Airline Sector Sustaining Competitive Advantage

Objective of the Study:
1.    To get an insight into the competitive marketing strategies of three Full service Airlines in India:–
                     Indian Airlines (IA)
                     Jet Airways (JET)
                     Kingfisher                    
2.    To understand the customer’s preferences or perceptions of services provided by these airlines.
3.    To give a survey information about the total growth of market share of these companies.
Conclusion:
The healthy competition of domestic airlines has set new trends in the quality of service.  In the monopolistic environment of Indian Airlines the quality and the desire to win over the constraints was totally dismal.  With the oncoming of Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines there is sea change in the quality of service and the pride of the job.
It is a matter of great significance that the airlines staff now cares about the passenger comfort and takes pains to see that the flight is on time.  The high percentage 98% of on time service of Kingfisher Airlines is the hall mark of their quality of service.
Recommendations:
The research study and the analysis of the various aspects tapped lead to the following recommendation:
1)    With the oncoming of the Private Airlines on the country the customer awareness and aspiration of quality of service has been enhanced considerably.  So all the airlines should emphasis on providing more efficient services both on the ground and in the air as done by Kingfisher Airways to a large extent.
2)    The check-in time should be minimal. Wherever there is likely to be long cues more counters should be opened.
3)    The facility of valet services as introduced by Jet Airlines should be adopted by all airlines and it should be extended to all classes.
4)    Tele reservation and computerised check-in procedure should mandatory for all airlines. Indian airlines doesn’t have it.
5)    The process of ticketing and cancellation should be made more easy, smooth and as flawless as possible as most of the respondent were not happy with the present ticketing procedure.
6)    Delayed flight, which is a very painful experience for the travelers, should be attended to as top priority because the main clientage is businessmen and they are time bound.
7)    There is a need to improve the quality of in-flight comfort especially for a economy class by way of seat pitch, leg room, quality and choice of food.
Customer grievance and prompt redressal should also be rated as top priority as this will not only provide the necessary input and the feedback but also would go a long way in improving the image of the airlines.
Limitations of the Study
•    Marketing strategy of a company is indeed a closely guarded secret especially in the face of stiff competition as in the case of the airlines sector in India.  Therefore, to extract information on the marketing strategy was a difficult task at the airport.
•    The response of people to the questionnaire was not free from the biases as some of the travelers, due to their busy schedule and some compressions did not respond frankly. Moreover, all the Central Government Employees are obliged to travel by Indian Airlines by Government concession.  So they were not in such a position to really compare the three airlines.
•    Due to the lack of sufficient time the sample size was limited to 100 travelers only. This too was not the correct mix as most of the customer turned out to be Government employees who had the official obligation to stick to Indian Airlines.
The comparison of private and public company has the inherent draw back of their basic culture differ entirely.  Also the Government machinery/resources do give a titled picture when compared with private enterprises where the resource crunch is inevitable.