SWOT and PESTLE Analysis for EasyJet

The report performs SWOT and PESTLE analysis for EasyJet, identifying company's internal weaknesses and strengths and on the basis of that analysis it highlights some opportunities and threats. It also identifies two leadership styles that will suit EasyJet and two leadership styles that will not suit them based on the PESTEL analysis.

Context of Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Swot and Pestle Analysis for Easy Jet.....................................................................................3
2. Evaluating the pestle factors that influence Opportunities and Threats of Easy Jet................6
3.) Based on the analysis of PESTEL factors, identifying two leadership styles that will suit
EasyJet and two leadership styles that will not suit them............................................................7
4. The importance of Corporate social responsibilities...............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
To be successful, it is essential for company to employ various types of strategies so that
they can gain competitive advantages over their competitors in the business market. The present
report will be based on airline company named as easyJet, founded in Switzerland. Customers
can book their journey online via easyJet website and avail exiting offers. There are many
internal and external factors that can influence the business operations. The company's strategies
are majorly influenced by changing trends in the market, changes in the business environment
and leadership abilities. The report will perform SWOT analysis in order to identify company's
internal weaknesses and strengths and on the basis of that analysis it will highlight some
opportunities and threats. In addition to this, to find out the factors which can influence the
business the company needs to focus on PESTLE analysis. The study will provide detailed
information about leadership style which is better for the company and increasing trend of CSR
as it highly influence business like never seen before.
MAIN BODY
1. Swot and Pestle Analysis for Easy Jet
Swot Analysis: Swot is shorten form for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Swot analysis is a evaluative framework used by corporate for analysing its micro environment
to strengthen the competitive position in the market by formulation of strategic planning.
Strengths: Capital base: Easy Jet has a strong capital base with the strongest credit rating in the
world. Technology: Increasing utilization of advancements in technology by the firm enables it
to provide easy travel facilities at affordable prices leading to revenue maximization
through enhanced consumer satisfaction. Expansion and Acquisition: The expansion and acquisition projects of the airline has
been successful and helped the company in expanding its business activities largely. Pricing: The main strength of the airline is its pricing strategy (EasyJet Plc SWOT &
PESTLE Analysis ,2022). The fare prices of Easy Jet are comparatively lower than the
competitors making it the best choice for consumers. Unit Cost: The pricing strategy of the company is because of its unit cost sustainability.

 Brand Recall: The brand name is easily recognizable and recallable among the
consumers.
Weaknesses: Sensitivity regarding additional taxes: The operating profits of Easy Jet are low thus, the
company is highly sensitive to any kind of additional taxes imposed by the government. Competition: The company faces high competition from Ryanair and other competitors.
Although the fair prices are low but not as low as its major competitor Ryanair. Unavailability of services at varied destinations: The company's flier programs are not
frequent. The services of Easy Jet are absent in various locations. Only few locations are
served by the airline in Europe. Criticism: The airline face criticism from Germany for non adherence to the
compensation laws of the European Union. The refunds are not given by the company
timely. Dependence on fewer suppliers: Easy Jet depends on two suppliers only this is one of
the major weakness for the airline as operational problems for the supplier will largely
impact the functioning of the airline.
Opportunities: Easy Jet Academy: The company can use Easy Jet Academy as an auxiliary source of
income generation. Travel Packages of Easy Jet Hotels: Easy Jet Hotels can be used from increasing the
brand awareness and influencing more customers opting for the services of airline. Improvements in Framework of Operations: The framework of the company can be
improvised for enhancing the customer satisfaction by providing better services to them. Allocated seating: The company is planning to roll out allocated seating across the
network it is great opportunity for company to raise its revenues. Cost cutting: There is great opportunity for the company to maintain its unit cost
advantage and cut off its costs further to stand out in the competitive business
environment. Expansion in Europe: The company can expand in Europe by operating in more
destinations.
Threats:

 Increase in Airport Prices: Regulatory increase in airport price increase the costs for the
airline. Complexity: Business model has increased the complexities in the price structure. Fuel prices: Increasing fuel prices lead to low revenue generation. Change in government policies: Changes in the government policies adversely affects in
revenue generation of the company. Digital Disruption: Interruptions in the digital platform impose threat to the smooth
working of airline.
Pestle Analysis Political: The negotiators of Brexit declined the commitments relating to participation in
the EU institution for regulation. The passengers are not willing to buy tickets in advance
as a result of uncertainties in economy and increased in prices. Economic: Increase in fuel costs negatively impacts the company. Potentiality of losing
transport connection due to weak economic relations (Spotlight: easyJet Strategic
Analysis, 2022). Due to visa related uncertainty international travel may fall. Social: Social media promotes the travel this is positive factor of airline. Increasing
awareness of the society relating to the sustainable operational activities needed to be
taken care for maintain customer base. Technological: Development of aircrafts that take off vertically can be an opportunity for
the company to increase profits. Sustainable fuel usage by the airline will improves its
market image. Legal: Non compliance to EU regulations will impose negative effects on Easy Jet. Data
protection laws should be adhered for smooth operations.
 Environmental: Attention of media on environment friendly changes taking place in the
society will affect the revenue of the company.
2. Evaluating the pestle factors that influence Opportunities and Threats of Easy Jet
Business is addressing its strengths to negate threats effectively with the help of analysis
of twos matrix.
Digital transformation- According to Benzaghta and et.al., (2021), due to heavy
competition in the airline industry, the company have to be very active and grasp opportunities

instantly. As we all know that digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For
EasyJet, its journey is to achieve the goals related to customer based technology, acceptance of
changing technology, improving organizational culture. Wang and Wang, (2020), argues that To
achieve competitive advantages and grasp opportunities the company has successfully managed
its customer relationship management and explore new products to maintain stability in the
industry.
Technology/digital disruption- due to increase in the level of disruption, hacking,
terrorism can result into a reduction in air travel (Wang and Wang, 2020). Hence, to deal with it
company have to grasp opportunity and enhance strengths to develop cyber security system and
protect data leaks for the future uncertainty.
Increasing wage structure- Due to covid-19, there has been an increasing trend seen in
the wage structure and this has become threat for EasyJet (Benzaghta and et.al., 2021),. Hence,
due to this the company has to adopt strategy that can reduce the pressure on the margins of the
firm and grasp opportunity to enhance its strengths such as skills based hiring, employee
engagement, wage relate policies and many more.
Price Strategy: The company's strength of low unit cost can be linked to the opportunity
for cost cutting. Easy Jet can have the benefit of increase margin by effectively utilizing its
strength of unit cost by maintain it and cost the costs accordingly.
Expansion: Easy Jet strength of expansion and acquisition can be linked to its threat of
increase in complexity. Further expansion of Easy Jet will increase the complexity in the
business model of the airline.
Brand Recall: Improvements in the framework of the company leading to the smooth
operations will make the enhancements in the customer experiences. Enhance consumer
experience will increase their level of satisfaction and higher brand recall in them.
Limited destination covered: Operations of company in the limited locations that is
weakness for the company can be linked with the opportunity for expansion in the Europe (The
TOWS Matrix, 2022). The effective expansion of the company in increased number of locations
will be greatly advantageous for the company in increase its revenue.
Government policies: Easy Jet's weakness of high level of sensitivity in the response of
additional taxes by the government is connected to the threat of the company. The Easy Jet's
threat regarding the change in the government policies is closely linked to the weakness of

sensitivity relating additional taxes. It may happen that new government policies will increase
the amount of existing or current taxes that are paid by the company or it may happen that the
new government policy impose new taxes on the company. In both the scenarios the company
will suffer as its weakness of sensitivity towards additional costs will be the threat for the
company. The possible outcomes will increase in the cost of the company resulting in low
margin generation or increase fare prices. Increase in fare prices will result in overall decline in
companies sales.
3.) Based on the analysis of PESTEL factors, identifying two leadership styles that will suit
EasyJet and two leadership styles that will not suit them.
Leadership is an art and quality in an individual to guide, motivate and inspire others to work
their highest to achieve the set goal. In business, good leadership is the ability to set goals and
achieve them, take timely decisions and actions, performs better than the competitors and
influence others to perform their best. Understanding the different leadership styles is necessary
to identify which are good and which are bad for Easy Jet. The key leadership style are-
 Autocratic Leadership
It is a leadership style in which only an individual takes decision based on their judgements and
does not take advices from followers. It involves absolute control of a person over others. The
benefits of this leadership style are that it works effectively where strong leadership is required
when the followers do not have expertise or required knowledge, facilitates a proper chain of
command and the decisions can be taken quickly to allow timely actions(Al-Malki and Juan,
2018). This also has certain drawbacks like sometimes, it creates a very rigid environment and
does hurts morale of employees as they are not involved in discussions and decision making
which also discourages and ignore creative thinking.
 Democratic Leadership
It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership as the members of the group also
take part in discussions and decision making. In this style of leadership, everyone can take part in
discussions and exchange ideas. The ideas flow freely and the decisions about who contributes in
the group is taken by the leader who has adequate control and offers guidance whenever needed.
The benefits of democratic leadership are that more and creative ideas and solutions are
available, it increased group morale and commitment which also boosts their productivity. Some

of the drawbacks of this style are that during the time of tension, it can lead to uncompleted task
as there is no rigid chain of command so communication can sometimes be ineffective, this style
can also fail in cases where the members do not have required skills and knowledge. It can also
lead to dissatisfaction sometimes as the group member might feel that their opinions are not
considered.
 The Laissez-faire
This is also called delegative leadership free-rein leadership in which the leader delegate his
responsibilities to subordinates for making decisions and takes minimum initiative. The leader
takes no power and doesn’t give any direction to followers and lets the group set its own goals
and handle all its problems. The advantages of this leadership style are that it encourages growth
of the group members as they work on their own and that encourages creativity and leads to new
ideas and innovation. The decisions are generally made quickly as the members have the
decision making power and do not have to consult leaders or wait for weeks for an approval. The
disadvantages are that the group members have no clarity about their roles and receive very less
to no guidance; the leaders do not try to motivate the followers and are not involved with the
group which shows their unconcerned behaviour and that negatively effects the employees as
well; the leader can take no accountability and can blame the members for non completion of the
tasks when the goals are not achieved.
 Paternalistic leadership
In this leadership, the leader acts as a father or paternal for the group. The leader is considered
the head of the family and guides and protects the group members just like he would do to the
members of his family(Alheet, 2021). He provides them fringe benefits and good working
conditions with an assumption that they will work harder and obey him in return out of respect
and gratitude. Some of the benefits of this leadership style are that the employees are loyal as
their needs are fulfilled and they feel that they are heard , the absenteeism and staff turnover is
reduced as the decisions made are in the employee’s best interest, etc. However it also has some
disadvantages which are that in case the loyalty to the leader is not strong, the staff can feel
demotivated , leader’s bad decisions can lead to employees’ dissatisfaction, the rights and
legislations of employees can cause problems if misused, etc.
 Transformational leadership

This is a leadership style in which leaders inspire and encourage positive changes in employees
to help in the future success and growth of the company. The leaders stay involved and focus on
development and success of all the members of the group(Asgari, Mezginejad and Taherpour,
2020). The advantages of this leadership style are that labour turnover costs are lower as the
inspiring leaders keep the staff satisfied by engaging and motivating them to achieve their goals
along with company’s goals, it encourages learning and necessary changes in the company to
improve. The disadvantages of this style are that it can sometimes be risky if the actions of
leaders become disruptive for the team, this can cause employee burnout and increase pressure
on them, it can become ineffective if open and continuous line of communication is not
maintained.
Based on the PESTLE analysis and pros and cons of each leadership style, the two styles that
seem fit for company’s growth and success are Transformational leadership style and
Democratic Leadership style as these keep the employees motivated and efficient and encourages
creativity and innovation which are key factors for a company’s growth in today’s rapidly
changing environment. the leadership styles that will not suit the company are Autocratic and
Laissez-faire leadership style that created a rigid working environment and discourages new and
creative ideas.
4. The importance of Corporate social responsibilities
Nowadays, It has been noted that sometimes outcomes are impacted by the strategies
used by competitors in the market. So, company are using policies and adopting business
practices in order to have a positive impact on the business world and surrounding areas (Hur,
Moon and Kim, 2020). As we all that employee retention, customer retention and satisfaction of
investors are the keys to any successful business, so it is essential for them to focus on CSR.
CSR - Corporate social responsibilities.
 Basically CSR is a concept of management used by firms in order to integrate
environmental and social concerns in operations and activities related to business along
with stakeholders such as customers. As we all know that companies who are applying
CSR and are socially responsible they can maintain accountability to stakeholders and
investors (Barnett, Henriques and Husted, 2020). The major goal of investors is to earn
greater returns than funds which is invested by them. If the company is focusing

positively on customer needs then customer would buy services or products from a
responsible firm only. Hence, it can increase sales which is beneficial for the highly
competitive world.
 Nowadays, company are more focusing on CSR in order to attract new customers and
satisfy existing clients. The major reason behind CSR is to maximize profitability, saving
money and pursue pro-social goals. Therefore, in order to target audience, the company
must create trust, loyalty and build relationship among customers. This can retain
customers and build a good reputation in the competitive market.
 With the help of CSR, the firm can easily manage risk, attract staff members, customers
and maintain retention rate (Hur, Moon and Kim, 2020). By applying CSR standards, the
firm will be able to help the company's profitability and enhance people to be more
productive. By following CSR system EasyJet is able to motivate people to work
positively for the betterment of environment and encourage them to attract customers and
improve their perception regarding brand.
 As per the trend, companies are more focusing on donating money to charitable trust for
the betterment of society, reducing environmental externalities for the betterment of
surrounding world, enhancing employees to promote volunteerism among friends and
teammates.
 CSR can help the company to better engage with its potential clients and can collect
feedback from them about what they are doing correctly and what are the areas they need
to improve, so on.
 Nowadays, people are more environmental conscious so to satisfy their wants, EasyJet
majorly focused on offset all the carbon emissions from the fuel which is utilized for all
of their flights, to maintain eco-friendly environment (Gillan, Koch and Starks, 2021).
The firm also focused on reducing usage of plastic.
 As we all know that company are taking decisions which is important for company's
reputation in such a way that they make priority to customers and employees both.
Hence, EasyJet is taking interest of stakeholders into consideration such as treating
suppliers, customers and staff members equally and fairly. According to CSR activities
standard, it is essential for company to avoid pollutants, positively work for the
betterment of people in the local area.

 To maintain sustainability, easyJet strives to maintain standards related to human rights
effectively. The company is focused on providing equal treatment to all passengers by
satisfy the needs (Crane and Matten, 2020). They are committed to the protection of
human rights standards for both customers and staff working in the firm. The company is
following its own policy names as corruption policy and anti-bribery. For all the
employees, The company also managing online examination related to it which is helpful
for management team and administrative department.
 Although, the firm maintain labour standards and provides a proper training sessions to
their employees and maintain ethical consideration (Xia and et.al., 2018). With the help
of anti-bribery and ethics training the employees is able to understand the importance of
CSR which helps them to accomplish company's goals.
CONCLUSION
The report outlined that strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the airline company
named Easy Jet using SWOT analysis. It also reflected the external factors that affect the
company using PESTLE analysis and how these factors influenced the company’s opportunities
and threats. The report then suggested that transformational leadership style and democratic
leadership style will suit the company and autocratic leadership style and laissez-faire leadership
style will not suit the company given the changes in the external factor of the company studied
using PESTLE analysis. The report then highlighted the importance of Corporate Social
Responsibilities for growth and success of the company in today’s era where environment and
society is given key importance.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Malki, M. and Juan, W., 2018. Leadership styles and job performance: A literature
review. Journal of International Business Research and Marketing. 3(3). pp.40-49.
Alheet, A. and et.al., 2021. The effect of leadership styles on employees’ innovative work
behavior. Management Science Letters. 11(1). pp.239-246.
Asgari, A., Mezginejad, S. and Taherpour, F., 2020. The role of leadership styles in
organizational citizenship behavior through the mediation of perceived organizational
support and job satisfaction. Innovar. 30(75). pp.87-98.
Barnett, M. L., Henriques, I. and Husted, B. W., 2020. Beyond good intentions: Designing CSR
initiatives for greater social impact. Journal of Management. 46(6). pp.937-964.
Benzaghta, M. A. and et.al., 2021. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature
review. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), pp.55-73.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2020. COVID‐19 and the future of CSR research. Journal of
Management Studies.
Gillan, S. L., Koch, A. and Starks, L. T., 2021. Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG
and CSR research in corporate finance. Journal of Corporate Finance. 66. p.101889.
Hur, W. M., Moon, T. W. and Kim, H., 2020. When and how does customer engagement in CSR
initiatives lead to greater CSR participation? The role of CSR credibility and customer–
company identification. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management. 27(4). pp.1878-1891.
Wang, J. and Wang, Z., 2020. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Swot) analysis
of china’s prevention and control strategy for the covid-19 epidemic. International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17(7). p.2235.
Xia, B. and et.al., 2018. Conceptualising the state of the art of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) in the construction industry and its nexus to sustainable development. Journal of
cleaner production. 195. pp.340-353.
Online
EasyJet Plc SWOT & PESTLE Analysis .2022. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.swotandpestle.com/easyjet/>
Spotlight: easyJet Strategic Analysis. 2022. [Online]. Available
through:<https://getlucidity.com/strategy-resources/spotlight-easyjet-strategic-
analysis/>
The TOWS Matrix .2022. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_89.htm#:~:text=TOWS
%20Analysis%20is%20an%20extension,%2C%20Weaknesses%2C%20Opportunities
%20and%20Threats.>
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