GLOBAL AIRLINE AND CARGO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

GLOBAL AIRLINE AND CARGO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

FSNC stands for Full-Service Network Carrier is an airline that focuses on connecting flights timing and transport services in that manner. It manages the wide range of pre-flight and onboard services so that the paths of flights can be managed and services will be networked properly. Cargo operation management is the services which are included in the FSNC area where the Cargo shipment, loading and unloading of aircraft which takes place between the storage facilities and land transport (Budiarto et.al. 2018). This report is divided into two parts; the first part belongs to the business environment of the chosen industry which is FSNC and the second part belongs to the practicality of the company and the cargo operation services such as route served, choice of alliance, code shared, aircraft types etc. of British Airways.

PART 1: STRATEGIC ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK OF FSNC

The macro-environment strategic tool used to evaluate the external challenges of FSNC is PESTLE analysis which will provide full and in-depth information about political, social, economical, technological, legal and environmental factors.

(Perera, 2017)

POLITICAL FACTOR:

The FSNC are in danger because of the consistent strikes of the trade union which affects delaying the carriage problems and also impact on the networking of flights arrival and departure which is one of the main demerits faces by the company. After the post BREXIT, the political disturbances are at a huge level which questions some legality issues on FSNC related to European Aviation Safety Agency. FSNC has given the full support to many of the airways company included Swiss, Spanair, British Airways, Iberia etc. It means that the industry has going through various political pressure and support. Last but not the least, the COVID-19 impact has created huge losses in the markets and the overall losses are distributed to every sector which badly impacts on the cargo operations and FSNC (Rastogi et.al. 2016).

ECONOMICAL FACTORS:

The economical factor that motivates and demotivates the operations of the FSNCinclude the Heathrow airport which is the main hub of FSNCplanned third to run away here which results into an increase of cost and airlines operational offices. When the price of fuel goes down the FSNCcreates ample amount of profit which is one of the positive impacts that the economy of the UK also enjoyed. The company in Europe is somewhere owned and operated by the individual. It is the biggest industry that contributes in the economy at a huge level. The BREXIT news will always be the biggest drawback of the UK economy which will affect the public industry at the highest level. Due to BREXIT, there is a major drop in the investments which falls the economy at the fastest pace (Perera, 2017).

SOCIAL FACTOR:

The perception of the people has been changed in context with FSNC services as well as cargo as a low cost-carrier which influence the society as in customers and other stakeholders to accept FSNC as a trustworthy company. FSNC has understand and value its customers and hence provide appropriate services while satisfying demand of the consumers as they are more satisfied when they hear words like low cost, reasonable etc. Similarly, the low-cost carrier has given the idea to them about the cargo operations and other related shipments to it in positive ways (Rastogi et.al. 2016).

TECHNOLOGICAL FACTOR:

The airlines are one of the biggest industries in the world and FSNC is a globally known but when the industries are giant it requires the level of technology which is been equipped by the FSNC to attempt its several goals such carrier, loading and unloading etc. FSNC should take the opportunity to gain the digital advantage which can help in lowering the cost. So far, the company is investing in terms of technical aspect because it is the demand of the time. The FSNC also concentrating on warehouse management system so that the cargo department would also gain some relief as well as the society's perception of low-cost carrier is also fulfilled with this the ultimate customer also gets satisfied (Perera, 2017).

LEGAL FACTOR:

The trade union have a strong influence of FSNC which makes the employees in power because of the consistent strikes the news gets viral which the company do not want either therefore they make sure that every employee can get the minimum wage, salary so that they can be able to feed their family. The British Airways never mislead any of its Cargo operational department but strikes negatively impact the system and structure of the FSNC as when the crew members and other officers are not present the operations becomes tough. But, they find ways to maintain the decorum in the company by being ethically and legally strong in every way (Rastogi et.al. 2016).

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR:

As per the research, it has been known that FSNC gets the mandate on purchasing carbon pollution in the EU region. FSNC also care about the environment and work for its sustainability but because it is an airline the carbon footprints will not be as sustained as land transport.

In the above strategic PESTLE analysis, in each factor, the FSNC have some positives and negatives which makes it clear that whatever the company has to choose they need to choose it wisely because the FSNC and Cargo operational management both are an important factor of the FSNC which contributes the large part of the profit in the UK economy as well as make profits out of it. FSNC should sincerely prepare for every challenge that arrives from any factor because the brand image is always superior and the company has the power to face the challenges (Perera, 2017).

PART 2: LINK OF BRITISH AIRWAYS AND THEIR OPERATIONAL CHOICES

British Airways is the UK based flag carrier airline founded in the year 1974 whose headquarter is in London. The revenue of the company is £13020 million as per the statistics share in the year 2018 and the net income for the same year is £1952 million. It is the second-largest UK based carrier after easy jet (British Airways, 2020).

British Airways is a globally accepted and known company which smoothly deals with its operations and networks the flight on the wider level. The main areas of operational choices that British Airways have- routes served, choice of the alliance, codes shares, aircraft types, hub operations, and terminals used, ground heading, products and services offered (Mills, 2017).

Business Environment on Global Platform

The network of British Airways on the global platform and its relationship with them is really strong because cargo transportation and shipment is one of the greatest deals a company can crack. The company British Airways in 2011 merged with Iberia and form International Airlines Groups (IAG) (IAGCARGO, 2020). This is the Cargo operation cell of British Airways from here all the Cargo related information will be achieved. The business relationship of the British Airways cargo, carrier and FSCN conducts in 160 destinations including 8 in domestic boundaries and 26 in the United States of America (Efthymiou et.al. 2019).

The following operational areas of British Airways are:

Routes served:

Airbus A318 is the British Airways only Airbus which is parked at John F. Kennedy International Airport. This aircraft operates on a special route between London and New York and is well equipped with all business class configurations. The new routes served by British Airways are Europe, North America, and rest of the world including Lahore, Montego Bay, New quay, San Sebastian etc. One more route of British Airways is New York-JFK-London-Heathrow route (Mills, 2017).

Choice of Alliance:

The choice of Alliance of British Airways is Oneworld which is founded in the year 1999. The objectives of the alliance are to become the first choice of international travellers. Its main office is in New York the member airlines of British Airways Alliance is American Airlines, British Airways (itself), Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 airlines and more (Efthymiou et.al. 2019).

Codes Share:

British Airways codeshares are:

(Mills, 2017)

Aircraft types:

The aircraft types or fleet of British Airways in October 2020 operates 249 aircraft with 55 orders. The British Airways operates the Airbus narrow and wide-body aircraft. Boeing 777 and 787 are also included in the fleet of British Airways (Efthymiou et.al. 2019).

Hub Operations:

There are three main hub operations of British Airways:

• London Hub: The world’s busiest Heathrow airport handles 500,000 tonnes of cargo every year.

• Madrid Hub: The Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez airport handles more than 200,000 tonnesof cargo each year with a connection to LATAM.

Dublin Hub: The Dublin hub connects to over 10 destinations in the USA and Canada which gives access to countless routes across the globe (Mills, 2017).

Terminals used:

The terminal used by the British Airways is terminal 3 and terminal 5 of London Heathrow, London City, London Gatwick and London Stansted airports.

Ground Heading:

The ground operations and Cargo activities are presented at British Airways which is performed on London Heathrow airport their immense hard work and dedications help millions to reach their destination safely. They all share one common task which reflects a smooth journey of cargo, carrier and passengers. Here the role of FSNC comes who provides the instruction of services and carriers in the aligned route. It provides quick, efficient operations of flights on time and guarantees the safety of both aircraft and the passengers in it. The main platform used for the ground heading is the British Airways IAG division which is cargo based (Efthymiou et.al. 2019).

IAG: International Airlines Group

It is one of the best division which is Cargo based the engineers who are part of this decision has experienced with embraced technologies and interesting working. In this division, cargo stretches to over 350 destinations with 15000 flights per week (IAGCARGO, 2020).

Products and Services:

The all-new British Airways Aircraft A350 and new business class 'club suite' has changed the designed and pattern to give more comfort to its customers and showcase the elegant look of its aircraft. British Airways announces the change of products and services in first class (Beyond Business Travel, 2020)

CONCLUSION

In this report, the two tasks are given based on FSNC framework to establish a business environment and gain productivity and efficiency through the predetermined knowledge that brings the calculative advantage in the progress of British Airways. In the task second, British airways and its operational areas are discussed so as to clarify and clear out the different dimensions and understanding of the Cargo Operational Management as well as FSCN. In a nutshell, British Airways is performing well in the market by adopting technologies, innovations and uniqueness that bring British Airways more profits, revenue generation and social sustainability.

REFERENCES

Beyond Business Travel, (2020). British Airways redesigns Products and Services (Online available at https://beyondbusinesstravel.com/british-airways-redesigned-service/) (last accessed on Dec 15)

British Airways, (2020). About British Airways (Online available at https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/about-ba) (last accessed on Dec 15)

Efthymiou, M., Njoya, E.T., Lo, P.L., Papatheodorou, A. and Randall, D., 2019. The Impact of Delays on Customers' Satisfaction: an Empirical Analysis of the British Airways On-Time Performance at Heathrow Airport. Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management, 11.

IAGCARGO, (2020). FACILITIES (Online available at https://www.iagcargo.com/en/page/facilities) (Last accessed on Dec 15)

Mills, A.J., 2017. The Gendering of Organizational Culture: Social and Organizational Discourses in the Making of British Airways?. In Insights and Research on the Study of Gender and Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Perera, R., 2017. The PESTLE analysis. Nerdynaut.

Budiarto, S., Putro, H.P., Pradono, P. and Yudoko, G., 2018, May. Revenue management of air cargo service in theory and practice. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 158, pp. 12-22).

Rastogi, N.I.T.A.N.K. and Trivedi, M.K., 2016. PESTLE technique–a tool to identify external risks in construction projects. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 3(1), pp.384-388.