West Australian Airlines: Route and Fleet Expansion Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of West Australian Airlines' (WAA) strategic plan for route expansion and fleet acquisition. The report begins with a situational analysis of WAA, highlighting its objective to transition from a low-cost carrier to a full-service network carrier. It examines the current fleet, network, and competitive landscape, emphasizing the need for product differentiation and enhanced customer service. The core of the report focuses on the potential acquisition of Boeing B787-8 or B787-9 aircraft, detailing aircraft characteristics, seat configurations, crew requirements, and maintenance schedules. Furthermore, the report explores future route opportunities, flight planning considerations, revenue prediction, and product offerings, including frequent flyer programs and in-flight services. The analysis also delves into current market trends in the aviation industry, emphasizing the importance of technology, online booking, and customer satisfaction. Ultimately, the report recommends strategies for WAA to achieve its strategic objectives, increase profitability, and enhance its competitive position in the aviation market.

AIRLINES OPERATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
WAA (West Australian Airlines) Situational Analysis...................................................................1
Strategic Objective......................................................................................................................1
Fleet & Network..........................................................................................................................1
Competition on routes.................................................................................................................1
Future Route Opportunities.........................................................................................................2
Trends in market and products....................................................................................................3
The Choice.......................................................................................................................................4
Characteristics of Aircraft...........................................................................................................4
Configurations of Flight seat.......................................................................................................5
Requirement of Crew..................................................................................................................6
Maintenance of Aircraft..............................................................................................................6
Flight Planning.................................................................................................................................7
Route Map and Network Schedule.............................................................................................7
Revenue Prediction and Structures of Airfares...........................................................................9
Product Offerings...........................................................................................................................10
Frequent Flyer Program............................................................................................................10
Pre-Flight Services....................................................................................................................10
In-flight Services.......................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Airlines business is highly competitive as organisations implements new ways for
grabbing attention of passengers towards them. Present report deals with WAA airlines
headquartered in Perth, West Australia which is planning to expand to newer routes by acquiring
Boeing B787-8 or Boeing B787-9 aircraft suitable for increased number of passengers and load.
It uses 10 Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Situational analysis and current trend in markets are
analysed. Moreover, characteristics, flight configurations and maintenance of planes. New
product offerings to customers through better services will be given for enhancing level of
satisfaction. Flight planning and new routes are provided.
WAA (West Australian Airlines) Situational Analysis
Strategic Objective
WAA is a low-cost carrier operating on limited basis which limits its maximum
profitability. The main strategic of WAA is to become Full-Service Network Carrier (FSNC) and
focusing on elevated passenger flights in comparison to only scheduled flights. Moreover, it is
planning to new routes and product offering for increasing profits. In relation to this, acquisition
of new fleet of 20 Boeing B787-8 or Boeing B787-9 aircraft are required for increasing routes
and transition to become FSNC.
Fleet & Network
WAA provides passenger services by using 10 leased Airbus A330-200 aircraft in an all-
economy cabin configuration with total capacity of 260 seats. The domestic and international
routes are Perth – Sydney, Perth – Melbourne, Perth – Auckland, Perth – Johannesburg, Perth –
Bali, Perth – Singapore, Perth – Hong Kong etc. These are scheduled passenger services only
and as per strategic objective, WAA has to increase fleet number for meeting demand and higher
profits (Belobaba, Odoni and Barnhart, 2015). This will have better opportunities for expansion
to more number of flights.
Competition on routes
The aviation industry is highly competitive which creates urgent need for WAA to
implement unique business model and value proposition so that better product offerings may
increase customer base and good quantum of profits. The competition on given routes be it
domestic or international is quite fierce as key players are providing better deals. In relation to
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this, it is required that WAA should adopt product differentiation strategy and quality of service
in order to attain stated strategic objectives. For differentiating products, it can offer pre-flight
and in-flight services to passengers for enhancing level of satisfaction. In present scenario,
passengers are offered with additional services to induce them to travel again in their airlines.
Thus, entertainment in flight, seat configuration and menu's could also be introduced for
enhancing customer satisfaction.
WAA operates on competitive routes which creates need for making market survey
before establishing new routes for maximising revenue (Mintah and Schmidgall, 2013). The
strategic objective is to acquire fleet of 20 Boeing B787-8 or Boeing B787-9 aircraft which are
high class aircraft being used by rival businesses. By increasing 20 new fleets, WAA will be able
to enhance its existing load and number of passengers which will be new product offering by
organisation. This provides with achievement of higher revenue along with more routes and
destinations in effectual manner.
Future Route Opportunities
The future route opportunities are available to WAA by which it may be able to attain
more number of routes to various destinations in the best way possible. The increase in number
of fleet will provide with newer travelling destinations to customers and scheduled passengers
will be increased. Some of the future route opportunities that will help company for achieving
strategic objectives include Perth-Kuala Lumpur (4176 km), Perth-Singapore (7720 km), Perth-
Dubai (9039 km) which would be accomplished getting into partnerships with domestic and
regional airlines.
The key opportunities for the future course of action in more flights also includes and
Perth-Jakarta (3014.3 km), Perth-Auckland (5343 km) which will be beneficial for company in
attaining large number of passengers and load capacity would be increased because of
acquisition of 20 new fleet of model Boeing B787-8 or Boeing B787-9 aircraft in effectual
manner. This will have better impact on sales of organisation and good quantum of profits will
be garnered with much ease. But it is also required that widespread partnerships with airlines
company is to be made leading to increase in destinations to fly (Schleich and et.al., 2013). The
operational costs would also be increased but it will have greater amount of profits which would
offset costs.
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Trends in market and products
The current market trends in the aviation industry which would be offered with better
differentiation of products helping organisation to build brand image in front of customers. Rise
of technology in aviation sector has led to get in hand with these new trends for easily attracting
customers towards airlines. In present scenario, WAA is to adopt newer technology in order to
strengthen profitability in effective manner. WAA has to be flexible in market trends by
incorporating online booking, luxury services and provision for charter services.
WAA can effectively make certain in-flight amenities such as flight entertainment app
where passengers could watch TV shows, movie, play games etc irrespective of travel class
which they belong. Moreover, it should provide regular offers to people and establishing reward
programs. Outsourcing has been in current trend in market with the help of it, WAA can
outsource maintenance or flight booking etc. This helps to reduce on operational expenses and
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Illustration 1: Airline revenue worldwide, 2018 Source:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/278372/revenue-of-commercial-airlines-worldwide/

major focus can be built on increasing customer satisfaction in effective way and other ways to
increase satisfaction level of guests travelling to different destinations. This will help WAA to
accomplish more sales by following market trends and focusing on consumer satisfaction (Ha,
and et.al., 2013). The chart shows that commercial airlines' revenue in worldwide market was
322 billion US$ in 2003 and thereby, increased over the years and reached to 834 in 2018.
The Choice
Characteristics of Aircraft
Technical specifications of aircraft
CHARACTERISTIC
S BOEING 787-8 BOEING 787-9
Difference between
them
Seating capacity 242 (3 class) 290(3 class) 38
Fuel (in litres) 126210 138700 12490
Range (in km) 13620 14140 520
Maximum weight to be
carried (in kg) 228000 251000 23000
Consumption of fuel
(in kg/hr) 4100 5600 700
Wing Span (in m) 60.7 60.7 -
Length (in m) 56.69 63 6.31
Height (in m) 17 17 -
Engine
Rolls Royce Trent
1000
Rolls Royce Trent
1000
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It can be interpreted that Boeing 787 Dream liner is type of wide body twin engine
aircraft having two variants such as Boeing 787-8 and Boeing 787-9 suitable for organisation. It
can be seen that both have much difference in fuel capacity of 12490 litres. Flying range of
aircrafts are 13620 km and 14140 km which decides picking up of 787-9 variant as it is high.
The consumption of fuel should be less and it provides that 787-9 consumes more fuel in
comparison to 787-8. Length of aircraft of 787-9 is more having 6.31 more length. Rolls Royce
Trent 1000 is manufactured mainly for lower consumption and both are reliable in such context.
Moreover, seating capacity is 290 of 787-9 more than 787-8 variant. Maximum take over weight
of 787-9 is more which signifies that Boeing 787-9 will be picked for flying international routes
in the future. Moreover, seating capacity is 290 of 787-9 more than 787-8 variant.
Configurations of Flight seat
The seat configurations for WAA is being divided into three categories which are as
follows-
Business class-
It is a premium service being offered to passengers and quite luxurious. Layout of seat
will be 1-
2-1 configuration, whereas around 46 inches will be pitch, width is 23-24 inches. In accordance
to recliner seats that will be offered to guests, bead width is kept at 24-25 inches. Total of 28
seats in 7 rows will be kept as it is in less in demand (Ehlers, Herzog and Behrens, 2016).
Premium economy-
It is below premium level in comparison to business class. Layout of seat will be 2-3-2
configuration, while pitch is of 38 inches. Seat width will be 20.5 and 9 inches of recline. In this
range also, fewer people prefers to fly as fare is high and it is an updated form of economy.
Thereby, 35 number of seats are kept in 5 rows.
Economy-
The economy class is widely availed by passengers as it is lowly fared. There will be 19
number of rows in total as more people likes to travel. With 170 seats, seat pitch will be 32
inches and width is of 17.2, recline 6 inches.
Seat Characteristics Qantas Singapore Airlines WAA
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Layout 1-2-1, 2-3-2, 3-3-3 1-1-1, 2-3-2, 3-3-3 1-2-1, 2-3-2, 3-3-3
Pitch (in inches) 46,38,32
Fully lie-flat bed,
41,32 46,38,32
Recline/bed width (in
inches) 24-25,9,6
Fully lie-flat bed, 22,
10 24-25,9,6
Seat width (in inches) 23,20.5,17.2 22,19.5,17.2 23,20.5,17.2
The table highlights that comfort is provided by WAA which is more than that of other
two rival business airlines. RECARO is manufacturing seats for organisation displaying quality
up to a high extent (Bettell, 2012). Business class of Qantas has total number of 42 seats, while,
WAA has 28 seats. The WAA has 170 seats in economy and 35 seats in premium economy in
class.
Requirement of Crew
The crew management is essential so that passengers may be delivered with better
services in the best way possible. There will be total of 16 crew members for handling flight and
to reach customers to their domestic and international destinations with much ease. Four
members will be holding business class, while, for premium economy three will be allocated
duty in-flight in effective manner. On the other side, major crew members ie six would be
present in economy as major travellers prefer in it and as a result, for better managing, six
members will be needed. One on-board engineer will be needed for ensuring maintenance issues
if any during flight and can sort issues if any while landing to destinations. Two pilots will be
allocated. Hence, customers will be safely reached to their destinations.
Maintenance of Aircraft
Maintenance is an activity which is done before aircraft is flying in effective manner so
that periodic inspections can be made. There are total of 4 maintenance check operations which
are as follows-
A-check
-
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When 500 to 800 flight hours are done, then A-check is performed. It is performed
overnight in hanger and takes 20 to 50 man hours (De Crescenzio, and et.al., 2011).
B-check
-
This check is done nearly every 4-6 months and 150 man hours are required. Since, hours
required are more, operations lasts for 3 days.
C-check
-
This is done in every 2 years in detailed manner and 6000 man hours are required. It lasts
for 1-2 weeks as it is performed in elaborated way.
D-check-
D-check is performed in 5-6 years which is more heavily checked by taking part of
planes for inspection. During maintenance activity, spare aircrafts will be replaced and re-take
the important routes by suspending routine routes on temporary basis.
Flight Planning
The flight planning is required as aviation sector is competitive. Furthermore, lot of
research on the routes that attracts
most of the passengers should be assessed for higher revenue as operational costs of planes are
high as not all travellers buy tickets for particular destinations (Kinnison and Siddiqui, 2012).
Route Map and Network Schedule
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There is huge level of competition from Australia as number of international airlines are
operating to numerous destinations. The payload of less than 9000 kms per non-stop flight has
been designed in a way which will be carried to destinations. These were taken by researching on
busiest airports where large number of travellers intend to visit. non-stop direct flight routes from
Perth are listed below-
Non-stop direct flight routes
Destination Distance Duration Turn Around
Dubai (DXB) 9039 km 10 Hours 22 Min 2 Hours
Singapore (SIN) 3895 km 4 Hours 40 Min 1 Hour
Kuala Lumpur (KUL) 4176 km 4 Hours 55 Min 30 Min
Jakarta (CGK) 3014.3 km 3 Hours 41 Min 30 Min
Auckland (AKL) 5343 km 6 Hours 17 Min 45 Min
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Illustration 2: International Airlines from Australia. 2018 Source:
https://www.webjet.com.au/airlines/international/

The above airline routes are prepared for increasing load of WAA and passengers so that
it may attain profits. The low fare strategy will be applied for gaining customers by keeping in
mind payload below 9000 km.
Present Flight Network
Sector Flight distance Flight time
Perth – Sydney 3284 km 3 Hours 59 Min
Perth – Melbourne 2706 km 3 Hours 20 Min
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Illustration 3: Non-stop direct flights from Perth. 2018 Source:
https://www.greatcirclemapper.net/en/great-circle-mapper.html?route=YPPH-OMDB
%2CYPPH-WMKK%2CYPPH-WSSS%2CYPPH-WIII%2CYPPH-
NZAA&aircraft=67&speed=

Perth - Auckland 5343 km 6 Hours 17 Min
Perth – Johannesburg 8325 km 9 Hours 35 Min
Perth – Bali 2569 km 3 Hours 11 Min
Perth – Singapore 3895 km 4 Hours 40 Min
Perth – Hong Kong 6007 km 7 Hours
The above table provides present network being carried in Airbus A330-200 which are
scheduled and limited passengers flights. Boeing 787-9 will be ordered and then expansion to
more routes will be accomplished.
Revenue Prediction and Structures of Airfares
Destination Best Competitor
Competitor Fare (in
AUD) WAA Fare (in AUD)
Dubai (DXB) Emirates $1288 $1250
Singapore (SIN) Qantas $322 $312
Kuala Lumpur (KUL) Malindo Air $221 $215
Jakarta (CGK) Garuda Indonesia $337 $329
Auckland (AKL) Air New Zealand $512 $500
The main goal of WAA is to reduce competitor's load so that passengers may be attracted
to our firm and avail services. This will have enough of airliners' load but profits on fare to
various destinations will be low (Bilotkach, 2010). By gaining trust of guests by implementing
frequent flyer programs, prices could be raised to higher extent.
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Product Offerings
'Flying with comfort' is the priority of WAA and introducing three new travel classes
such as Esperanza, Eureka, Florentine for our customers. These names are derived from world
class the best diamonds as it is priority of firm to deliver best in class services.
 Esperanza- This type of class resembles to business class which have all the luxuries to
customers such as lavish lounge services, arrival lounges and in-flight entertainment.
 Eureka- It represents premium economy class as it offers better services. RECARO
CL6710 provides lavish and lightweight seats for meeting demands of passengers.
 Florentine- This travel class effectively represents economy class and follows RECARO
CL3710 which can be adjustable calf rest with additional storage space. It has much extra arrival
and amenities services.
Frequent Flyer Program
WAA introduces new frequent flyer program named as 'AusFlyer' which will enable
customers to effectively earn money for every dollar they spend on travel to destinations. It has
three classes namely Silver AusFlyer, Gold AusFlyer and Platinum AusFlyer. The customers will
be delighted which are entering into short and long haul international market (Meyer-Waarden,
2013). For accomplishing more passengers in a particular time, firm introduces limited period
offer on limited seats based upon AusFlyer membership AusFlyer prime offer where at particular
special fares for experiencing essence of luxury business class seats will be offered to passengers
which would satisfy them up to a high extent. This will maximise load factor and public trust
will get increased quite significantly.
Pre-Flight Services
The pre-flight services will provide offerings to customers which are as follows-
Ease in Check-in and boarding assistance-
The ease in check-in is required before take-off and facility of dropping luggage at airport
desk are provided. Prior check-in are being available to Esperanza passengers. Moreover,
boarding assistance is offered to children and adults travelling alone.
Online booking-
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Booking on online mobile app is becoming popular among the public as it is immense
benefits. The upgrade from economy to premium class will be provided if they wish so. Thus,
bookings will be managed to WAA app.
Uber services-
WAA will enter into tie-up with Uber in coming periods and personalised cab service to
passengers will be imparted. Lower charges will be applicable so that better deal could be
offered to customers in most economical way (Ohm, Wild and Schmidt, 2014).
Flight status-
Travellers will be offered with information about flight status in effective manner so that
they may come to know whether there is any delay in flight or not. Moreover, they can see
weather forecasts.
WAA App-
This new app will provide customers to login with their credentials by which they can
easily customise their preferences in flight and enjoy in-flight and pre-flight services quite
effectually. Online bookings could be made with it so that passengers can be benefited with
various amenities.
In-flight Services
Entertainment-
It is required that entertainment should be given to guests for having leisure time in the
flight. They will have better experience while travelling and can connect to Wi-Fi of WAA and
get access to numerous services such as watching TV shows, playing games on their mobile,
watching films. The partnership will be entered with regional and international companies for
providing such services.
In-flight Magazine -
Magazine will be provided to customers on various genres by which they may easily read
those in their in-flight time. This will include magazines of business, travel, fashion etc.
Special services-
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Safety of passengers is top priority of customers and as a result, health and safety
precautions will be taken so as to minimise flying impacts on them if any. Thus, special care will
be given to children who are travelling own their own.
In-flight dining-
Passengers will be provided with international taste of food where they will get delicious
experience of food. High quality of meals will be provided to customers so that leisure
experiences will be given to them in the best way possible.
CONCLUSION
Hereby it can be concluded that airline operations are required to be done in a better way
which benefits customers and also good amount of revenue may be garnered. The outcome that
can be generated from report that WAA should expand its network to Middle East, Indonesia,
Asia and other destinations so as to earn profits and become FSNC by acquiring Boeing 787-9
which would lead to attainment of more load and passengers in flight. Revenue will be attained
from acquisition of new fleet of Boeing 787-9 variant and thus, strategic objectives would be
effectively attained. Hence, it is recommended to acquire this model for accomplish goals.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Sons.
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Bilotkach, V., 2010. Reputation, search cost, and airfares. Journal of Air Transport
Management. 16(5). pp.251-257.
De Crescenzio, F., and et.al., 2011. Augmented reality for aircraft maintenance training and
operations support. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. 31(1). pp.96-101.
Ehlers, B., Herzog, M. and Behrens, S., Airbus Operations GmbH, 2016. Sliding flight attendant
seat. U.S. Patent 9,260,190.
Ha, H. K., and et.al., 2013. Airline market structure and airport efficiency: Evidence from major
Northeast Asian airports. Journal of Air Transport Management. 33. pp.32-42.
Kinnison, H. A. and Siddiqui, T., 2012. Aviation maintenance management.
Meyer-Waarden, L., 2013. The impact of reward personalisation on frequent flyer programmes'
perceived value and loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing. 27(3). pp.183-194.
Mintah, B. and Schmidgall, J. J., Caterpillar Inc, 2013. Fleet communication network. U.S.
Patent 8,364,189.
Ohm, M., Wild, T. and Schmidt, M., Alcatel-Lucent SA, 2014. Systems and method for
providing in-flight broadband mobile communication services. U.S. Patent 8,848,605.
Schleich, J., and et.al., 2013, November. UAV fleet area coverage with network connectivity
constraint. In Proceedings of the 11th ACM international symposium on Mobility
management and wireless access (pp. 131-138). ACM.
ONLINE
Airline Revenue Worldwide. 2018 [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/278372/revenue-of-commercial-airlines-worldwide/>
14

International Airlines from Australia. 2018 [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.webjet.com.au/airlines/international/>
Non-stop direct flights from Perth. 2018 [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.greatcirclemapper.net/en/great-circle-mapper.html?route=YPPH-OMDB
%2CYPPH-WMKK%2CYPPH-WSSS%2CYPPH-WIII%2CYPPH-
NZAA&aircraft=67&speed=>
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