EasyJet: Challenges, Capabilities, and Kaizen for Quality Improvement

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MANAGING QUALITY IN
HOSPITALITY IN
HOSPITALITY, TOURISM,
AND EVENTS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
CHALLENGES CURRENTLY FACED BY EASYJET............................................................................3
CAPABILITIES AND COMPETENCIES OF EASYJET..........................................................................5
KAIZEN: TECHNIQUE TO DELIVER CONSISTENT AND EFFECTIVE QUALITY MANAGEMENT
.................................................................................................................................................................... 6
RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
The following report focuses on the challenges faced by an airline company, known as ‘EasyJet’.
The report will further focus on the key elements through which the quality of the airline could
be improved and maintained by assessing the capabilities and competencies of EasyJet. EasyJet
is a low-cost airline company with its headquarters in London. The airline company was
established in 1995 and ensures customers regarding low operational costs to meet customer’s
expectations at pocket-friendly fares. The current CEO of EasyJet, who is a Swedish
businessman and also a trombonist, is Johan Lundgren (Malighetti et al, 2015). According to an
article in a telegraph, Easyjet had witnessed immense growth in revenue from 2.1 percentage
points to 92.1 percent. Not only was this, but the number of passengers also increased from 3.0
million to 36.8 million. It has amazing sales at the start of the year 2018. However, despite
having such positive growth and development, the airline company has to face some criticism of
its customer who was of the view that EasyJet is one of the worst airline companies. No doubt
that the company has faced some challenges while providing its services to the passengers. This
report will focus on these challenges and examine the capabilities and competencies which can
help it facing these challenges and improving its quality.
CHALLENGES CURRENTLY FACED BY EASYJET
Each and every business has some highs and lows. Similarly, EasyJet has faced certain
challenges which have affected its reputation and performance as a whole (Babic et al, 2017). As
per the recent report of Airhelp in 2018, the lowest ranked low-cost airline company among UK-
based carriers was EasyJet. The major challenges faced by the airline company are mentioned
below:
 Rising fuel prices: EasyJet is one of the busiest airlines in the UK. One of the major
challenges faced by EasyJet is the rising prices of fuels. Being one of the busiest airline
companies, it is obvious that the number of passengers traveling would be high
(Kristjanpoller and Concha, 2016). In such a situation, EasyJet needs to purchase more
new aircraft to meet the demand and expectations of the passengers. Purchasing of new
aircraft would consequently lead to more fuel usage.
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 Low operating costs and reliance on summer season: The lower operating costs,
however, attract the customers but this makes EasyJet more sensitive to any additional
charges or taxes imposed by the government. If there is any change or fluctuation in the
government’s taxes or costs, the costs of EasyJet are easily affected by such change
(Alamdari and Fagan, 2017). Apart from this; EasyJet highly relies on summer season.
As most of the passengers using EasyJet are young and the routes are limited to Europe,
the EasyJet airlines are highly dependent on the summer season.
 Lack of proper strategy: EasyJet lacks at maintaining an effective strategy when it
comes to environmental concerns. In the situation of an emergency, EasyJet lacks proper
determination and implementation of the strategies which might affect the safety and
security of its passengers. For example, if a volcanic ash cloud strikes or occur, the
company does not have effective strategies which led to cancellations of its flights. This
resulted in a huge loss for the company and thus, is one of the major challenges faced by
Easyjet.
 Competition: Another challenge faced by EasyJet is competition. As long as the number
of flights and airlines company increases, more options would be available to the
customers. There are several competitors of EasyJet in the market such as Ryanair, Wizz
Air, Flybe, Pegasus Airline, etc. (Thelle et al, 2018). The competitors of EasyJet have
also implemented several policies which are customer-centered and provide excellent
services to the customers which attract them and provide the passengers with certain
other options. This might also lead to blurring the name and reputation of EasyJet due to
competitive pressure in the low-cost carrier industry. In such a situation, EasyJet has to
plan and implement its strategies in accordance with the strategies of its competitors and
also change them from time to time (Oborune, 2016).
 Lack of quality service: As complained by a passenger, EasyJet has very poor customer
service. It also does not provide its customers with free food service in longer flights for
more than 2 hours. This can affect the customer experience in a negative way and
unappealing for most business-passengers (Morrison and Gillen, 2016). As mentioned in
the report of AirHelp in 2018, the passengers were really disappointed and state that the
company also lacks in determining customer retention policy and provides poor services
regarding compensation to its customers. In case of any emergency or cancellations or
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any injury or damage to the customer or his baggage, EasyJet provides very poor services
in terms of compensation.
 Limited global presence: The scope of airlines of EasyJet is very limited as it does not
offer flights outside Europe. The services of EasyJet are only available to the customers
or passengers of Europe and the UK. The airline primarily concentrates on the Western
and Northern Europe and has not yet explored the markets of Eastern and Central Europe
or Asia. It does not provide its airline services outside the territorial boundaries of Europe
and the UK which limits its scope and its recognition outside Europe or the UK.
CAPABILITIES AND COMPETENCIES OF EASYJET
When EasyJet was established, it witnessed an amazing start with sales of around 1.4 billion
Euros. This represents that at the early stage, EasyJet provided high-quality services and an
amazing experience to its customers. After a certain period of time, it started facing some
challenges which decreased its reputation in the market. In order to face these challenges and
improve the quality of management, EasyJet possesses several capabilities and competencies in
the market. These capabilities and competencies are:
 Affordable costs: EasyJet offers its passengers to travel through its airplanes at pocket-
friendly prices. It offers very affordable prices to its customers having around 50% lower
prices as compared to its competitors (Zhang, 2016). It has created its brand reputation of
cheapest flights in the market among the high number of people especially among young
travelers and people traveling for business purposes. It is one of the favorite airlines'
companies in the low-cost carriers industry available at affordable and pocket-friendly
prices.
 Technology: Technology is the key characteristic of the culture of EasyJet. It nearly
operates without any office and also, it has introduced the system of e-ticketing i.e.,
tickets can be sold online, without the use of traditional paper tickets. Not only this,
EasyJet provides its customers with time to time online sales and promotional alerts
through emails and texts (Urbano, 2017). EasyJet also provides its customers with a well-
defined website with an amazing user interface where customers can understand the
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distribution of fares more clearly and also fair prices are explained on its website to the
customers.
 Large network area throughout Europe: EasyJet has a large network area and several
routes spread throughout Europe covering almost all cities and leading destinations of
UK and across Europe including Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Prague, etc. Along with its
vast routes and network, it provides fast and efficient services to its customers with an
average turnaround time of 30 minutes or less to serve more and more number of
customers. It flies to more than 30 countries and serves over 820 routes.
 Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the
obligation of a business to undertake its business activities without harming man and
environment and leaving an overall positive impact on society (Ringham and Miles,
2018). EasyJet has a very clear corporate social responsibility program, where it aims at
reducing emission from its aircraft and ensuring safety and protection of the environment.
Its concept of ticketless travel will reduce the usage of paper consequently saving cutting
of trees.
 Employment opportunities and customer loyalty: As EasyJet is looking to expand its
business, employment opportunities are also increasing with it. EasyJet employs over
10000 people. One of the reports which were published on 30th September 2016 showed
that EasyJet has around 2865 pilots and 6516 cabin crew members employed in the
airlines(Akguc, 2018). Apart from this, the company would also gain customer's loyalty
as the trust would be maintained and customers will be ensured about the capabilities and
competencies of the company.
KAIZEN: TECHNIQUE TO DELIVER CONSISTENT AND EFFECTIVE
QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that emphasizes on overall and continuous improvement in all
aspects of life whether family, social, and economic or any other. Similarly, it is a technique
which could be used in delivering consistent and effective quality management to the customers
of EasyJet. If this technique is adopted by EasyJet, it will help EasyJet to humanize its
workplace, reducing over hard work and also help the employees of the company to assess and
determine wastage of resources and using them in an effective and efficient way. It is processed
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including identification of problems or opportunities available to the business; analyzing them;
developing a suitable solution; implementing that solution; studying and understanding the
impact or results of the solution and finally standardizing that solution (Higuchi et al, 2015). The
adoption of kaizen will impact EasyJet in the following ways:
 Reducing costs: Kaizen mainly focuses that improvement shall be done on a daily basis
in the company. In EasyJet, it would help the company to reduce its costs and increase
the effectiveness and efficiency of its employees. This would consequently reduce the
costs for operating and open the doors to new strategies and development plans for the
benefit of the customers as well as employees.
 Increasing effectiveness and efficiency: Kaizen will help EasyJet to increase the quality
and efficiency of its employees which will lead to high-quality results and services
provided to the customers (Chadha, 2017). The employees would be encouraged to
understand their roles and would remove unnecessary working of employees ensuring
employee motivation and satisfaction.
 Optimum utilization of resources: Kaizen would lead to optimum utilization of the
resources of EasyJet. However, EasyJet only operates within the territories or Europe and
the UK, it can utilize the available resources in such a way that it leads to growth and
development of the company. The main purpose of Kaizen is continuous improvement
and this can only be achieved by utilizing the available resources carefully and
efficiently.
 Identifying and Analyzing any problems or opportunities: Kaizen would help EasyJet
to analyze the problems or challenges faced by EasyJet like criticism and poor experience
of its passengers. The Kaizen philosophy will help EasyJet to keenly analyze these
problems and focusing on eradicating these problems. This technique is not only useful in
examining problems or challenges but is also useful in identifying the opportunities
available to the business (Fogarty, 2015).
 Continuous growth and improvement: With the help of this technique, EasyJet would
witness immense growth and improvement in its working place and working strategies.
As this technique revolves around the principle of continuous improvement, it would lead
EasyJet towards these improvements so that it can work on its weak areas such as poor
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customer service and poor compensation plan and making their future decisions and
policies accordingly.
 Generating more ideas: Once employees are satisfied and they learn to work effectively
and efficiently, it would help in generating more and more ideas for the development of
the company. The employees with have the feeling of self-belongingness towards the
company and this will ensure the good quality of services and high satisfaction of the
customers as well.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order to improve the quality of the services provided by the EasyJet, it might work on some
recommendation to enhance and improve overall customer experience by providing them with
high-quality facilities and services. Some of these recommendations are:
 Exploring more routes and destinations: EasyJet can explore more routes and
destinations which are outside Europe. As discussed earlier, EasyJet’s services and
airlines are limited within the territory of Europe and thus it could explore and increase
its network and routes to reach the number of people beyond the territory of Europe
which will boost up its growth and help in the development of the airlines.
 Offering refreshments: EasyJet could provide its passengers who are traveling for more
than 2 hours with free or low-cost refreshments. This would enhance the overall
experience of the passengers traveling from long-duration flights. As flights more than 2
hours are long and tiring, it would also add a perk to its services and facilities provided to
the passengers (Urbano, 2017).
 Offering travel and tour packages: As most of the passengers traveling through EasyJet
are young and business-travelers, EasyJet can provide them and its other customers with
several travels and tour packages at affordable prices. This would reduce the customer
effort of booking tickets again and again and look for hotels and other facilities etc. and
would also attract more customers to travel through EasyJet and plan their tour
conveniently with EasyJet.
 Proper strategies and ensuring high-quality safety and security of its customers:
EasyJet can also focus on determining good strategies to deal with an emergency
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situation and also ensure that safety and security of the customers are not compromised.
This will help EasyJet to gain the trust of the customers that they are safe and secure
while traveling through EasyJet airlines (Reichardt et al, 2018).
 Compensation plan: EasyJet shall adopt a policy of good compensation plan to its
customers. It should ensure that the services for which the passengers paid money shall
be utilized in a positive way so that the customer can feel that their money is not wasted.
Also, if the passengers face any problem with the services, EasyJet shall strive towards
providing its customers with compensation and reparation for the inconvenience caused.
This will retain the trust of the customers and encourage them to travel through EasyJet
airlines.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, it may be said that EasyJet, is the fastest growing airlines company in the low-cost
carriers (LCC’s) industry. It seeks to provide good quality services and also an amazing website
user interface which helps the customer to understand the fare prices more clearly. Although it
has received criticism and negative comments from its passengers, shall strive towards managing
its quality and improving its customer service by considering the above-mentioned
recommendations and aiming at customer satisfaction. As a method of improving quality
management, when Kaizen is adopted, it must be kept in mind that it is a journey, not a
destination. It shall be practiced on a daily basis in an organization as it focuses on continuous
improvement in the aspects of life. However the company is facing certain challenges, it can
overcome these challenges with the help of its capabilities and competencies which will enhance
its growth and development and also help it stand out from its competitors in the market. EasyJet
has seen immense expansion and development since its establishment in 1995. With proper
training and educating its employees and passengers, it can reduce its negative impact and
improve the overall experience of its customers. It is attracting several customers due to its low
fares which make EasyJet an affordable and pocket-friendly airline as compared to other airline
companies in Europe and in the UK. Not only this, it has hugely contributed to improving its
services without harming the environment and ensuring a good corporate responsibility towards
society and its environment.
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Management Journal, 5(1), p.40.
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