Business research report - Part II APA style 6 pages

Many companies around the world usually have a difficult time trying to find the best way to make sure their businesses are not affected by a pandemic that has changed the world in general. They usually devise ways to ensure they are still in business, even if it means laying off some of their employees. Airlines is one of the sectors which is usually affected by such development; this is because they move from one country to another. The recent pandemic which has changed the world as a whole is the COVID-19, it has forced many countries to close their airports with some of them putting out travel restriction especially to countries which were mostly affected by the pandemic (Mackenzie & Goodnow, 2020). In this paper, we are going to have a broader discussion on how COVID-19 which is a global pandemic affected Emirates airlines economically which is a subsidiary of the Emirates Group, we are going to see how it has disrupted the flow of work and what measures the company was able to come up with to tackle that deadly virus.

Due to the recent emergence of COVID-19 Emirates airlines whose parent company is Emirates has found it very difficult to conduct their business, because many countries have put up their measures to tackle the virus and most of those measures put in place are not friendly to the overall well-being of the business. It has made the company to experience both positive and negative economic impact, from the financial report released by the company it indicated that its net income had increased as compared to the previous year. As at the end of 31st March their profit had risen from Dh 871 million to Dh 1.1 billion, this was due to cheaper fuel and its healthy demand. In the fourth quarter, the pandemic had made the company to have a negative economic impact, with its revenues declining from 6% yearly to Dh 92 million (Abdul-Kadir et al., 2020). The reason for such poor financial performance was due to the travel restriction which many countries had put in place globally during the beginning of the year, and passenger flights temporary suspension in March as well as Dubai International Airport closure for 45 days.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 had economically negatively affected Emirates airlines, the airline had its revenue fall by 4% since it was able to carry around 56.2 million passengers. The capacity which the seats inside the airline were to take was reduced to 6%, and that led to 78.5% passenger load factor, to limit the spread of the virus United Arab Emirates had all passenger flights suspended (Suau-Sanchez et al., 2020). The cost of operating for the company fell to 10% since there was also a 15% decline in the fuel bill that was brought as a result of low jet fuel prices. To manage this economic impact which has affected the company the management has aggressively started to implement measures of cost management, it has taken the step of asking for more money from the bank so that the business has liquidity during their first quarter. The government of Dubai has also pledged to support the company financially.

The main reason for conducting this study is to find out how an outbreak of a pandemic can affect a business; in this study, we are discussing Emirates Airlines. The study will be conducted by using the qualitative method of research and the population which will be used are the airport officials, airport workers, government agencies in charge of immigration and businesses as well as people who have a good track record of traveling outside the country. The sample had been purposefully selected to have people who have a good track record for traveling since they were more familiar with airline travels and they could know how to identify peak and off-peak days in the airports.

Research Questions

The research question for this study was developed in such a way that the data collected would be able to fulfill the primary purpose of the study; they include the following:

1. How does the outbreak of the pandemic affect the overall work-flow of Emirates airlines?

2. What are some of the economic impact brought about by the outbreak of COVID-19 to the company?

3. What are some of the things the company can do to make sure that it is not greatly affected by the pandemic?

4. What are some of the measures the government can do in making sure the company is not economically affected with the pandemic in a manner that they can’t recover from the losses it has brought upon them?

The negative effect which a global pandemic such as COVID-19 is normally very big especially to a business such as Emirates airlines, the virus was spread through the air and that was a very great disadvantage to the company since most of its customers liked to converge at one place before they enter the plane and also they sit close to each other. The measures which had been put in place by the World Health Organization to prevent the spread of the virus were to practice social distancing and avoid crowded places. This was a huge disadvantage to the company because its business model revolved around those things are telling people not to do. The study was worth conducting because it gives us a better understanding of the economic impact brought as a result of an outbreak of a pandemic, and solutions which can be put in place to make sure it does not affect the business substantially.

This research study is about the economic impact a pandemic such as COVID-19 has brought and how it has affected Emirates airlines. The research method used in this process is qualitative analysis; I used both the primary and secondary data during the research. The primary data that was used was collected by conducting interviews and observations on face to face basis and the secondary data was collected through going through the different peer-reviewed articles as well as online articles which talk about the same issue (Fletcher et al., 2017). Some of the data were descriptive in nature, and the gathering of data was done without any intervention.

The sampling method used during the research was simple random sampling, where a given population size was identified, and each of those members of that population had the same probability or chance of being selected. Still, their choosing was based on chance (Leavy,2017). For example, in the research, the number of airport officials and employees identified as a sample population size was 45 and 41, respectively, but after conducting simple random sampling, they were 32 and 29 respectively.

The data that was collected during the research process mostly come from interviews, observations, and peer-reviewed articles, a coding method that has been greatly established was the technique used to review all data collected. To collect data, the interview technique, which was mostly used during the process was semi-structured; this allowed people to flow information since the question was open-ended freely, and they were not rigid to the interviewee. The interview took place in a private area and was recorded and then uploaded in MAXQDA for further analysis (Moser& Korstjens, 2018).

The main reason for conducting the study was to determine the economic impact a pandemic can bring to a business. In this study, we had identified the company to be Emirate airline. The selected research design and methodology was able to assist us in answering some of the research questions posed to the interviewee during their sessions of an interview. MAXQDA was the most appropriate qualitative data analysis software to be used during the process; this was because it was able to import data from the interviews conducted and then could be ready to be reviewed in one location which is centrally placed. It was able to have the information got from the data collected be categorized into groups or categories, and tags could be placed on specific data so that any other person who wanted to review the information got from the interview could be able to do so.

Pandemics are normally something which drags the world behind in any activity be it business transactions or even education, the kind of economic impact it had brought to Emirates was something which could not be taken lightly from them having to lay off some workers to having the amount of revenue which they got during that year to decrease. Adequate turnaround strategies should always be put in place to ensure that the business is able to survive long after that pandemic has disappeared.

The recent and ongoing pandemic outbreak called Corona Virus (COVID-19) has done much business to realize some losses, and also many people have lost the jobs. It had negatively impacted Emirates, especially in the first three months of its outbreak. Through the design of this research would help us better identify and quantify the economic impact endured by the company. The research might be further advanced if big data can be employed and analysed to further study the economic impact in various aspects and in bigger and broade scope.

Abdul-Kadir, A., Sadat, A. A., & Sadick, A. A. (2020). GLOBAL STRATEGIES OF THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF RYANAIR, EMIRATES, NETJETS, AND THOMAS COOK. StudNet, 3(3).

Fletcher, A. J. (2017). Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets method. International journal of social research methodology, 20(2), 181-194.

Leavy, P. (2017). Research design.

Mackenzie, S. H., & Goodnow, J. (2020). Adventure in the Age of COVID-19: Embracing Microadventures and Locavism in a Post-Pandemic World. Leisure Sciences, 1-8.

Moser, A., & Korstjens, I. (2018). Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection and analysis. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), 9-18.

Suau-Sanchez, P., Voltes-Dorta, A., & Cugueró-Escofet, N. (2020). An early assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on air transport: Just another crisis or the end of aviation as we know it?. Journal of Transport Geography.

ZIKMUND, W. G. (2013). BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS. Place of publication not identified: CENGAGE LEARNING.

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