Introduction
Today’s airline industry is defined by various established corporations. Each of these airline corporations has their own routines and operational characteristics. This means that diversity is at its peak in the airline industry as the case among other corporations from different sectors of the economy (Lerrthaitrakul & Panjakajornsak 2014). The benefit of diversity has been mainly attributed to the particular employees, customers and the communities that are served by the airline corporations.
Characteristics of Diversity
In history, the scope of diversity in the airline has continued to widen with time. Today, one can easily notice the various aspects that identify and distinguish certain airline corporation from others. The adoption of different strategies from different corporations means that airline companies have unique characteristics. One of these characteristics is the culture of the airline organizations. Culture refers to behavioral/operational routines in which employees, customers and all airlines stakeholders handle their operations. It is easy to identify the culture of one corporation. Take, for instance, the Turkish airline. The corporation’s way of operations completely varies from other corporations. The second characteristics of diversity are the increasing number of destinations. As evident, Airline Corporation continues to explore new markets by establishing new routes and destinations. This is evidence to the high diversity levels in which the airline industry grows.
Another characteristic of diversity is the strategy to increase customer base. Different corporations employ different marketing strategies in the quest to gain control of the market (Mills 2005). Among the strategies include that of targeting new clients especially from societies that are economically challenged. Apart from the usual trend of the upper class being the target of majority established airline corporations, the middle class among other has increasingly become the target. Finally, the high level of competition is itself a characteristic of diversity in the airline industry. Well established corporations have been joined by new companies hence creating the much needed competition. Therefore, operational elements such as costs, customer care services and quality have been instrumental in defining the success of different corporations in the competitive airline industry.
Factors Affecting Diversity
Aging among experienced pilots has heavily affected diversity in the airline industry (Woodall 2006). Evidently, most of the serving pilots come from either retired army bodies graduates from the few schools of aviation. Now, statistics indicate that the few experienced pilots are bound to retire and when the rate of replacement is low as it is, it means that a crisis is about to hit the airline industry. This really undermines the diversity of the industry in a great extent. It gives no room for an equitable growth of the industry to match the needs of the increasing customers.
Another factor affecting diversity is the monopoly in which established corporations enjoy as opposed to new entrants. Ultimately, even with the increase of market and scope of the industry, it is evident that regulation policies remain inflexible to accommodate new entrants in the industry. This is because the industry is characterized with complete market control exercised by huge worldwide corporations. With monopoly, it means that operational elements remain intact. For example, customers continue paying highly to acquire services due to the fact that such services are determined by few companies. This also highly hinders growth of the airline sector. Furthermore, it erodes the chances in which customers may enjoy quality and prompt services.
References
Lerrthaitrakul, W. and Panjakajornsak, V. (2014). The Airline Service Quality Affecting Post Purchase Behavioral Intention: Empirical Evidence from the Low Cost Airline Industry. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 5(2), pp.155-158.
Mills, A. (2005). Man/aging Subjectivity, Silencing Diversity: Organizational Imagery in the Airline Industry. The Case of British Airways. Organization, 2(2), pp.243-269.
Woodall, J. (2006). Equal opportunity and diversity management meet downsizing: A case study in the UK airline industry. Strategic Direction, 22(6).
