The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports statistics on the number of passengers carried each year by major airlines.

Passenger data for 2007 are reported for the top 10 carriers in three categories:

• International flights

• Domestic flights

• Combined traffic, domestic and international flights The following table lists both passenger data and rankings for each category.

For this exercise, you will develop competitor profiles of selected air carriers.
Part One Working in groups of five to seven people, each team member selects one airline from the table. The pool of selected airlines should contain a roughly even balance of three regions: North America, Europe/Middle East, and Asia. Answer the following questions:
1. What drives this competitor (i.e., what are its objectives)?
2. What is its current strategy?
3. What does this competitor believe about its industry?
4. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
5. Does this airline belong to an airline alliance (e.g., Oneworld, Star, SkyTeam)?
When researching your companies, you should use multiple resources. The company’s Web site is a good starting point.
Public firms headquartered in the United States will also have annual reports and 10-K reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Part Two As a group, summarize the results of each competitor profile into a single table with columns for objectives, current strategy, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, and alliance partner(s). Then, discuss the following topics:
1. Which airlines had the most similar strategies? The most different? Would you consider any of the firms you studied to be in the same strategic group (i.e., a group of firms that follows similar strategies along similar dimensions)?
2. Create a composite five forces model based on the firms you reviewed. How might these elements of industry structure (e.g., substitutes, or bargaining power of buyers) differ from the perspective of individual airlines?
3. Which airlines appear best positioned to succeed in the future? Why?

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Airline Air France All Nippon Airways American Airlines British Airways Cathay Pacific China Southern Airlines Continental Airlines Delta Air Lines Easyjet Emirates Japan Airlines International KLM Lufthansa Northwest Airlines Ryanair Singapore Airlines Southwest Airlines United Airlines US Airways Inc. Intl Rank 3 5 10 4 8 6 2 9 Intl Passengers 31,549 21,479 28,302 17,695 30,173 20,448 23,165 41,322 49,030 18,957 Domestic Rank 2 5 o 3 10 13 8 Domestic Passengers Rank 44,792 76,687 52,505 37,175 61,651 35,583 44,337 Combined 101,911 58,162 37,560 8 2 7 10 1 Combined Passengers 50,465 98,166 56,522 49,059 73,086 54,165 54,696 49,030 101,911 68,363