Critique of a Journal Paper: Aviation and Airport Management Research

This report offers a comprehensive critique of a journal paper focused on research skills within the realm of aviation and airport management. The paper analyzes the prospects and strategies of Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, examining key components such as the abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion. The critique highlights strengths and weaknesses, particularly in areas like abstract completeness, the inclusion of a statement of significance, and the use of benchmarking methodology. The report also provides recommendations for improvement, including the incorporation of statistical overviews in the abstract, a broader literature review encompassing the airline industry's position relative to other MENA sectors, and a more diverse methodological approach. The findings, based on benchmark analysis, are also assessed, with suggestions to incorporate qualitative aspects. The report concludes by emphasizing the rapid growth of the aviation and airport industry, driven by LCCs, and notes the distinct strategies employed by MENA-based LCCs compared to those in other regions.

Research Skills for
Aviation and Airport
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Justification for carrying out research on the topic of this journal paper....................................1
Critique of this journal paper on the basis of its abstract, introduction, literature review,
methodology, conclusion, findings.............................................................................................2
Recommendations to improve the chosen journal paper............................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Aviation and Airport management is concerned with the study of airports, airlines and
other businesses associated with aerospace industry. It also comprises of supervision of day to
day activities and operations carried out by ground staff within an airport or any business entity
functioning within the aviation sector. The global aviation and airport sector is growing at a rapid
pace with a number of Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) taking the front seat (Shmelova and et. al.,
2018). In this regard, the present assignment is based upon the analysis of a journal paper with a
view to critique upon several important components of the paper, namely, introduction, abstract,
literature review, methodology, findings and conclusion. Also, recommendations have been
given to improve this paper.
Justification for carrying out research on the topic of this journal paper
The topic aviation and airport management is taken to conduct the research as it has huge
scope to address in future. Like, with the change in lifestyle as well as requirement people are
looking for more convenience due to which there is a huge growth opportunity in aviation sector.
Moreover, as researcher have foresight vision due to which they publish their research by
making reader aware about how they can exploit the opportunity successfully.
The purpose of this journal paper is to carry out a study upon the prospects and strategies of Low
Cost Carriers in the Middle East and North Africa. The topic of this journal paper was worthy of
being researched because Low Cost Carriers in the MENA regions have significantly been facing
a number of threats as well as taking advantage of several opportunities so as to ensure their
sustainability within these areas (Canonico and et. al., 2015). The researches that have earlier
been carried out upon this topic had provided a scope for the researcher to further carry out a
study upon this topic owing to the fact that all the information and relevant facts pertaining to the
subject area had not been covered in the earlier studies. Thus, the topic of this journal paper is
justified of being researched and provides information about the differentiating strategies that
have been employed by LCCs running within the Middle East and North Africa. Further, this
topic is justified as the investigator has conducted a research upon LCCs in past owing to which
researcher has all the basic knowledge that is relevant and suitable to carry out this study.
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Critique of this journal paper on the basis of its abstract, introduction, literature review,
methodology, conclusion, findings
Abstract: This is the summary of several aspects of research which tends to provide a
gist of the overall study carried out by a researcher. In regards to this journal paper, the abstract
has been successful in summarising the overall literature, methodology, findings of the research
so as to provide an overview to the readers or any researcher who carries out a research upon this
or a similar topic (Shanahan and et. al., 2015). However, the abstract has failed at providing an
overall position of aviation industry in MENA area and the positions of several dominant Low
Cost Carriers in terms of statistical figures.
Introduction: This part of research consists of four elements, namely, basic introduction,
supporting statistics, statement of purpose and statement of significance. In relation to this
journal paper, it contains basic introduction about Low Cost Carriers within MENA regions
together with relevant and adequate statistics. Also, it clearly contains the statement of purpose.
However, it fails to provide the statement of significance which is an essential part of
introduction of a journal paper.
Literature Review: This journal paper has provided literature on a number of aspects
associated with LCCs such as economic indicators of LCC sector growth, LCCs in the MENA
region, competitor analysis of LCCs in the MENA area etc. However, this journal paper failed to
take an account of the comparison of airline industry to other business sectors functioning within
the MENA region so as to provide information about the growth and profitability prospect of this
sector in the Middle East and North Africa (Johnston and McDonald, 2017).
UAS stands for Unmanned Aircraft System, it include innovative flying cars as well as
passenger drone which are much closer to ground and travel from one place to another. Thus, it
is an innovative commercial services which is availed by industries in order to transfer the
packages as well as container from one place to another. Further, respective technology also
carry the people without the requirement of pilot as whole process takes place through Wi-Fi
system. Additionally, it is used to rescue the people where our aircraft finds difficulty to reach.
Therefore, based on various research there is a huge growth potential of UAS in developed
country such as America.
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Methodology: This journal paper makes use of benchmarking methodology to derive the
desirable results of research questions and objectives. It is a method where the processes and
performance of an entity is compared with those of the best within an industry. Benchmarking is
usually of four types, namely, internal, competitive, functional and generic. In this relation, this
journal paper has made use of competitive benchmarking where a direct rival-to-rival
comparison is given between some of the top Low Cost Carriers in relation to MENA areas. This
methodology has been relevantly used in this journal paper to gain knowledge of the competition
within aviation sector in a significant manner (McKee and et. al., 2016). However, it can be said
that this methodology is not capable of ensuring the validity and reliability of data which
hampers the overall study. The comparison carried out in this journal paper among airlines such
as Ryanair, easyJet, flydubai, flynas, Air Arabia etc. may be misleading and this provides a scope
for critique of the methodology utilised to carry out this research. Also, internal benchmarking
has been used to provide comparison between several characteristics associated with LCCs
which pose this journal paper subject to individual bias.
Data collection: Data collection reefer to the process of collecting as well as analysing
the data for which primary as well as secondary method is used. Herein, this research primary
data collection method has been used which is a first hand investigation done by investigator
through interview round, questionnaire and observation method. Herein aviation sector
perception of common people were gather through Questionnaire round which was conducted by
an expert or manager. Hence, it is a Quantitative method on which the opinion of common
people were carried forward in order to analyse the situation effectively (Koç and Durmaz,
2015).
Under this, main perception of common people about aviation and airport is safety
culture and management. The organisation assuring the safety of employees as well as
passengers by using effective safety management system and also encourage them towards
positive safety culture. In order to collect data from common people, questionnaire method has
been used through investigator.
Sampling method: Herein, aviation sector has been used random sampling method where
the respondents were selected randomly. This is an effective method to get bias free result.
Sample size: The sample size which were selected by managers were 30 to get best
possible result. These samples are the common people.
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Analysis technique: Thematic analysis is used in respective field as it gives the deep
insights regarding the data gathered by experts.
Findings: This journal paper has succeeded in providing the overall findings associated
with this research. However, the presentation of these findings could have been given in a better
manner. The focus of the whole journal paper is upon statistical information. This limits the
scope of this journal paper. The findings of this research paper are based upon benchmark
analysis and secondary data. However, the findings do not much focus upon the ideology of
humans and various authors upon the area of study. This provides the scope for critique of
findings of this journal paper.
Recommendations to improve the chosen journal paper
On the basis of analysis of this journal paper and its various aspects, it can be said that
there is a wide scope of improvement that can be carried out within this paper (Flouris and
Oswald, 2016). In this regard, some of the recommendations that have been devised to improve
this journal paper are as follows:-
 The abstract of this journal paper should have included a statistical overview of the
research with a view to provide assistance to readers and further researchers who aim to
carry out a study on the same or similar topic.
 The introduction part should have included a statement of significance to demonstrate the
importance of carrying out the study.
 The Literature review should have provided literature about the relative position of airline
industry with respect to other sectors functioning within the MENA region so as to
provide information about the overall growth and profitability prospect of airlines within
this area.
 Internal and competitive benchmarking has been used within this research which had
their limitations posing a threat to validity and reliability of data. Thus, a different
methodology could have been used (Goeters, 2017).
 The findings of this journal paper could have also focussed upon the qualitative aspect of
study instead of just deriving the results on the basis of statistics obtained from study.
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CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above given discussion, it has been concluded that aviation and airport
industry is growing at a rapid pace owing to the presence of Low Cost Carriers which are
utilising a number of strategies so as to take up a high stake in market. Further, it has been
analysed that MENA based LCCs while retaining some core characteristics of low cost model
differ in relation to certain aspects from LCCs in other areas such as use of secondary airports,
multiple cabin classes etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Canonico, P. and et. al., 2015. The boundaries of a performance management system between
learning and control. Measuring Business Excellence.19(3). pp.7-21.
Flouris, T. G. and Oswald, S. L., 2016. Designing and executing strategy in aviation
management. Routledge.
Goeters, K. M., 2017. Aviation psychology: practice and research. Routledge.
Johnston, N. and McDonald, N., 2017. Aviation psychology in practice. Routledge.
Koç, S. and Durmaz, V., 2015. Airport corporate sustainability: an analysis of indicators reported
in the sustainability practices. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 181. pp.158-
170.
McKee, J. and et. al., 2016. Approaches to wildlife management in aviation. In Problematic
Wildlife (pp. 465-488). Springer, Cham.
Shanahan, J. O. and et. al., 2015. informed practice, practice-informed research: the integral role
of undergraduate research in professional disciplines. Council on Undergraduate
Research Quarterly. 35(4). pp.6-17.
Shmelova, T. and et. al., 2018. Socio-Technical Decision Support in Air Navigation Systems:
Emerging Research and Opportunities: Emerging Research and Opportunities. IGI
Global.
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