The promotional strategy of British Airways - Coursework Example

This research will begin with the statement that the airline sector is a large form of mass travel in the global transportation network. The sector in general involves the organisation of people, airlines, equipment and buildings for transporting mail, freight and passengers to various parts of the world. International air travel is so extensive that it is possible to reach almost any major city in less than a day. Different airline companies deal with different types of cargo, for example companies like British Airways specialise in the transportation of people.

This has been by far the largest source of revenue for airlines since the second half of the twentieth century. The different airline companies battle against each other by offering attractive fares and specialised discounts. The passenger services usually offer two areas of travel, first class or coach, first class being more favourable due to comfortable seating arrangements, more elaborate meals and usually more flight personnel on hand. The coach service is cheaper with a slightly more crowded atmosphere.

Other services include the transportation of mail, and freight services. This method of transporting goods is quicker than the old methods of using trains or boats. The current structure of the airline sector is fairly composite. There are many markets, all of which host two main dimensions, product and geographic. The product of which being the passenger, and the geographic being the destination. At all levels, it shows characteristics of oligopoly and competition; however, there is very little evidence to show that the airline industry is a natural monopoly, where one firm stands out from the rest.

The characteristics of the industry show that there are few firms, a substantial market share and high barriers of entry, all of which indicate the sector as an oligopoly market structure. So much so that the leading four firms, United Air Lines, American Airlines, Delta and Northwest, make up 64% of the market share. As these companies make up such a high percentage, it makes the industry highly concentrated, meaning that merges are becoming more and more common. This means that the market concentration will increase in the future (Blythe 2005 p 15).

Literature review British Airways: Company Profile: British Airways is the biggest world wide passenger airline. The main activities of British Airways and its subsidiary undertakings are the operation of international as well as domestic planned and charter air services for the safe and comfortable transportation of passengers, freight and mail as well as the prerequisite of additional services. The Airline had a total of 373 aircraft in operation as of September 30, 2001 (Proctor 2000 p 56).

A total number of employees about 50,000 and a route network comprised of 150 destinations in 72 countries. Its fleet is composed of more than 350 aircrafts. BA is the airline company with the most flights from Europe to North America in the world (Peter 2006 p 90). BA was formed in 1973, as the outcome of the merger between State-owned