Competitive Strategies: Analysis of Ryan Air in the UK Airline Market

This report provides an overview of the UK airlines industry, focusing on the competitive positioning of Ryan Air against rivals like EasyJet. It analyzes aspects such as pricing, brand image, marketing strategies, and customer satisfaction. The report also discusses recent market changes, including the ...Read More

BUSINESS ESSENTIAL
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 3
UK airlines industry................................................................................................................ 3
Competitive positioning..........................................................................................................5
Aspect.................................................................................................................................... 5
Ryan Air................................................................................................................................. 5
easy Jet.................................................................................................................................. 5
Pricing.................................................................................................................................... 5
Brand image........................................................................................................................... 5
Marketing............................................................................................................................... 7
Customer satisfaction............................................................................................................. 7
Table 1: Competitive Positioning...........................................................................................8
Use of internet indiscriminately...............................................................................................8
Block chain will move beyond the buzz..................................................................................8
Advanced security system......................................................................................................8
Customer loyalty..................................................................................................................... 9
Recommendation................................................................................................................... 9
Congestion:............................................................................................................................ 9
Recommendation:.................................................................................................................. 9
Terrorism:............................................................................................................................... 9
Recommendations:................................................................................................................ 9
Passenger comfort:................................................................................................................ 9
Recommendation:................................................................................................................ 10
Labour relations:................................................................................................................... 10
Recommendation:................................................................................................................ 10
Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 10
Reference list....................................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction
Competitive advantages are the specific conditions, which allow an organization for
producing a service or good at a very affordable price. Moreover, it allows an organization to
enhance their sales as well as superior margins comparing to its rival companies. In order to
maintain competitive advantages, an organization has to cover a wide range of factors such
as cost structure, branding, the distribution network, customer service, the quality of the
product offerings and intellectual property. Therefore, assessing the competitive advantages
is very essential in order to enhance the sales and profitability of the organization. There are
many steps such as reviewing the core strengths of the company, reducing the cost of the
product, focusing on service, focusing on service or product quality and differentiating
products or services with other rival companies need to follow to apply competitive
advantages in the industry. Another important and critical part of the organization is
competitive analysis of the market. It allows an organization to understand the needs of the
customers in the product or service and helps to implement all of the requirements in the
product for attracting more attention of the wide range of targeted audience. Therefore, this
assignment will outline the overall UK airlines industry and competitive positioning process of
Ryan Air. Hence, company’s response to the market changes and a recommendation part
would be provided in this assignment for offering a clear idea to the readers.
UK airlines industry
Airline industry has become a trend to United Kingdom. Moreover, airline industry in the
United Kingdom is considered as the most active airline industries around the world. Millions
of people use airlines in order to travel across the world. Hence, there are small domestic
airline to the full-service international airlines are in United Kingdom in order to providing
more satisfaction and reliability to their customers.
Furthermore, Ryan Air is one of the leading airline industries in UK and there are many rival
companies such as easy jet etc. in the market that are always trying to beat one another.
Hence, Ryan Air was established in the 1984 as a small airline industry and started to
improve their business strategy in order to expand their overall business structure of the
organization (Creaton, 2014). The company already has over 250 destinations across the
world. Moreover, the company has the revenue of €6.648 billion in the year 2017. As per the
recorded data, the company has the net income of €1.315 billion in the year 2017. On the
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other hand, rival company of Ryan Air is Easy Jet, which was established in the year 1995
with a goal of providing best class airline service at a lower price (Morlotti et al., 2017).
Hence, the airline company has to cover more than 132 destinations across the world.
Moreover, Easy Jet Company already has the total income of €325 million in the year 2017.
Furthermore, more than 11,655 numbers of employees that are still working in this industry.
There are many rival companies of Ryan Air in this competitive market such as Wizz Air,
Jet2, British Airways, Flybe and so on. Hence, in this assignment, Easy Jet airline is chosen
as the rival company of Ryan Air as both of the companies use high discounts in their tickets
in order to gather more attention of the passengers.
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Competitive positioning
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Aspect Ryan Air easy Jet
Pricing
Pricing of a product or
service is one of the
important factors that really
impacts on the business
structure of the organization.
Keeping this on mind, Ryan
Air uses specific pricing
strategy in their industry in
order to improve the overall
business structure of the
organization (O’Connor et
al., 2017). The company has
provided various discounts in
their tickets in order to
reduce the price of the ticket
for gathering more attraction
of the passengers.
On the other hand, Easy Jet,
which is one of the rival
companies of the Ryan Air
has also reduced their price
of tickets. In most of cases,
price of the tickets are very
much low early on as well as
enhance as the date of
departure approaches. The
Easy jet company for
increasing the sales of the
tickets generally maintains
this strategy.
Brand image
Creating a brand image is
very essential in order to
enhance the overall market
and revenue of an
organization. Ryan Air is a
well-known airline company
around the world. Therefore,
the company already has
great type of brand image in
the market.
Easy jet is also one of the
leading airlines in United
Kingdom (Forsyth et al.,
2016). Therefore, knowingly
the importance of enhancing
the brand image, the
company has implemented
few policies and changes in
the organization for
enhancing their brand image
in the market to generate
more customer revenue. The
company is focusing on
safety, simplicity, integrity
and passion in order to
enhance the brand image of
the organization.
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Marketing
Ryan Air company believes
in the simplicity of marketing
strategy. They already have
implemented e marketing in
their organization in order to
enhance the sales of the
tickets (Holloway, 2017).
Customer acquisition is
another important point that
has the ability of serving the
requirements of passive
browsers and consumers.
Hence, the company has
implemented many of the
new things in order to
develop the overall business
structure of the organization.
Moreover, the company has
started to use search engine
optimization, mobiles,
customer relationship
manager, email marketing
and on board wifi in order to
develop the whole system of
their marketing process
(Palmer and Bejou, 2016)
.
The company is focusing on
enhancing their e-marketing
strategy for expanding the
overall business structure of
the organization. The
company has used many
social websites in order to
promote their marketing
process. Hence, using e-
mail marketing and customer
relationship manager for
accomplishing the business
objectives of the
organization.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is one
of the important things that
need to maintain in the
airline industry (Borenstein
and Rose, 2014). Therefore,
Ryan Air has the decided to
implement strategies for
offering their passengers
more customer satisfaction
and reliability.
On the other hand, Easy Jet
also shows their intention in
enhancing the level of
customer satisfaction in
order to raise the profitability
and sales of the company. In
a survey, it has been
observed that most of the
passengers were satisfied by
the services that are
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provided by the company.
Therefore, the company has
chosen the customer loyalty
as one of the important factor
for raising the overall
structure of the firm.
Table 1: Competitive Positioning
(Source: Created by Author)
Continuous changes are required in order to make continuous improvement in any aspect.
Airline industry is one of the leading businesses in United Kingdom. Moreover, millions of
people daily use thousands of flights of the companies in order to travel around the world.
There are certain changes that have already happened in the present market. Changes are
detailed below,
Use of internet indiscriminately
In order to book tickets or to check the approval of the ticket or any other reason, people
uses internet for the fastest result (Blain, 2017). Hence, this use of internet has made the
overall airline system smooth and simple to use.
Block chain will move beyond the buzz
The potential of block chain is huge and it has the potential to revolutionise the whole
industry. Using block chain technology can be very crucial in changing the ways to
streamline payments, travel identification and make luggage tracking more secure
(O’Connor et al., 2017). Furthermore, it a completely new approach to airline industry.
Advanced security system
Security system is another important factor that an airline industry needs to focus on. In past
days, airline industries had used low quality security system to reduce terrorism activities
(Dobruszkes et al., 2017). In modern days, advancement of technologies has gifted many
advanced security system in order to cut down the probability of terrorism activities within in
the airline industries. That practise plays a crucial role in making the airline industries more
secure.
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Customer loyalty
Customer loyalty, which is one of the important aspect that helps to gather more attention of
the passengers through providing customer satisfaction and reliability. In past days,
passengers were needed to spend a lot time in the checking process while entering or
exiting from the airline. This practise had irritated passengers. In order to provide more
reliability and satisfaction to the passengers, airline industries have focused to provide
services in ways that are more professional.
Knowingly the importances of these new approaches in the airline industries, Easy Jet and
Ryan Air have implemented several changes in their industries in order to develop and
improve their overall business function of the organizations. Both of the companies, has
started to use block chain technology to improve their tracking and payment method.
Moreover, both of the companies’ ahs used advance science for improving their security
system. Companies have improved security system to cut down the probability of terrorism
activities within the industries. Eventually, both of the companies giving focus to offer more
customer loyalty in order to respond tto new changes in the market.
Recommendation
The four general problems that exist in UK airlines industry are enlisted below:
Congestion: UK airports operate a huge number of flights and that is why there is not only
congestion in the sky but also in the runaway and airports, which is often resulting in flight
delays (Andrew and Hendriks, 2017).
Recommendation: In order to overcome the congestion problem, Ryan Air needs to discuss
with the airport authorities to increase the number of runways of the airports so that the
congestions can be avoided and the airlines can fly without any delays or further
inconvenience.
Terrorism: Terrorism has been a rising problem in the landscape of UK and this is a
constant threat to the UK airline industry. This uprising problem is making the role of UK
airline industry observant and the passengers very fearful (Blain, 2017).
Recommendations: To overcome this terrorism threat, Ryan Air needs to incorporate more
safety measures for the passengers. Ryan Air also needs to provide a training program to
their staffs so that they can help the passengers during any tough situations.
Passenger comfort: Due to the tendency to increase profit, airline industries have stuffed
the flights with more seats, which is creating discomfort for the passengers and impacting on
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passenger attrition. This problem is gradually decreasing the good will of UK airline industry
(Andrew and Hendriks, 2017).
Recommendation: In order to recover from this problem, Ryan Air needs to increase the
number of airlines and stop stuffing additional seats for increasing profit. This will help in
satisfying the customers as well as increase profit.
Labour relations: The airline industry of UK is crippling due to the labour problems. It is not
only hampering the good will of the industry but also increases employee attrition which
results financial losses in the airline industry (Blain, 2017).
Recommendation: In order to stop facing labour relations, Ryan Air needs to engage the
labour in decision making process as well as start training programmes for the employees
which will eventually motivate them. Ryan Air also needs to resolve the queries of the
employees.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded in the above that Ryan Air needs to incorporate measures which
will increase company profit. Ryan Air also needs to bring innovation in customer
management so that they can forbid the customers from choosing any other airlines. Ryan
Air needs to innovate ways to handle the suppliers as well as help the airline company to
stay in market competition. The above discussion sheds light on the competitive advantages
of Ryan Air and Easy Jet. It is identified from the above that Easy Jet is the prime competitor
of Ryan Air. It can also be said that Ryan Air needs to incorporate changes in their pricing
strategy in order to increase profitability. The response of Ryan Air is vulnerable towards any
market changes and Ryan Air has selected cheap price in order to compete in the market.
There are many difficulties faced by Ryan Air whenever they try to access distribution
channels, which is considered as another barrier for the airline company. It is also observed
from the above discussion that the bargaining powers among the airline staffs are quite high
compared to other industries. Furthermore it can be said that Ryan Air needs to implement
redefined strategies that will help the company to grow and achieve higher levels.
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Reference list
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Regulation of Airports (pp. 101-115). Routledge.
Blain, A.N.J., 2017. Pilots and management: Industrial relations in the UK Airlines (Vol. 16).
Routledge.
Blain, A.N.J., 2017. Pilots and management: Industrial relations in the UK Airlines (Vol. 16).
Routledge.
Borenstein, S. and Rose, N.L., 2014. How airline markets work… or do they? Regulatory
reform in the airline industry. In Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We
Learned? (pp. 63-135). University of Chicago Press.
Creaton, S., 2014. Ryanair: How a small Irish airline conquered Europe. Aurum Press.
Dobruszkes, F., Givoni, M. and Vowles, T., 2017. Hello major airports, goodbye regional
airports? Recent changes in European and US low-cost airline airport choice. Journal of Air
Transport Management, 59, pp.50-62.
Forsyth, P., Gillen, D., Muller, J. and Niemeier, H.M. eds., 2016. Airport Competition: The
European Experience. Routledge.
Holloway, S., 2017. Straight and Level: Practical Airline Economics: Practical Airline
Economics. Routledge.
Morlotti, C., Cattaneo, M., Malighetti, P. and Redondi, R., 2017. Multi-dimensional price
elasticity for leisure and business destinations in the low-cost air transport market: Evidence
from easyJet. Tourism Management, 61, pp.23-34.
O’Connor, P., Flin, R., Fletcher, G. and Hemsley, P., 2017. Methods used to evaluate the
effectiveness of flightcrew CRM training in the UK aviation industry. Crew Resource
Management: Critical Essays.
O’Connor, P., Flin, R., Fletcher, G. and Hemsley, P., 2017. Methods used to evaluate the
effectiveness of flightcrew CRM training in the UK aviation industry. Crew Resource
Management: Critical Essays.
Palmer, A. and Bejou, D., 2016. Retrospective: service failure and loyalty: an exploratory
empirical study of airline customers. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(5), pp.480-484.
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