Search results

The rise of Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways in the Middle East (collectively referred to as “ME3”) has been absolutely dramatic. How should other full-service carriers respond? This study takes a look at how one carrier, Singapore Airlines, has responded and may offer clues to how others may choose to respond. Facing ME3’s ascent in service quality and rapid capacity expansion, Singapore Airlines stuck to its niche as a premium carrier and refrained from tit-for-tat type competition. It managed to command a fare premium in select markets even in the presence of ME3, but had to sacrifice growth in its passenger count. This offers valuable lessons for other full-service carriers.

The rapid expansion of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in East and Southeast Asia has brought fierce competition to full-service carriers (FSCs). Competition in the air transport market is at an all-time high, thanks to the ongoing liberalization in air transport in the last several decades. This chapter assesses the efficiency performance of major FSCs in this region. It provides indicative evidence of the close association between FSCs' efficiency, and air transport liberalization and LCCs penetration. Singapore Airlines and Asiana are identified as the star companies in this region for their ability to achieve higher efficiency and, at the same time, report positive growth in productivity.

This chapter focuses on the diversity of financial reporting frameworks in the airline industry considering past and present. While diversity of financial reporting frameworks existed in the past, currently, the majority of listed and non-listed airlines, whose financial statements are publicly available, are inclined to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), leading toward uniformity in financial reporting frameworks because their country of incorporation or the stock exchange where they are listed either require or permit them to do so. Airlines operating in the United States prepare their financial statements under United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and some of Asian-Pacific countries still use their own national accounting standards in financial reporting. In addition, this research points out that the primary determinant of IFRS adoption in the airline industry is the fact that the majority of airlines are listed in national or foreign stock exchanges where IFRS adoption is required, but there are some company-specific determinants for listed and non-listed IFRS adopting airlines. Finally, this chapter also sets forth that there are jurisdictional versions of IFRS in the global context from the perspective of financial statements of airlines leading to some obstacles in understanding the financial reporting framework.

This chapter reviews the history of regulation and deregulation in international air transport and discusses the positive impacts of deregulation and open skies on the tourism sector in the Asia Pacific region. The Hong Kong–Bangkok market was examined, which shows that the granting of the fifth freedom rights has given the two places sufficient air service provisions to build tourism. Future reforms in air transport such as relaxing ownership restrictions and expanding air freedoms rights are explored.

This chapter focuses on the application of segment reporting under IFRS 8 in the context of the airline industry. It analyses the airlines’ disclosures related to segment reporting considering 11 aspects of segment reporting in the regional and global context. Observations reveal that reporting of segmental disclosures in the airline industry is diverse at different levels. In this regard, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) the nature of segments reported by the airlines is diverse due to methods adopted in preparation of operating segments; (2) factors such as internal reporting system, and nature of business used to identify the airline’s reportable segments were stated by most airlines; (3) types of products and services from which each reportable segment derives its revenues were stated by all airlines; (4) proportion of total revenues represented by separately reportable segments exceeds 75% of the revenue rule of IFRS 8; (5) most segmental performance measures are non-IFRS and diverse; (6) a limited number of airlines use dual reporting currency in segment reporting; (7) most airlines reported segment assets and liabilities for each reportable segment; (8) most airlines reported between 6 and 10 income and expense items in segment reporting; (9) segmental cash flow information is reported by one airline; (10) in terms of entity-wide disclosures, most airlines reported their revenue from major products and services in the revenue disclosures, most airlines reported their revenues on a geographical basis but few airlines reported their non-current assets on a geographical basis; and (11) more than half of the airlines did not declare the identity of the Chief Operating Decision Maker.

In recent years, the airline industry has been growing and transforming rapidly in the Asia-Pacific area. This study analyzes and benchmarks the comparative operational efficiencies of the major Asian air carriers. Data envelopment analysis model and disaggregate output efficiency measures are used to evaluate the operational efficiencies of 31 Asian airlines from 2015 to 2019. The findings suggest that nonflag carriers, low-cost carriers, and high-income regions' carriers have significantly higher levels of efficiency than flag carriers, full-service carriers, and low-income regions' carriers in overall, revenue, and passenger traffic efficiencies. The efficiencies between alliance carriers and nonalliance carriers along with those of ASEAN and non-ASEAN carriers are not significantly different.

Mergers and acquisitions in the transportation sector are typically explained as attempts to capture economies of scale and scope through shared infrastructure and related cost-saving measures. In the airline industry, the past 15 years have seen an increasing number of international mergers and acquisitions that would have been blocked under prior regulatory regimes. This activity suggests that there are indeed gains from increasing airline size.

Such gains may be largely financial in nature. One benefit to a merged airline could be greater market power over particular routes and hubs after merger, as well as improved contract structure and bargaining power in operations, although greater de-regulation and more competition internationally makes these arguments less compelling. In many cases, gains may be unique to specific airlines or operational situations. Thus, the issue addressed in this chapter is whether, in general, increasing the size or scope of airline operations enables them to function more efficiently and whether this effect is sustained across all sizes of airline. More pointedly, the chapter examines whether there exist measurable efficiency gains that can help explain the variety of mergers and acquisitions in the industry.

Based on our experience related to the passenger terminal re-design at Sydney airport and its impact on belly-hold freight chains at the airport, this chapter takes a more general view on managing freight chains at large international airports. We aim to review literature and documents related to this area and also to undertake a fleet/traffic analysis of the 100 largest multi-function airports (when measured in terms of scheduled cargo traffic) to get a better understanding of current practice, particularly in the light of potential conflicts or benefits of the joint production of passenger and freight services. While most literature has focused on hub-and-spoke aspects of international hubs, relatively little has been done on economies of scale and scope of passenger and freight airline operations (including timing) at such hubs. This chapter explores to what extent terminal organisation of international airports impacts on the use of dedicated freighter of combination airlines and hence airline efficiency. A key finding in terms of airline efficiency is that economies of scale of air cargo operation appear to exist at the aircraft level as dedicated freighters are used more often if a sufficient threshold of air freight demand is observed at the airport level.

In the tourism sector, the differentiation is difficult in the commoditized market. The main challenge for businesses is to design the experiences which would create awareness and difference. With this foresight, this chapter aims to show an experience-based service design path built around various elements such as sensations, emotions, human relations, innovations, and values.

This chapter is based on extensive literature review, including books, journals, articles, conference papers, and search reports. Furthermore, the Singapore Airlines web page was used as an important source of information to examine the instructional path built suggested in the literature review.

As it has been determined by the general review, experience-based service design contains different components, and with these evaluations the experience-based service design was established in this chapter within three steps: explore, design, and positioning. Furthermore, on the case study of Singapore Airlines, the tracks of these three steps have been investigated. Especially, explore and design dimensions have been identified to be used mainly during the experience design.

From the highlights of the literature review, an instructional path for experience-based service design and implementation process is highlighted in three parts and this instructional path would guide business managers/experience engineers.

As the experience-based service design has been increasingly receiving the attention of the business’ managers in the tourism sector, an overview examination of experience design, and being instructional guide will direct them to implicate the dimensions in practice.