Analysis of the International Business Environment of Qantas Airlines

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the international business environment of Qantas Airlines. It begins with an executive summary and introduction outlining the report's objectives and scope. The core of the analysis delves into the operational and strategic considerations of Qantas, evaluating its past, present, and future operations, with a focus on customer safety and service. The report then examines the competitive landscape, highlighting the rivalry between Qantas and Virgin, and explores the approaches and frameworks developed by Qantas to enhance customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it critically assesses the airline's business ethics and corporate governance practices. A detailed SWOT analysis is provided, identifying the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of the international business course in developing analytical and problem-solving skills. References from various academic sources support the analysis.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note

1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to make a critical analysis of an international business
environment of Qantas Airlines and form a SWOT analysis from the analysis. The
operational and strategic considerations taken by Qantas Airlines shows that the company
keeps on improving their strategies and operations. Focusing on customer safety is one of
their major strategy. The competitive analysis mentions about the rivalry between Qantas
Airlines and Virgin. The ethical business policy, different approaches, frameworks and
corporate governance of Qantas shows that they strictly adhere to the ethical business
standards by supporting human rights and make different partnership and alliances to bring
the environment in their favor. Lastly, a SWOT analysis is prepared. Thus, it can be
concluded that Qantas Airlines is one of the leading airways in the world and the leading
airways of Australia in both domestic and international domain.

2INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Critical analysis of operational consideration of Qantas Airlines..........................................3
Critical analysis of strategic consideration of Qantas Airlines..............................................4
Competitive analysis..............................................................................................................4
Approaches and frameworks developed by Qantas Airlines.................................................5
Business ethics.......................................................................................................................5
Corporate governance............................................................................................................5
SWOT analysis.......................................................................................................................6
Strength..............................................................................................................................6
Weakness............................................................................................................................6
Opportunity........................................................................................................................6
Threat.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

3INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
Introduction
In this 21st century, it is important to interpret the international aspects of the world as
companies are continuously searching for student who are able to analyse and resolve cross-
cultural problems and have a global perception. A degree in international business helps a
student to pursue with a career in international business, finance, management or trade.
International business gives insight to student about the global challenges faced by companies
and creates a problem solving ability in the students. Also, develop various management
skills such as leadership, strategic management, delegation, communication and decision-
making. This report discusses about the international business environment of Qantas
Airlines.
Discussion
This report makes a critical analysis of factors such as strategy consideration,
operational consideration, competitive forces and ethical business standards which affects the
business environment of Qantas Airlines.
Critical analysis of operational consideration of Qantas Airlines
From this analysis the past, present and future operation of Qantas Airlines is
identified. The past analysis shows that Qantas was established on 16 November, 1920 at
Winton in Queensland. At the initial phase, Qantas was involved in the operations of
providing airmail services with a financial support from the Australian government. As time
passed Qantas developed many aircrafts and started carrying passengers to foreign
destinations. From that period, Qantas Airlines started achieving growth. When the
Australian government closed the domestic Australian airlines in 1993 Qantas Airlines
became privatised and bought several new flights to increase their international destinations
(Shaffner, Mills & Helms Mills, 2017).

4INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
At present the company operates in every major cities across the world and have
partnerships with different other airlines such as AirAsia to increase their customer base.
Qantas Airlines has mainly focused on provided excellent customer service by ensuring
safety and well-being of their customers and operation security.
The future analysis of Qantas Airlines shows that the company aims to become the
leading airways in the entire world by forming alliance with other major airlines in the world
such as British Airways, Malaysian Airline and South African Airways. Their sister company
Jetstar provides low fare air services to customers thus staying much ahead of competitors
(Homsombat, Lei & Fu, 2014).
Critical analysis of strategic consideration of Qantas Airlines
Nowadays business organization strive for years to gain a competitive advantage in
the market. Implementation of niche strategies improves the organization performance thus
increasing their profitability and market share. A critical analysis of different strategic
consideration taken by Qantas Airlines is discussed below:
 Ensuring safety Qantas Airlines majorly focuses on the safety and well-
being of their customers and people by procuring quality goods and providing
excellent customer services. This ensures safety on both ground and air.
 Business diversification To attain sustainability in the competitive market
Qantas Airlines has launched a brand Jetstar which offers air services at low
fares. The company aims at becoming the world’s best airways in both
premium and low cost brands (Whyte & Lohmann, 2015).
 Non-stop flights The launch of non-stop flights from Sydney to London
without any stop during the journey is expected to create a revolution in the
airline industry throughout the world.

5INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
Competitive analysis
The performance of Qantas Airlines mainly relies on the rate of competition the
company is facing in the international market. Qantas Airlines faces fierce competition from
Virgin Blue due to their rivalry the cost of air services has decreased which leads to earning
very low profits (Xian, 2018). In 2004, Qantas Airlines launched Jetstar offering low fare air
services to compete with Pacific Blue also a low cost airways launched by Virgin Blue in the
international market. Qantas Airlines has formed alliances with some renowned airways like
American Airlines, BA to increase their international footholds (Homsombat, Lei & Fu,
2014).
Approaches and frameworks developed by Qantas Airlines
Qantas Airlines has formed a partnership with ThoughtWorks, a software
development consultancy agency, to increase their speed of responding to the demands of
their customers. Their target is to develop new principles and framework to enhance customer
satisfaction for both internal and external customers of the company. In 2019 Qantas Airlines
bought three Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, which is a non-stop air service operating from Perth
to London providing comfort and satisfaction to the customer and cost efficiency to the
organization. Another approach of Qantas Airlines was creating airline bases in Asia and
Japan (Dobni, Klassen & Sands, 2016).
Business ethics
Qantas Airlines complies with all the governmental laws and regulations in every
country and conduct their operations according to the ethical standards. They had made
commitment with human rights.

6INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
Corporate governance
The corporate governance body creates, protects and enhances their shareholder’s
value. The members of the body considers every issues and problems and provides
recommendation to the board (Duppati, Scrimgeour & Stevenson, 2018).
SWOT analysis
Strength
 Strong brand image and brand recognition across the world for their premium service
quality.
 Focuses on customer safety by providing safer operations.
 Established a low cost airline brand Jetstar to gain competitive advantage in the
market
 Contributes in charities, upliftment of societies and cultural endeavors.
 Partnership and alliances with AirAsia, American Airlines to reduce the price of
tickets and provide customer facility respectively (Nolan, Ritchie & Rowcroft, 2014).
Weakness
 Operation cost of Qantas Airlines is higher than their competitors (Xian, 2018).
 Engineers going on strike impacts customer safety.
Opportunity
 Qantas Airlines makes right use of the advance technology such as kiosk and
choosing of seats to provide convenience to customers
 Use of internet and social media for extensive advertisement of their product and
services.
 Availability of fuel alternatives such as bio-fuels, methanol and ethanol.
Threat
 Rise of fuel prices globally.

7INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
 Transport alternatives and other airline companies providing low fare services (PAN,
2019).
 Environmental issues like carbon emissions and noise pollution.
 Political instability in Bangkok and other Southeast Asian countries.
Conclusion
The international business course has proven to be immensely helpful in successfully
completing this report assessment. This course has given an insight of the various challenges,
which is faced by business organizations and how they overcome them. When Qantas
Airlines was getting a stiff competition from other low priced air services, they launched a
sister company named Jetstar offering low cost air services to sustain in the competitive
market. This course helps to develop an analytical and problem solving skill in fresh
candidates to face this challenges and use strategies to overcome them.

8INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF QANTAS AIRWAYS
References
Dobni, C. B., Klassen, M., & Sands, D. (2016). Getting to clarity: New ways to think about
strategy. Journal of Business Strategy.
Duppati, G., Scrimgeour, F., & Stevenson, R. (2018). CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN
THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY-EVIDENCE FROM THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION.
CORPORATE OWNERSHIP & CONTROL, 329.
Homsombat, W., Lei, Z., & Fu, X. (2014). Competitive effects of the airlines-within-airlines
strategy–Pricing and route entry patterns. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics
and Transportation Review, 63, 1-16.
Nolan, J., Ritchie, P., & Rowcroft, J. (2014). International mergers and acquisitions in the
airline industry. The economics of international airline transport. Portland: Emerald
Group Publishing Limited, 127-150.
PAN, M. Z. (2019). Review of Environment Influence on Virgin Australia’s Competitive
Strategy. DEStech Transactions on Social Science, Education and Human Science,
(ermis).
Shaffner, E., Mills, A. J., & Helms Mills, J. (2017). Reading Qantas History: Discourses on
Intersectionality and the Early Years of Qantas. Insights and Reflections on the Study
of Gender and Intersectionality in the Cultures of Airlines Overtime, 445-469.
Whyte, R., & Lohmann, G. (2015). The carrier-within-a-carrier strategy: An analysis of
Jetstar. Journal of Air Transport Management, 42, 141-148.
Xian, W. (2018). Case Study on Qantas of ITS Strategic Management: The High Flyer of the
Airline Industry.