perceive any significant difference between six airlines for each of the above six identified variables. With Tukey-Kramer test the airlines which are significantly different from the rest were identified. Perceptual maps with combination of up to two variables (attributes) were drawn to infer about the positioning of six different airlines. This study will help marketers of domestic airlines and designers of flight service offerings to enhance the satisfaction level of air travellers.

Human Resource Development in Airline Industry: A Study on HRD Initiatives of Indian

Human Resource Development is a continuous process to ensure the development of employee competencies, dynamism, motivation and effectiveness in a systematic and planned way Globalization intensified the competition among tourism enterprises and resulted in the emergence of a knowledge-based economy. The knowledge -based economy utilizes the skills of the workforce to the full and prompts new ways of thinking about Human Resource Development (HRD) by organizations. Without the positive HRD activities, it would be difficult for tourism enterprises to stay alive in the fast changing world. Liberalization of the economy and its improvement towards globalization has brought in new challenges for Indian business in terms of business strategies, technology, quality concerns; cost effectiveness, management systems etc. By developing individuals and
 deprived groups through various learning experiences in a definite time period, the job performance in an organization could be improved. HRD is expected to play a crucial role in airline industry to cope with the challenges of advancement in technology, changing markets, industry restructuring and more competitive domestic and international business environment. Effective management of delivery process helps to differentiate an ordinary and excellent airline. To achieve the status of an excellent airline, Indian has training facilities committed to seriously perfecting skills of their valued employees. In order to achieve its human resource development objectives, Indian Airlines (as Indian previously known to the world) established its own Management Training Centre (MTC) for executive development This paper is an attempt by the authors to analyse the HRD initiatives of our national domestic carrier, Indian to enhance the competencies of its employees. The paper also points to the need of the airline to incorporate the spirit of HRD in its day today functioning by embracing the all possible human resource systems and mechanisms to the organization.

Competition in Indian Sky, Fly High or Nose Dive...


 Indian aviation is experiencing a tremendous change in the recent years. Opening of Indian sky for private players made a paradigm shift in domestic air travel. After 1992 the role of Indian Airlines,

Some Aspects of Market Dynamics and Customer Satisfaction in the Indian Domestic Airlines Sector

In India, the domestic airlines industry is going through an interesting phase with three-way competition among Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara and the possibility of emerging competition from budget airlines in the future. This article examines two areas related to the domestic airlines industry: the market dynamics of the industry and some aspects of customer satisfaction. The changing market dynamics over the last few years and its various causal factors are also seen. The initial findings of a research study are highlighted and the relative importance of satisfaction variables and the linkage between customer satisfaction and future usage are examined.

Customer satisfaction in the service sector: a case study of the airline industry

In India, the domestic airline industry is also going through an interesting phase with three‐way competition between Indian Airlines (Government owned), Jet Airways and Air Sahara (private airlines). This paper looks at the role of customer satisfaction in the domestic airlines sector with specific focus on customer segmentation, the linkage between customer satisfaction and future usage and what attributes influences customers choice in airlines. For this study, in addition to the traditional airline satisfaction measures, variables like network of destinations, safety record of the airline and economical air fares have also been considered in determining the factors of customer choice. This paper attempts to provide some insights that would help domestic airlines to better understand the consumer buying behaviour of their customers so that they may develop appropriate marketing strategies in the emerging highly competitive market.

Security versus Liberty: Striking the Right Balance. A Comparison of Anti-Terror Provisions in India and the United States

Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh. A Britishborn Muslim arrested by Indian authorities in connection with the kidnapping of four British and American backpackers in Kashmir in 1994. Released in exchange for the passengers and crew of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan on December 25, 1999. Suspected of al-Qaida links and sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan for the kidnap and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in January 2002. India, U.S.A. and the U.K. – three countries caught up in a web of Islamic terrorist links and activities.