Jet Blue Case Study Synthesis 3 pages

Jet Blue Case Study Synthesis
Jet Blue alternative solutions
The aviation industry within the U.S.A. is facing a tough time and has been since the 9/11 event that brought the entire industry to a standstill for a considerable number of days. The recovery has been slow and the trends inconsistent since then. Coupled with the stiff competition that the local airlines have, the American market in terms of the air passengers need a variation in the approach to the industry away from the traditional way and these alternative means have been successfully exploited by Jet Blue to emerge one of the single most effective local airlines in the U.S.A.
One of the strong areas of the company is the management that invested in implementing various strategies that proved to be right at the very start of it all. The management was able to provide marvelous customer service all round at an affordable cost as compared to the others. This they did by focusing on creation of a strong operations unit and utilizing innovation to keep the costs as low as possible. The management also managed to create space for the thriving of a unique culture within the organization that both the employees as well as the customers enjoyed. The employees had a positive work culture that grew to become a very close knit culture that radiated on the customers more than the other airlines. The employees here were frequently rewarded with bonuses and other rewards as well as having free will to make contributions to the various operations of the company and how these could be improved. The management can also be accredited with the wise capitalization investment as well as the company’s strategic route planning. This saw airline get into routes that hitherto many airlines feared venturing into for instance operating from New York with JFKIA being one of the takeoff airport yet it was predominantly used by international airlines and shunned by local airlines. The downside to this was that the management apparently lacked experience and this was evidenced in the wanting strategic plan. The company suffered the poorly planned technical capability and the inability to effectively absorb the rising costs within the industry. There was a need to have a SWOT matrix analysis to see .where their weaknesses were and improve on them.
The other part that the Jet Blue had a good score was the operations approach of the airline. Despite being a young firm, Jet Blue successfully drove down the costs through using brand new and fuel efficient fleet of planes. The operation costs were further driven down by buying the same model, which in effect meant that there was a standardized training for the pilots and the crew and also a reduction in the spare requirements. The planes were formatted into a single class hence the uniformity of the operations and services provided. The route planning was also carefully done within the regions that the airline operated in, with more focused directed toward the regional flights and also flights to secondary airport. The company also cut down operation costs through enabling of the customers to book their flights online and this saw 70% of the bookings done online and the call center operators could also work from their homes through the VOIp setting. The downside to this was however that the rising costs of fuel never spared the company since it impacted on the entire industry and Jet Blue felt a harder hit since they have a low bargaining power as well as lack of economies of scale. In the planning of their routes and flights, the company was not accustomed to flight cancellations hence the winter storm in Northeast that hit in 2007 adversely affected them as many passengers had to wait for long hours and ultimately had their flights cancelled. This also led to many mistakes in the rescheduling and the end result was that the entire company suffered greatly a tainted image that was almost impossible to recover from. If there could be a critical and keen analysis of the operations and organizational structures through the Porter’s Five Forces model or a proper SWOT analysis, that could help restructure the operations and place the organization in a better standing in the future.
The positioning that Jet blue adopted also was one that the peers in the industry never had thought of before. Instead of fitting cloth covered seats in the passage seats they used leather seats that were more expensive but lasted longer. They provided assigned seats to customers and allowed them to pick seats whenever possible. On board, Jet Blue served the customers snacks and canned drinks which boosted the customers’ experience. In addition to these, they provided personal satellite television to each passenger on board. The input that was directed towards such additional implements fro the comfort of the customers were however seen to be high bearing that they were done in large scale for the entire fleet. This also pushed the operation costs a bit higher as the satellite televisions had to be paid for continuously just like the snacks that had to be consistently bought on each trip. There was need to conduct a customer satisfaction survey among the frequent users of the Jet Blue and find out exactly what the driving factor was to their repeated use of the airline. This would help the company reduce expenditures that do not necessarily add any value to the company in terms of expanding the customer base.
Generally Jet Blue has significantly performed well when it comes to the customer handling. Their customer bill of rights is quite detailed and customer friendly catering for the information flow to the clients, handling of cancellations and departure delays, overbookings, onboard delays as well as arrivals. This results into a greater customer satisfaction which in turn will work out for the company as they will have repeat clients.