To graduate with an honors degree from my school, I need to do a senior capstone project, which is basically a thesis. Later this year I need to select a topic and find a faculty sponsor. So I figure now is a good time to starting thinking about it. So, in a bit of a crowdsourcing experiment, I want to list a couple of ideas here. Let me know what you think, or if you have any ideas of your own. These are just totally rough ideas, and I haven’t really looked into how I would research them. Thanks in advance!
Airline Case Study
In the past I’ve seen a couple of students do case studies for their project, and I think writing one could be fun. Southwest and JetBlue’s success stories are pretty much standard business school fare by now, so I’d like to try to cover something more recent. Talking about the transition from Herb to Gary at Southwest could be interesting. So could something about Republic’s decision to acquire Midwest and Frontier.
Anti-Trust Immunity – Friend or Foe?
We’ve had some anti-trust immunity going on over the Atlantic for a few years now. I’d probably try to figure out if it has hurt consumers as all, and if the synergies that have been claimed by ATI partners have actually materialized. One weakness here is that I’d be relying on regional Form 41 data, which I hear isn’t always the best.
Fleet Commonality
Keeping an airline’s fleet simple has been hailed as a great way to reduce operating costs. And some airlines follow it very closely – like Southwest and Ryanair. I’d like to see what keeping a simple fleet does to the revenue side of things. For example, with the vast majority of Southwest’s fleet at 137 seats (there aren’t that many 737-500s, which seat 122), is the airline shut out of some smaller, but profitable, markets? Can they not service some larger destinations efficiently?
What Actually Drives Purchase Decision?
We, as passengers, love the frills. We all say we’d love seatback TVs and other features, but then get tempted away by lower fares. I’d like to see if extra features actually help airlines develop a revenue premium relative to competitors.
Hey,
Wow you have to make a selection quite early, we choose right at the end of the year before the final year.
Anyway, I have been finding airline alliances fascinating lately. I had a unit which was about airline operations (I guess they have to teach us engineers about the market/fares and all that stuff at some point!). So in that unit we did a little about alliances and I think its an interesting topic. Their power as they grow ever bigger, STARAlliance vs Oneworld, inter alliance mergers and its issues. You could go all the way back to the deregulation act when alliances came about to fight anticipated competition from low cost carriers. Or go even further back to the days of bilateral agreements.
Like you said the whole “Low cost revolution” has been done a lot recently, meanwhile interest in Legacy carriers and how they operate has kinda gone out of fashion.
So anyway, those are my thoughts. It’s good thing that you have a lot of time to decide so you can think about it.
Huss
Remind me what you are majoring in again. I like the Herb/Gary transistion as well as fleet comminality, but they are so different.
Dan, I like the idea of reporting on the new Republic and how it is changing the landscape of the regional business. I’m even thinking about Jazz’s recent decision to fly 757s as another example of a regional trying to diversify as best they can. Republic’s strategy of having multiple operating certificates and how they use them to their advantage could be interesting to discuss.
I also think it’d be great to do a case study on Allegiant and the fact that they continue to call themselves a vacation company that happens to have some planes. I’m sure there is a lot to talk about with their less than daily frequency model and ala carte strategies.
Lastly, I think it would be interesting to research how government and airport imposed fees affect passenger levels. This could probably be a subsection of your last suggestion about what drives purchase decisions. But it could be a whole thing on its own. I’m thinking of things like the recent “green” tax that Germany is going to impose as opposed to airports like Dubai who do everything they can to encourage airlines like Emirates to grow. How successful are airports that give subsidies to airlines, cut airline fees, or cut airport taxes to benefit the passenger compared to airports who do the opposite? Just a thought.
Dan, While I think that there are a number of interesting case studies in the U.S., I do not find the U.S. market as compelling, complex, and dynamic as the E.U. and Asian markets.
While Republic is interesting, again, I think it is going to be the source of a lot of papers- but your angle is perhaps unique.
Why not throw caution to the wind and try something challenging like a case study on why only one out of four so called “all C carriers” survived the latest credit crunch on both sides of the pond? Will that market ever see a new entrant? What was flawed about the model and how will the new Open Skies agreement impact the potential? What will Open Skies II do for/against the idea?
Alternatively, why not do a study on the diffrences between a Southwest v. RyanAir and what market forces allow for those differences (legal, regulatory, cultural, tax, etc) despite their single fleet type similarities. Or even look at some of the undercelbrated success stories in Europe like Air Berlin- carefully walking the tight-rope of low-cost/full service.
There is also the opposite to Allegiant study- and that is the norm here for a travel company (like Thompson Tui, Monarch, etc) to own their own scheduled service a/c in support of a tour business- also offering consumers flight only services.
Either way I wish you good luck!
Gents, thanks for the comments!
Dan-I am partial to the regional airlines, so I think a nice history of them from the 1950s to the present would be good. The industry has seen a lot of contraction, and what’s left are mega regionals that some would say bear no resemblance to the regional airlines of yore.
If that doesn’t float your boat, you know I am also gaga for airports. I think a report on the cost of current capital needs projects at U.S. airports — and where the money will come from to pay for them — is a great topic. Airports have been slammed with increased passenger demand, TSA needing more (unpaid) space and airlines continuing to fiddle with their schedules. Airports have to plan years ahead and make guesses on what their capacity needs will be.
Have fun!
Love,
Aunt Benet
Dan,
How about exploring the economic impact on small communities that have little or no air service. How would these communities benefit from improved air service? How have communities faired since losing the air service of local service carriers such as: Piedmont, Southern Airways, North Central Airlines, Bonanza, Hughes Air West, Trans Texas, and Allegheny. How has the loss of air service by these carriers as a result of their subsequent mergers with other carriers
effected these various communities. It would be an extensive exploration evolving over a greater than thirty year period.
Just a suggestion, hope is something you can use.
Gary Bedard
GBedard804@aol.com
Dan,
Another possibility would be to investigate the impact that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 has had on the airline industry. Should this legislation be repealed or not? Then you could give evidence demonstrating how your research answers this question.
Whichever topic you end up picking, it will need to be very specific. “Fleet commonality” is not specific enough, you’d of course need to choose one airline as a case study, or maybe even two airlines that do thigns very differently for a very close-up comparison.
Some of the ideas yourself and others gave are great, but will just need to be magnified a bit.
I also will hold you to a high standard because you’re a smart kid and I know you can kick ass with two feet on this.