Acquire hands-on experience in the analysis of a problem in the aviation industry arising from practice and implementation of a solution using an information technology approach.

Case Study

The airline industry suffered greatly from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic with many airlines unable to fly as countries closed their borders to international travel. Now that most countries have lifted restrictions and air travel is well on the way again, there are problems with pilot shortages and rising inflation. As of October 2022, revenue is expected to reach 84% of 2019 levels. Despite the overall baseline improvement, a slower rate of growth is expected over the next 18 months as discretionary spending begins to dwindle. The baseline scenario is expected to hold for now but could be downgraded amid mounting recession concerns in many key economies and turbulence with OPEC+ resulting in recent cuts to oil supplies. Recovery for business travel continues to lag recovery for other travel purposes, and is not expected to recover fully before 2025.

Based on the above scenario, answer the following questions: 1) What can airlines do to help rebuild profitability? In your answer, also focus on the important factors which impact an airlines operations such as fuel price fluctuation, aircraft maintenance, labour and aircraft technical operations cost. Those are primary factors that significantly drain the budget of an airline while exerting strong impact on its operational performance. [50 marks]

2) How can information technology help airlines with their recovery strategies? In your answer you can look at for example, how it is able to increase operational efficiencies which are key for an airlines sustainability or how an airline is able to embrace digital transformation to deliver cost and carbon savings. [50 marks]