Qantas is an Australian airline group. The group's strong dominance in Australian domestic

market enables it to take advantage of the local expertise to gain access to key markets as well as

enhance the quality of its delivery services. However, increased competition from the growing

number of low cost and low fare airlines could impact the group's market share especially in the

Asian region.

Strengths:

- Strong dominance in Australian domestic market

Qantas one of the two most profitable Australian domestic brands, maintaining its competitive

position with 45% market share. This domestic strength was further reinforced by additional

Frequent Flyer program product offerings through the acquisition of Wishlist, development of

epiQure by Qantas Frequent Flyer and launch of CBA Diamond Direct, Woolworths Qantas card

and the NAB Qantas Business card.

- Diversified geographic markets

The Qantas group offers transportation services across geographies which operates international,

domestic and regional services. Qantas' main markets are domestic and international traffic to and

from Australia.

Weaknesses

- Industrial action disputes

Qantas' business is highly susceptible to industrial action disputes. Within Australia, extensive

industrial action and union campaigns to discredit the Qantas brand with a cost of A$68 million

($70.1 million), disrupted 70,000 passengers and saw 600 its flights cancelled.

Opportunities

- Growing Australian domestic market

The declining international travel demand, the slow recovery of the US economy, and concerns

about the euro area debt crisis have made the airline industry a challenging environment.

Nonetheless, the domestic market is in need for wider investment to enhance the domestic

customer experience to meet the growing demand for business and premium travel on the routes

Sydney-Perth and Melbourne-Perth.

- Global aviation partnership

To strengthen its service in growing Asian region and to improve its network coverage across

Europe, the Middle East and Africa Qantas may form new global aviation partnerships.

Threats

- Competition from low cost airlines

The competition in the airline industry has been intensified with the emergence of low cost

carriers

especially in the East Asian region. The low fare charged by these budget airlines makes Qantas'

airline operation less competitive. AirAsia, Tiger Airways Singapore, Firefly airlines, Mandala

Airlines (Indonesia) as well as Lion Air (Indonesia) are major competitors in the low-cost market.

- Competition from business organizations

As a result of increasing business travel, a number of customers are increasingly looking towards

air travel options which allow them to minimize stoppage time at airports caused due to various

reasons, including baggage handling and refuelling. This has led an increasing number of business

organizations to invest in private jets, which are jointly owned along with certain airlines, or

completely owned.

Please read the above case carefully and answer the following questions:

1. What are major issues identified from the case study?

2. What types of strategies you can develop to tackle the issues?

3. Conduct the further online research and discuss further actions which are taking by Qantas in the

recent years.