BUSN20016 Term 3 2019: Research Proposal on Qantas Airways Challenges

This research proposal aims to identify and evaluate the key challenges facing Qantas Airways, the largest airline in Australia, which has been experiencing business problems and a decline in market share. The study will explore internal and external factors affecting the airline's performance, including market competition from low-cost carriers, aging fleet, pricing strategies, employee engagement, and investor relations. The research will address specific objectives such as investigating the impact of the Australian environment, identifying factors discouraging investors, and exploring pricing strategies compared to rivals. The methodology includes a detailed approach to data collection and analysis, focusing on identifying the causes of business losses, the impact of pricing, and strategies for improvement. The project will also provide recommendations for enhancing business performance and profitability, addressing issues such as government ownership, technological upgrades, and in-flight service improvements. The proposal includes a conceptual framework, methodology, budget, and schedule to ensure the research's successful completion and practical application.

Running head: PROPOSAL
Assessing challenges of Qantas Airways in Australia
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
I. Introduction...................................................................................................................3
II. Problem Statement.....................................................................................................3
III. Aims Objectives and Research Questions.................................................................4
i. Aim...............................................................................................................................5
ii. Objective/Scope of the Research.................................................................................5
iii. Research Question......................................................................................................5
IV. Research Justification Potential Output.....................................................................6
i. Justification...................................................................................................................6
ii. Potential Output...........................................................................................................7
V. Conceptual Framework..............................................................................................7
i. Challenges Faced by Qantas Airways..........................................................................8
ii. External Environmental Analysis of Qantas: Lack of Investors.................................9
VI. Methodology............................................................................................................10
i. Research Approach.....................................................................................................10
ii. Type and Data Source...............................................................................................10
iii. Data Collection Method...........................................................................................11
iv. Data Analysis Method..............................................................................................11
VII. Research Project Organization Budget and Schedule..........................................12
i. Organization of Study.................................................................................................12
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ii. Budget........................................................................................................................13
iii. Schedule...................................................................................................................14
VIII. References............................................................................................................16
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PROPOSAL
I. Introduction
Qantas airways is the third oldest airline in the world that ranks after KLM and Avianca.
It is the largest airline in Australia. The airline has recorded a principal profit of $1.6 billion in
the financial year of 2018. The employee count of the organization exceeds 26000 employees.
Qantas was originated in Winton Queensland on 16 November 1920. The airline is
centered in Sydney and therefore its main point is in Sydney Airport. The airline has 65% of
share of domestic market of Australia (Homsombat, Lei & Fu, 2014). However, although the
Qantas airline is one largest airlines in Australia, it has been facing several business problems
and challenges over the years. The challenges and the problems are needed to be identified to
reduce the business loses and enhance the business performances.
The key problem that is associated with Qantas Airline is to maintain their competitive
advantage in this highly competitive business world. Although there is an increase in the flow of
visitors both inbound and outbound, the drastic surge in the small cost carriers increases the
market competition (Sarina & Wright, 2015). The primary reason behind the business loss of
Qantas is the low cost new airlines that are quite fast in catching the market having modern fleet,
comfort, competitive pricing, and inflight technology along with greater opportunities for
employment.
This particular research is proposed to identify and evaluate the key challenges that
Qantas Airlines is facing. The research aims in finding solution to the existing problem to bring
on needed improvements in existing business processes of Qantas.
II. Problem Statement
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The key problem that the proposed research intends to solve include finding out the key
business issues that Qantas is facing. It is integral to evaluate the key business problem to
improve the business profit and to maintain the current market share of the organization.
The research is needed to evaluate the key internal and the external problem that Qantas
is facing. The undertaken research aims in exploring the key reasons behind the fall of
productivity in Qantas (Chang et al., 2014). Researches indicate that one of the primary reasons
behind the business loss of Qantas is because of their inefficiency in upgrading a large number of
aged fleets. This task is subjected to a lot of labor along with monetary investments. However,
this is one necessary step that Qantas requires to take to improve its market share. The research
aims in evaluation of the similar problem that Qantas is facing so that appropriate measures can
be taken. There are several other reasons behind the worst business performance of Qantas. The
business processes of Qantas needs improvement in several areas, the foremost being the need of
upgrading the inflight technology (White, 2018). Another key problem that is identified is that
staffs and crew of Qantas are quite old and the airline needs to provide young people the
opportunities as well. Also, as per the regular passengers, the price of the fare in Qantas is
significantly higher than the airlines, who are offering better in flight facilities (Shaffner, Mills &
Helms Mills, 2017). This is one key reasons behind the passengers preferring the use of other
airlines services. One key challenge that Qantas is facing is related to lack of employee
engagement and performance of the in flight attendants. Therefore, it is quite significant for the
airline to evaluate these internal and external issues so that the key challenges that the business is
facing can addressed and eliminated. This research will evaluate the key problems and provide
feasible recommendations to Qantas so that they can overcome the business problems they are
facing by improving their performances.
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PROPOSAL
III. Aims Objectives and Research Questions
i. Aim
The key purpose of the proposed study is to identify and explore the internal and external
trials that Qantas Airways is facing. Certain key challenges are hampering the profit and
productivity of the Australian aviation Industry. The proposed research aims in evaluation of the
key problems to overcome the challenges faced in the most rational and feasible manner.
ii. Objective/Scope of the Research
The key objectives identified for the research are indicated as follows-
RO1: To investigate the impact of Australia’s environment on the business performance
of Qantas Airways
RO2: To identify and examine the factors that discourage the investors in investing their
money in Qantas Airways
RO3: To explore the factors that make Qantas charge higher price than the rivals in
Australian aviation industry
RO4: To recommend effective strategies for improving the business performance and
business profits of Qantas Airways.
iii. Research Question
The research questions that the proposed research will be evaluating are indicated as
follows-
RQ1: What are the key causes of business loss in Qantas?
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PROPOSAL
RQ2: What is the effect of high pricing structure of Qantas in business profits?
RQ3: What are the primary factors that discourage investors in investing their money in
Qantas?
RQ4: What is the impact of Australia’s environment on the business performance of
Qantas?
RQ5: What are the strategies that Qantas can implement to improve the business profit?
IV. Research Justification Potential Output
i. Justification
The proposed project is justified since the key concerns related to the business loss of
Qantas will be evaluated in this particular research. Quite recently, Qantas has been named
outside the list of top 10 in the annual Skytrax airline rankings. Qantas has dropped out of top 10
for the 4th time mainly because of its dwindling fleet of Boeing 747 aircrafts (Norbury, 2015).
There are several internal as well as the external issues that are affecting the performance of the
Qantas and the research aims in evaluation of the same (Xian, 2018). Although Qantas has
invested a lot in Dreamliners, the Qatar and the Singapore airline gains greater business profits
with their competitive and attractive pricing structure and an upgraded in-flight technology. The
preliminary research indicates that a lot of modifications are needed to be done to improve the
overall business performance of Qantas and for that it is necessary to carry out this research. This
research will identify the key processes that mainly affects the normal business performance and
business profits of Qantas. The privatized carrier like Qantas are generally pitted against the
airlines that are funded by Government as it is one key reason behind the business loss (Raynes
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PROPOSAL
& Tsui, 2019). Thus, this proposed research is justified as it aims in improving the business
performance of Qantas.
The undertaken study will further investigate the key strategies that can help in
improvement of the current business processes of Qantas and therefore, successful completion of
the research will be beneficial for Qantas as well. Therefore, the execution of the research is
needed and justified.
ii. Potential Output
The undertaken research aims in evaluation of the key causes of the business loses in
Qantas. Some of the key areas of concern that has been identified from the preliminary research
is related to government ownership, support and intervention. The need of upgrading to the
modern technology and offering improved in flight capability is one of the key reasons behind
the reduction in the number of passengers in Qantas. The proposed research further aims in
evaluation of the problems that Qantas mainly face in the international airline industry. The
airline greatly suffered in the last few years mainly because of increasing opposition from the
Middle East carriers. The research aims in uncovering the data and information related to the
underperformance of Qantas.
The successful completion of the study is expected to inspect the effect of the Australia’s
environment on the business process of Qantas. The proposed study is further expected to
examine the key issues that daunt the investors in capitalizing their money on the Qantas. The
proposed research is expected to address the aspects that make Qantas charge greater price that
the rival Australian industry. Thus, the execution of the research is needed and justified to
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PROPOSAL
provide recommendations on improvement of the business strategies of Qantas so that the
airways continues to be the major player in Australia’s tourism industry.
V. Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework aims in introducing the variables to the readers for
understanding the main purpose of execution of this research study. The conceptual framework
for the undertaken research are indicated in the following sections.
i. Challenges Faced by Qantas Airways
According to Briton (2014), the key challenge that Qantas is facing is related to the
ageing fleet of the airline. With their ageing fleet Qantas fails to provide competitive pricing to
their customers along with the employment opportunities. Qantas failed in providing the best in
flight facilities because of its aging fleet and it is one key reason behind the decreasing
competitive advantage (Taneja, 2016).
The services offered by Qantas is very expensive and this is another primary reason
behind the business loss. Since airlines with better inflight facilities are offering flights of lower
prices, the customer count of Qantas is gradually decreasing (Rainford, 2014). Therefore, it can
be said that there is a room for improvement for the Qantas airlines.
Several cases of performance lag of the flight attendants are observed in the services
offered by Qantas. Qantas need to invest on increasing the employee engagement as good
employees are valuable asset to an organization (Nesbitt, 2017). Although Qantas is a very good
airline, there are certain areas in which the airline needs improvement. The challenge that the
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PROPOSAL
airline is facing is related to lack of any strategic initiative to address the key concerns associated
with improvement of the services offered by airlines.
Another challenge that is faced by Qantas is related to the airlines that are operated by
government ownership. Those airlines can offer services in much low cost in comparison to the
commercial airlines (Harcourt, 2014). The issues with the pricing and the lack of effective
service delivery in Qantas is quite common and this issue is needed to be addressed.
ii. External Environmental Analysis of Qantas: Lack of Investors
On analysis of the political factors, it has been observed that the new political and the
regulatory factors have a primary impact on the business performance level of Qantas. The
political instability especially in the Middle East region has adversely affected the performance
of the entire airline industry (Shenhar et al., 2016). Although Qantas has applied several crisis
management strategies in their business planning processes the impact of the political factor is
found to be significant and that contributes to the key challenges that the airline is facing.
The economic factors further has a direct effect on the business processes of Qantas. The
performance level of Qantas is largely affected by the global financial crisis. The competitors of
Qantas offer services in a much lower cost that further contributes to the business losses of
Qantas (Morrell, 2018). To cope up with the economic crisis, Qantas has even cut jobs of 1700+
people, increased the travel fare, which adversely affected the business.
The environmental performance of any company is largely affected by its social factors
as well. Qantas faced a significant level of environmental issues (Chang et al., 2014). It is
directly pretentious to the social factors and therefore intends to lessen the carbon emotion from
its usual operations from future.
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PROPOSAL
Technology has a significant effect in the business processes of an organization. The lack
of usage of modern technology in designing inflight services is another key reason behind the
business loss of Qantas.
The lack of effective business profit becomes one of the primary reasons behind the lack
of investors in business of Qantas. The internal services are needed to be improved to convince
the investors in investing in the company.
VI. Methodology
The methodology illustrates the key tools and techniques that will used in the research to
get the expected research outcome (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). Certain specific tools are
to be chosen to identify the key issue that are faced by Qantas and to recommend effective ways
in which Qantas can gain competitive advantage.
i. Research Approach
A qualitative research approach is proposed for this exploratory research. Exploratory
research is generally conducted to study an issue that has not been evidently studied earlier. This
research approach is expected to establish priorities for improving the final research design
(Lune & Berg, 2016). The exploratory research is mostly used for determining the accurate
research design and the method of data collected.
ii. Type and Data Source
The proposed research will collect for primary and secondary data for effective
fulfillment of the identified research objectives. Both primary data and secondary data will be
collected for the study mainly because it helps in providing an in depth outline of the key
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PROPOSAL
research issues and discoveries (Flick, 2015). The most significant benefit of making use of both
primary and secondary data is that the data obtained from the primary sources can be easily
validated by the findings from the secondary data.
The source of primary data will be the five managers of Qantas Airways. The source of
secondary data will include the annual report of Qantas, online databases, publications and news
articles. The existing literature in this chosen research field will be evaluated as well through the
extensive literature review that will be conducted for preparing the final research report. The
annual report of Qantas will be accessed from the website of the company.
iii. Data Collection Method
The primary data needed for the research will be collected through the method of
interview. The respondents of the interview will be chosen by application of convenience
sampling technique. A total of 5 mangers of Qantas Airways will be interviewed to collect their
views regarding the research topic. As indicated earlier, the secondary data needed for the
research will be collected through reviewing the existing literature, through publicly available
government reports and news articles along with scholarly articles.
iv. Data Analysis Method
Qualitative data Analysis process is chosen for analysis of both primary and secondary
data that will be collected for the research. The findings of the analysis will be presented in
Microsoft word file. In quantitative analysis, thematic analysis method is proposed to arrange the
obtained information in different themes (Khan, 2014). The obtained data and evidence from the
primary sources and the secondary sources will be grouped in as per the chosen themes. The
primary data obtained from interview will be interpreted thematically and will be presented in
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