airblue - competitive advantage

8/14/2019 AirBlue - Competitive Advantage

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Competitive Advantage - AirBlue

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Hajrah Wasif Sajjad Ms. Ayesha Pervaiz

Maria Ul Mulk

Rabiya Anwar

Sheikh Mustafa Mumtaz

Umar Rauf

Zahra Shah


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Competitive Advantage - AirBlue

The world as changed in many ways since John Slyth first introduced a

caramel flavored drink in 1886; Henri Nestle developed the first milk food forinfants in 1867 and scores of airlines consolidated to form a giant

corporation in 1929. These incidents lead to the formation of some of the

worlds most sustainable companies namely Coca Cola, Nestle and American

Airlines. Their capacity to stand the test of time has come from their ability

to develop and sustain competitive edge over their rivals over time, both in

terms of cost and product differentiation. The same principal can be applied

to Pakistanis Aviation Industry in general and Air blue in specific.

AirBlue is one of the three airlines currently operating in Pakistan. When it

was launched in 2003, it brought a revolution to the Pakistani aviationindustry by not only introducing a modern business plan but also by offering

new products and services that were an alien concept to the market. Airblue

straight away made an impact on the market and grabbed a major chunk of

the market share from its rivals PIA and Shaheen Air.

What truly set Airblue apart from the competition was the high quality of

customer services it offered. Airblue introduced the concept of e-ticketing,

which reduced costs and gave the customer more flexibility when purchasing

tickets. Airblue is also the first and only airline in Pakistan to introduce the

state-of-the-art self-service check-in facilities at Jinnah International Airport,

Karachi1. Airblue also introduced sms updates in case there were any flight

delays or cancellations. The in-flight experience/service offered was also

rated as the best in the market and comparable to international standard

airlines. Airblue introduced its premium lounge at Jinnah International

Airport; it is for business class passengers, credit card holders and privileged

customers.2 Airblue has newer fleet of aircraft that are more fuel efficient

and do not require very high level of maintenance.

Since the last two years Airblue has not been able to hold onto the

competitive edge it enjoyed over the other players in the industry. PIA and

Shaheen Air have started offering the same services as Airblue e.g. e-

1 Wikipedia contributors, "Airblue," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Airblue&oldid=340905866 (accessed February 1,2010).

2 ibid
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Airblue&oldid=340905866http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Airblue&oldid=340905866


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ticketing, sms and email updates, frequent flyer reward system etc and its

ticket prices are comparable to those of Shaheen Air but certainly cheaper

than PIA. The in-flight service quality of Airblue has also deteriorated over

the years. This lack of unique features when compared to the industry have

caused the once shining star of the Pakistani aviation industry to slowly but

surely grow fainter and merge with the rest.

airblue - competitive advantage

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