Competition among airlines: Air Mauritius

Competition among propagatelines pipeline MauritiusCHAPTER 11.0 psychiatric hospitalThe blood Mauritius was created in the year 1967 which helped connecting our sm e very island to the rest of the populace. The political party this instant has direct escapes throughout Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe which sums up to around 20 regional and international destinations ( channelise Mauritius, 2013). Voted best carryline in the Indian Ocean (according to the manhood Travel Awards, 2013), the keep comp each represents Mauritius and is the only air duct confederation of the country till date, hence its keel carrier. The latter boasts to give unique, high quality go and a special attention to its customers ( melody Mauritius, 2013). According to its Annual Report 2012/2013, the fellowship authorizedly has 2,340 employees, 12 aircrafts in their fleet serving 19 destinations. Having had a turnover of EUR 450 trillion, blood line Mauritius all in allowed 1.8 Million lay save carried only 1.3 Million riders and had only 10,080 number of flights during the 2012-2013 period (Air Mauritius Annual Report 2012-2013). These statistics show that 500,000 seats re of imported uns one-time(a) which susceptibility be due to the recession affecting our briny tourist market Europe. However, Air Mauritius has slowly recovered from major losings in the previous long time. In the 2011-2012 period, the conjunction accounted for a net detriment of EUR 29.4 Million but for the current period of 2012-2013, in that location was only a net loss of EUR 2.5 Million (Air Mauritius Annual Report 2012-2013). Making losings is always bad for business but the recovery was amazing and we anticipate to see more than of it in the upcoming years.Even though Air Mauritius recovered from losses, the company was not able to match the sales and tax revenue of previous years which proves the fact that the company is losing well-nigh of its customers. The company is par tly owned by the government with 51% sh ars and 41% going to the shargonholders. They all spend a penny a major role to play in nine to protect the national flag carrier from stiff competition and the current scotch crisis. It is very crucial for Air Mauritius to preserve its customers and attract wise markets beca usance the tourism patience heavily depends on it. The tourism industry is the main revenue generating industry in Mauritius and by being the only flag carrier Air Mauritius plays an important role in the success of this stinting pillar. Most of the tourists come to the island by air and we all want them to use Air Mauritius instead of coming through our fierce contests like Air France, British Airways and Emirates.Air Mauritius is currently negotiating with Air France for a strategic union since the negotiations have failed with Emirates (BusinessMega.mu, 2013). Now that the company is focusing more on the Asiatic market, Air Mauritius is developing in the raw s trategies to increase the capacity of riders to and from China, Singapore and Kuala Lampur (CAPA, 2013). The company in like manner increased the frequency of flights in commonplace to China and India in fellowship to attract tourists from the current profitable tar affirm market of the tourism industry. In February 2013, the government of Mauritius and the Republic of Maldives have both(prenominal) signed a bilaterally symmetrical agreement which aims to target the Chinese market, especially with destinations like capital of Red China and Hong Kong where both the Air Mauritius and Mega Maldives Airlines go away offer direct avails (Gov.mu, 2013). In mid-2012, Air Mauritius has formed a codesh atomic number 18 partnership with Air Austral which has had some pecuniary difficulties on the dot likes our own flag carrier. The codeshare partnership helped to restoring the Mauritius-Perth route several quantify per week (CAPA, 2013). Both Air Mauritius and Air Austral agree tha t Australia is a great potential destination for growth.A flag carrier is very important for countries that have it. It represents the image of the country but most importantly, it provides discriminatory rights, privileges and facilitates indisputable agreements with other countries. The government of Mauritius has lately determined to go towards an string out sky policy for its flag carrier instead of sticking with the old limited sky policy. They are trying to imitate Emirates which has its success give convey to the open sky policy (Hough, 2013). This will prove to be productive for Mauritius only when sales at Air Mauritius are boosted again and there are more tourist ar contacts.The local anaesthetic government has a indicate of 1 million tourist arrivals for the current year of 2013, which represents an increase of more or less 2.5% compared to last year (BusinessMega.mu, 2013). However this will not be attainable without the help of Air Mauritius since most of the se tourists will rely on air travel to come here and they may opt for other rival airway companies because of flight prices. Air Mauritius plays a major role in the parsimony of Mauritius and helped the tourism industry grow throughout its operational years and this is still an on-going process despite the company is suffering an economic tempestuousness (Prayag, 2007).The companys fleet consists only of Airbus aircraft fitted with modern equipment and is it approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency. On-board the Air Mauritius, there are some(prenominal) work like the inflight entertainment, repasts, duty free sales and magazines. The on-board menu consists chiefly of the Mauritian cuisine but draws its inspiration from all around the world offering Asian, Indian and European flavours. The company likewise has certain hard-and-fast no-pork and no-beef policies and even have special meals for needy people, like the diabetic meal for example (Air Mauritius, 2013). On its official website, the company describes the various types of meals that it bottom of the inning offer to its passengers. Some of these are the vegan meals, vegetarian meals, kosher meals, low-fat meals, child meals, baby meals and much more. This is quite an an interesting strategy to satisfy customers and make them feel that they are salubrious taken care of at Air Mauritius. Furthermore, the on-board entertainment includes popular Hollywood and Bollywood movies and documentaries to watch. There are various types of music to listen to and there are also some games for avid gamers or children.There exist both classes of travel with Air Mauritius the Economy class and the Business class. In the economy class, the company boasts to have large passenger space with a 79cm drive home which provides a comfortable and relaxing flight experience (Air Mauritius, 2013). It is not an important factor which customers are concerned approximately but it is good to jockey that the economy class has a seating configuration of 2-4-2 layout with two last rows of 2-3-2 for a total of 265 economy seats (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2010). This setting is mainly for the Airbus A340E and of course there are certain various depending on the exercise of the aircraft. Seating arrangements in the business class have recently been progressd with newborn lie-flat seats on the Airbus A340 and A330 (Air Mauritius, 2013). These seats provide the passengers with some privacy and die comfort than the previous ones. They are large enough to accommodate any type of person. Its functions are well in grasp of the passenger thanks to a remote control. The lie-flat seats also come with a massage option.Air Mauritius offers different flight smash-in options for its customers. One may check in online on their official website and at the Sir Seewosagur International Airport or at various other airports like the Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Heathrow, Beijing Capital International Airpo rt and much more. They also have a premium check-in reserved for business class passengers available at every airport. On its website, the company offers adequate accurate information about(predicate) the check-in process and offers even FAQs to help out lost customers. These customers will also get help from Air Mauritius staff either at the head office found in Port Louis or at the SSR International Airport whenever they feel the need to.The Amde Maingard Lounge is the principal bushwhack of Air Mauritius at the airport close. The lounge offers assistance from staff, books magazines, TV, business centre with computers, WIFI, childrens play area, and a taphouse buffet area offering a wide array of food and beverages. Surely, all these come at a price. Business class passengers and Kestrelflyer selected members have free access to the lounge. However an economic class passenger may get access as well depending on accessibility and at some prices. Normally an adult will pay MUR 2000, MUR k for a child and free access for an infant (Air Mauritius, 2013). just now now these tariffs are subject to change anytime.Recently, the SSR International Airport underwent major upgrades and introduced its new terminal which came into operation on 12 September 2013. The new terminal consists of troika aims where the ground take aim where domestic arrivals and departures are taken care of. Then, level 1, where the Air Mauritius Lounge is situation alongside check-in counters and finally level 2, where international arrivals are taken care of. The Air Mauritius has been waiting for this upgrade eagerly and expects to increase customer satisfaction through a newer availscape (Air Mauritius, 2013). With all these said, Air Mauritius expects to increase its number of customers while retaining the current ones and start making more profit again, in the years to come.One of the biggest advantages of travelling with Air Mauritius is that the company holds a perfect fl ight safety infix and is the safest company to fly with in the Indian Ocean (World Travel Awards, 2013). This perfect record contributed into our flag carrier winning the Indian Oceans conduct Airline Award for 9 consecutive years. The record suggests that an Air Mauritius monotone never crashed or killed anyone on-board due to safety issues. However, some skim overs experienced some technical faults whether in flight or on ground which also lead to tick offs in departure or arrivals. Just recently, in October 2013, the MK 034 flight had some major technical issues when leaving Plaisance for Paris. Only ten proceeding after taking off, one of the engines blew out and caught fire mid-air causing the plane to lose speed and altitude. The pilot informed the passengers about the incident and decided to drop fuel at sea in order to be able to land back at the SSR International Airport. The process took hours but MK 034 landed safely with panicked passengers. The plane was then groun ded for repairs and replaced by some other one to get the passengers to destination, Paris. It all occurred between 22h50 and 02h22 which caused a huge delay and a series of other flight delays the coming days because of a grounded aircraft (Lexpress.mu, 2013). These technical issues occur with almost every skyway company in the world. The positive point for Air Mauritius here is that the pilot was able to get the passengers back on land safely.1.1 Problem StatementAir Mauritius holds a strong leading position in Africa among the competition, however more air ducts have surpassed the company, globally speaking (Prayag, 2007). Nowadays, we have companies like the Emirates, Air France, British Airways, Etihad Airways, Air Seychelles, Condor, Thomas Cook and Lufthansa who have become great examples of successful airlines which are currently in direct competition with Air Mauritius (Business Excellence, 2013). They started small-time somewhere, just like the Air Mauritius but are no w leaders of the skies ahead of our flag carrier. However, the company is going to show that it is still a competitor to look out for among its competitors since Air Mauritius is planning to increase flight frequencies of certain destinations like Johannesburg and Beijing which will help reinforcing their connectivity across the globe.Since Europe has been alter by the economic crisis lately, the numbers of tourists arrivals have for the most part decreased. This is wherefore the government of Mauritius has decided to re-orient the tourism industry towards a new market in order to increase demand. That new market is no other than Asia, targeting most precisely India and China. Thanks to this change, we can now understandably see wherefore the Air Mauritius has increased flight frequencies towards these destinations and is constantly bombarding the general population with promotional packages to Beijing, Hong Kong or Mumbai. The limited sky policy and no charter flights helped b oosting sales of the company in the past but recently in order to increase tourist arrivals and due to stiff competition, the local government is considering an open sky policy for a better in store(predicate) of the economy of the island (Prayag, 2007). This is being implemented because the government aims to boost tourists arrivals and expects millions of tourist arrivals every year. If this proves to be a successful step, the main economic pillar of the island the tourism industry, will prosper and eventually increase the revenue of the country.Having an excellent customer satisfaction is a great asset for an airline company as it will help with customer retention and the company will keep on achieving its primary goal that is, making profit. But it seems that the Air Mauritius has not been able to satisfy all the customers lately. According to a reliable website that provides real customer reviews and much more information about airlines, Skytrax.com 2013, the service at Air Ma uritius has worsened. Customers are complaining about piteous food quality, rude on-board staff, uncomfortable seats, boring entertainment and the fact that the company is still using old aircraft with old technology while every other airline are investing on newer planes. These comments affect service quality and perception of customers in a negative way. Word of babble out may worsen the case and people will tend to look twice before buying a ticket at the Air Mauritius in the near future. Of course, whether they are true or not, these are just statements and it is my duty to carry out this interrogation in order to bump out what is really happening about the service given to customers at the Air Mauritius.In todays competitive airline environment, the on-board services of an airline are one of the aspects that customers lookout for before purchasing an airline ticket (Namukasa, 2013). Having poor inflight services will push these customers away from the airline company and t hey will tend to opt for another rival company. This is why the level of service quality must stay high at all times for an airline company or else it will not survive the stiff competition (Archana and Subha, 2012). There have been so many studies which see the influence of airline service quality on passenger satisfaction and dedication, for example, Archana and Subha (2012) in India, Huang (2009) in Taiwan and Munusamy et al. (2011) Malaysia but none for Mauritius, this is why this study is important.Aims and Objectives of the studyThe principal aim of this case study is to analyse how service quality has a major influence on passenger satisfaction and trueness specifically at the Air Mauritius. This will be done by carrying out several in-depth data analysis and the battle array of customer feedback as well. The study will help to identify areas where customer expectations are not being met at Air Mauritius and find recommendations to meet these flaws.The specific objectiv es areTo understand the importance of Air Mauritius for the Mauritian economy.To examine the relationship between pre-flight service quality and passenger satisfaction unneurotic with passenger loyalty.To analyse the relationship between in-flight service quality and passenger satisfaction together with passenger loyalty.To assess the relationship between post-flight service quality and passenger satisfaction alongside passenger loyalty.To assess whether airline service quality has an impact on passenger satisfaction and loyalty and what are the positive and negative impacts, if any.To make recommendations, based on the results of the study. intimate of studyChapter 1 introduces the subject matter including the tourism industry, the airline industry and the airline company involved in this research. It also describes the economy of Mauritius and how dependant the island is on its flag carrier for the survival of the tourism industry which is the main source of income for the count ry. The aims and objectives of this researched are also given in this introductory chapter.Chapter 2 is the bulkiest of all and lays the foundations of this research with definitions, empirical studies and examples from other studies. It covers service quality in the tourism industry and in airline companies and describes the instrument used for this study. This chapter also defines the service quality in pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight services related to customer loyalty and satisfaction.Chapter 3 gives enough detail about the methodology used for this research and how the sample size, the questionnaire and the whole research was designed.Chapter 4 lays emphasis on the results of the persuasion carried out, together with appropriate discussions to interpret these results. This chapter makes good use of charts and tables to interpret the results of the study.Chapter 5 is the final chapter of this research and is all about the conclusions and recommendations of the study. It proposes different approaches that Air Mauritius might take in order to improve its services and attract more customers. This chapter also includes the recommendations made by the survey participants and also depicts the survey limitations and what can be done in future researches in order to outfit these limitations.