MGBBT0UBN Case Study: Virgin Atlantic Airline Analysis Report

This case study examines the organizational structure and business environment of Virgin Atlantic Airline, a British airline company founded in 1984. It discusses the airline's unique organizational structure, highlighting its benefits such as competitive advantage and operational efficiency, as well as drawbacks like poor profitability and lack of clarity in roles. The analysis incorporates SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to assess the company's internal and external factors, focusing on client services, market share, and potential for international expansion. Additionally, a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analysis explores the broader external factors influencing the airline, including political stability, economic slowdowns, changing social preferences, technological advancements, legal regulations, and environmental concerns. The report concludes that a well-defined organizational structure and a thorough understanding of the business environment are crucial for Virgin Atlantic's success and long-term sustainability in the competitive airline industry. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

MGBBT0UBN Case
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................4
Organisational structure............................................................................................................4
Business environment Analyses...............................................................................................5
PESTLE Analysis....................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business organisation is responsible for carrying out business activities that are done to
achieve higher profit in the market. The association of people are performing the operation of the
business to ensure the effective functioning of the organisation. There are various factors that
helps in identifying the performance of the organisation in the competitive market (Brueckner,
and Flores-Fillol, 2020). The Virgin Atlantic Airline is a British airline company which is
situated in Crawley, England. It was founded in the year 1984 by its co-founders Randolph
Branson and the Falkland Islands. The Airline has 51% holding of the Virgin Group and 49% by
the Delta Airlines. It was the first Airline to use the A340-600 in June, 2002. This report will
cover the organisational structure of the Airline Virgin Atlantic and how it provides benefits to
its employees and what are the major drawbacks of their organisational structure. Further, it will
analyse the business environment and other factor with the help of SWOT and PESTLE analysis.
TASK
Organisational structure
The organisational structure of the Virgin Atlantic Airline is unique among the British
Airline companies. The effective management policies and strategies are smoothen the working
system of the organisation. They had launched the first super economy service tot their clients
and this is one of the major reason for the continuos expansion of their business. There are 7,437
employees who are contributing their efforts in the success of the company. The powers and
authorities of each functional unit is divided to ease the functioning of an organisation. There are
some benefits and drawbacks of its organisational structure. It includes:
 Competitive advantage: Virgin Atlantic Airlines company provides adequate facilities
to its customers and range of services are available to ensure quality services to them.
They are always emphasise on the need and demand of the consumer which helps them
to gain large base of consumers.
 Operation: The operational activity of the Virgin Atlantic's is unique and it is one of
the largest carriers and providers of excellent passenger service to the consumer. They

are implemented the various advanced strategies and plans to reduce the associated risk
and threat on the functioning of the organisation.
Drawbacks
 Poor profitability record: They have faced unexpected loss in the year 2013 and they
are moving in a correct direction to overcome the challenges which they faced in last few
decades.
 Lack of clarity: it was examined that the unclarity of roles and responsibilities among
the members of the organisation affects the productivity of the organisation and they has
suffered the loss throughout four years.
Business environment Analyses
The business environment of the Virgin Atlantic Airline is diverse and develops within a short
span of time. The company has their own beliefs and thoughts which make them unique from
other Airlines company. They have better plans and policies that helps them to create lareg base
of consumers in the international market.
SWOT Analysis
Strength: the strength of the Virgin Atlantic Airline is efficient client services and satisfaction
among them helps to establish brand value in the market (Hwang and Lyu, 2020). They have
carried over 5 million passengers in one year and well renowned for its branding and marketing
skill. There are 8000 employees who are employed in this Airline company. The company is the
first brand super economy service tot their clients and this is one of the major reason for the
continuos expansion of their business.
Weaknesses- Due to severe competition among the Virgin Atlantic Airlines company has
decreased its market share in the international market. Lack of resources and ineffective plans is
affecting the performance of the company. They does not have innovative ideas to attract the
consumers from their services. The rise in the prices of Air tickets shifting the consumers to
other brands who are offered the tickets at reasonable prices.
Opportunities- They are making continuos improvement to increase its business. They are
increasing its international routes and destination to avail their services to international clients.
They are penetrating their strong brand in the global market to diversified their business. It helps
them in establishing brand value and reputation in the competitive market.

Threats- It shows negative impact on the business due to rise in fuels costs and amendments in
legal rules and regulations causing serious threat to the company (Moo, Dargusch and Hill,
2022). Another threat deals with the rise in labour cost which may affect the overall
performance of the Virgin Atlantic Airlines company. It is analysed that stiff competition in the
European market may create potential risk on the expansion of the business.
PESTLE Analysis
Political factors- The political stability in the UK may contribute in the growth of the company.
Due to unpredictable event of Covid 19 pandemic reduces the performance of the airline
company and people are shifted to low cost airlines company. Also, the impact of Brexit was
adversely affect their profit earning capacity and this is one of the important factor which every
company should take into consideration to analyse the external factor of the business
environment.
Economic factors- The economic slowdown in the airline industry has examined during the
pandemic when most of the companies are surviving in the serious phases (Kulina, 2021). The
functioning of the Virgin Atlantic Airline was also hit hard due to the crisis which every nation
was faced. They are failed to meet their operational cost due to high employment turnover and
this is one of the serious issue raise the concern of the management of the company.
Social factors- It includes change in taste, preferences, expectations and demographic profile of
the society. Due to pandemic crisis, people were avoiding to travel in the Airlines to prevent the
risk of virus infection and this factor was majorly affect the performance of the Airline industry.
It was the alarming time for almost every Airline industry and they were trying to make
continuos effort to improve the growth of the organisation.
Technical factors- After industrialization and globalisation, the demand of innovative ideas and
technology also tends to increase. Virgin Atlantic Airlines are focusing on their technological
strategy in order to maintain standards related to safety and equipments to gain competitive
advantage in the global market. They are meeting the latest trends to satisfy the consumers and
offering the quality services to their clients to improve the efficiency of the organisation.
Legal factors- It refers to the legal rules, regulations, standards that are made to comply the
industry with the legislative framework. There are strict laws which are mad to bind the airline
industry with heavy and complex legal formalities to regulate their activities in the domestic and
international market. The Virgin Atlantic Airline company are successfully following all the

rules and regulations to satisfy its stakeholders (Page, 2019). The new laws and policies may
affect the operational activities of the organisation. The imposition of heavy taxes may create
barrier for the clients to avail the expensive services of the airline industry like Virgin Atlantic
Airlines industry.
Environmental factors- it refers to the use of sustainable and cost effective method which will
reduce the negative impact on the environment (Sebastian and Louis, 2021). It is important for
the Virgin Atlantic Airlines company to use low carbon emission fuel to avoid the affect of
pollution on the society. It is not important for the environment purpose but interconnected o the
lives of human well being. They are required to address the environmental issues to gain brad
value in the competitive market.
CONCLUSION
From this above report, it has been concluded that organisation structure plays significant
role in the success of the organisation. The internal and external factor are important to take into
consideration in order to frame effective plans and strategies for the company. The British
Airline company named Virgin Atlantic Airlines is unique brand of the airline industry and
providing its logistics services to multiple countries. The SWOT and PESTLE analysis helps in
identifying the benefits and drawbacks of the company. It helps them in analysing the market
risk so that they can easily survive in the competitive market for a long run in order to establish
brand value in the market.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brueckner, J.K. and Flores-Fillol, R., 2020. Market structure and quality determination for
complementary products: Alliances and service quality in the airline
industry. International journal of industrial organization, 68, p.102557.
Hwang, J. and Lyu, S.O., 2020. Relationships among green image, consumer attitudes, desire,
and customer citizenship behavior in the airline industry. International Journal of
Sustainable Transportation, 14(6), pp.437-447.
Kulina, D., 2021. Identifying the Core Competencies of European Low-Cost Airlines–An
Exemplary Analysis of Ryanair (Doctoral dissertation).
Moktar, N. and Myeda, N.E., 2022. Procurement of facilities management services designated
for office buildings of airline corporate organisations in Asia. Facilities.
Moneva, J.M., Bonilla-Priego, M.J. and Ortas, E., 2020. Corporate social responsibility and
organisational performance in the tourism sector. Journal of Sustainable
Tourism, 28(6), pp.853-872.
Moo, E., Dargusch, P. and Hill, G., 2022. Examining Carbon Management and Net-Zero Carbon
Goals in the Aviation Industry, Through the Qantas Group. Case Studies in the
Environment, 6(1), p.1704207.
O’Connell, J.F., 2018. The global airline industry. In The Routledge companion to air transport
management (pp. 11-28). Routledge.
Page, S.J., 2019. The management of tourism. Tourism Management, pp.331-369.
Sarker, M., Mohd-Any, A.A. and Kamarulzaman, Y., 2021. Validating a consumer-based service
brand equity (CBSBE) model in the airline industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 59, p.102354.
Sebastian, R.M. and Louis, J., 2021. Understanding waste management at airports: A study on
current practices and challenges based on literature review. Renewable and Sustainable
Energy Reviews, 147, p.111229.
Troyer, H.L. and Bidaisee, S., 2022. The impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry: A
literature review. International Public Health Journal, 14(1), pp.13-21.