AVM 414: MANAGEMENT OF AIR CARGO - 2020/21 SPRING

COURSEWORK: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE CURRENT

PERFORMANCE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE AIRLINE IN ITS
MARKET ENVIRONMENT

1. BRIEF:
You will be allocated an Airline by random selection. You will prepare a
professional presentation of around 15 minutes which is structured as
follows:

 Title page
 Contents
 Introduction
 Data analysis/Results
 Discussion/Recommendations
 Conclusion
 References

You will need to identify the airline’s strengths and weaknesses (do a
SWOT Analysis!) and assess its future prospects e.g. opportunities and
threats by looking at three key issues:
 Operational characteristics (e.g. route structure, traffic volume, fleet
size and type):
o You can collect and analyze annual number of destinations,
number of aircraft movements, pax numbers, cargo tonnage,
RPK, ASK, FTK, ATK, Passenger LF, Weight LF, number of
wide body/narrow body a/c, number of freighters etc. data.

 Financial performance (e.g. profitability, costs).

o You can collect and analyse annual revenue, cost, profit, profit
margin, RASK, CASK, RRPK, RASK, Breakeven LF,RFTK,
RATK etc. data.

 Competitive situation (e.g. competitor airlines, alliance strategy,

geographical position).
o You can find out the airlines main hubs and the major airlines it
competes with in these hubs. It might be helpful to draw
comparisons from rival or neighbouring airlines operating in the
same country/markets.
o You can also do Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis for the airline’s
competitive situation.

2. SOURCES:
 You may find some useful articles in the daily press (e.g. Financial
Times and papers local to the airline concerned). Several airline
articles have been published in the Economist (weekly).
 A good source is Airline Business (monthly)
(https://www.flightglobal.com/products/airline-business/) which has up-
to-date analysis of airline issues. It also produces an Annual Survey of
 the performance of the 100 largest airlines (normally in the August or
September issue). Air Transport World has similar information
(atwonline.com). Flight International (weekly and on-line at
flightglobal.com) and anna.aero are other useful references.
 Air Cargo World (http://www.aircargoworld.com/) and Air Cargo News
(http://www.aircargonews.net/) are perfect sources for latest data and
news for air cargo industry.
 The IATA World Air Transport Statistics and ICAO data are other
possible sources. (IATA Economics, download the APP)
 Annual reports of the airlines.
 Bureau of Transportation Statistics (https://www.transtats.bts.gov/) is a
reliable data source for US carriers.

3. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
 Research and Understanding
There should be a good understanding of the airline’s current performance
with evidence of a wide range of material consulted. A bibliography
(References) must be attached.
 Analysis
You need to produce a convincing analysis of the airline’s current
performance (Especially Cargo Performance!!!) and assessment of its
future prospects. You are expected to interpret this with a critical eye
rather than only copying and pasting public relations material you found on
the web!
 Structure and Organisation
Your presentation should be logically structured and well-organised. It
should be concisely argued.
 Standard of Presentation
Your presentation should be around 15 minutes. The report should be
presented in a clear, accurate and interesting style. Tables and graphs
should be used to present key data.