SWOT Analysis: Summary

1

OPPORTUNITIES OF YOUR ORGANIZATION 6

Virgin Atlantic

Michael D. White

Excelsior College

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is a British airline company that has its headquarters in Crawly, England. The airline was originally known as the British Atlantic Airways, which was started in 1984 to make flights between London and the Falkland Islands. The airline offers its services to over one million passengers to more than thirty different destinations worldwide. The organization has a type A operating license to carry passengers, cargo, and mail on its aircraft with twenty or more seats. There are numerous opportunists that Virgin Atlantic can take advantage of to gain a competitive advantage in the aviation industry. These opportunities will help them gain a competitive advantage through increased customer base, brand recognition, and increased revenue due to the expansions it will make on its operations. This essay aims to discuss two opportunities that Virgin Atlantic can take advantage of, why these opportunities exist and how the organization can take advantage of these opportunities and a leadership theory that can be used to implement the opportunities.

Change in Customer Preferences

The first opportunity which the Virgin Atlantic can take advantage of changes in customer preferences. People worldwide are willing to spend extra money on an airplane seat which will guarantee them comfort while traveling due to an increase in the frequency of travel (Bouwens et al., 2018). The changes in customer preferences result from social factors that determine the spending habits and culture of individuals. These social factors across the world have resulted in people increasing their spending habits for their comfort. The force responsible for this opportunity is the power of customers. The customers have a larger power to choose their comfort, making them fly on airlines that offer better comfort to their customers.

Why the Opportunity is Present

The changes in customer preferences where they have prioritized their comfort are due to the increase in the number of professionals in the corporate world, which has resulted in many professionals traveling across the world for them to conduct their business. The increase in frequency at which these professionals travel has made most of them prioritize their comfort on flights since they spend a lot of time flying from one location to another. The airplane company can take advantage of this opportunity to differentiate from other aviation companies to increase its competitive advantage both in the long and the short term. Currently, the airline company has thirty-six airplane fleets that have a total of 12784 seats for passengers. Out of the 12784 seats, only 3224 seats can be used to have the comfort needed to meet the changing preferences of customers, which is approximately 25% of its total seats. The remaining 9560 seats are economy class with small leg rooms, and the seats are small in width to accommodate all those passengers. This data shows that the airline company has not taken into account the comfort of its customers. This trend is the same with all the other airlines globally, where a small number of seats offer the comfort needed to meet the changes in customer preferences of comfort (Tran, 2014). Therefore the opportunity exists for Virgin Atlantic to take advantage of by focusing on the comfort of its customers.

What to do to Seize this Opportunity

There are several steps that Virgin Atlantic can take to seize the opportunity of meeting the customer preferences for comfort. Research conducted determined that the comfort of flying customers depends on the seats' designs on airplanes and the space available to them. To ensure that Virgin Atlantic meets the customers' requirements, it should redesign its fleets to ensure that they have reasonable seat designs, cabin layout, and activity management that can improve the comfort of its customers who are willing to pay extra money for this comfort (Liu et al., 2019). They should create a comfortable seat that offers support to the head, back, arms, and legs to prevent pain and injuries of the customers when they are sleeping. This support can include backrests and headrests. They should also increase the width of the armrests that are often narrow, preventing two passengers from using the same armrest. The other thing to increase the customer's comfort is increasing the adjustability of the seats, and the passengers should be allowed to choose their preferred lighting intensity for reading or watching games. The airline company should also increase the space between seats to reduce the restrictions of space. It can also increase comfort by introducing new virtual reality technology devices that will help improve the passengers' comfort feeling. This comfort will allow the airline to increase its pricing on its tickets and attract new customers, which will result in an increase in revenue for the organization.

Expansion into New Routes

The recent approval of the UK government for Virgin Atlantic to have a third runway at Heathrow has presented the airline organization with the opportunity to expand its flight routes. Expansion of its flight routes will influence the UK market, which will increase its market share, especially since the United Kingdom left the European Union. If the organization takes advantage of this opportunity, it will increase its competitive advantage and increase its revenue (Leonard, n.d). This opportunity comes to form the competitive rivalry force of porter's five forces which aims to increase the organization's competitive advantage. It is also a result of political factors. The exit from the European government has allowed the government to expand into new routes, and the UK government is allowing to have a new runway at Heathrow.

Why the Opportunity is Present

The Virgin Atlantic has the opportunity to increase its routes to various routes due to different reasons. The first reason is that there are more than 50,00 routes in the world that the aviation company can expand to, but it only serves approximately 200 routes, where they are 29 international destinations in 18 different countries and four domestic destinations. It shows that the cooperation has not yet expanded to other routes. If it decides to take advantage of this opportunity, its market share and revenue will increase. The opportunity is also present because of its merger with Delta airlines, making it possible to penetrate new markets in the different routes.

What to do to Seize this Opportunity

It can seize this opportunity by taking advantage of the merger with Delta airlines, allowing it to penetrate new markets. The organization will use Delta's already established brand image in the new routes to attract new customers (Baxter, 2019). The new runway in Heathrow also allows the organization to seize the opportunity since it provides the extra space required to increase its flight routes.

Leadership Theory

The leadership theory that can be used to implement these opportunities is the situational leadership theory. The situational leadership theory argues that no leadership style is the best and is an adaptive leadership where the most effective leadership style will depend on the situation. A leader who uses this theory must adapt their style and approach in different circumstances, where they can take an autocratic or democratic approach depending on the situation. The situational leadership theory can be used in the implementation of these opportunities in several ways. The first way is that an individual can use an autocratic leadership approach to ensure that the fleets offer comfort to its customers by implementing the strategies used to meet the comfort needs of the organization's customers. This leadership theory can be utilized by using a democratic leadership approach to choosing the new routes for Virgin Atlantic expansion.

Virgin Atlantic is a British airline company that offers flights to more than thirty destinations across the world. There are several opportunities that these organization can take advantage of to increase its competitive advantage and its revenue. These opportunities include changes in customer preferences where they are willing to pay more for comfort and expanding their routes. The leadership theory that can be used to implement these opportunities is the situational leadership theory. The situational leadership theory argues that no leadership style is the best and is an adaptive leadership where the most effective leadership style will depend on the situation. Therefore Virgin Atlantic needs to take advantage of these opportunities to succeed in the aviation industry.

References

Baxter, G. (2019). Capturing and Delivering Value in the Trans-Atlantic Air Travel Market: The Case of the Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines, and Virgin Atlantic Airways Strategic Joint Venture. MAD-Magazine of Aviation Development, 7(1), 17-37.

Bouwens, J., Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, S., & Vink, P. (2018). Ranking of human senses in relation to different in-flight activities contributing to the comfort experience of airplane passengers. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, 5(2), 9.

Liu, J., Yu, S., & Chu, J. (2019). The passengers' comfort improvement by sitting activity and posture analysis in the civil aircraft cabin. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2019.

Leonard, N. Virgin Atlantic, and British Airways.

Tran Viet, T. (2014). Public Relations in enhancing brand values: case study Virgin Atlantic and Vietnam Airlines.