Financial Comparisons across Different Business Models in the Canadian Airline Industry

This paper examines the accounting and stock price performance of two Canadian airlines, WestJet and Air Canada, over a five year period, taking into account the aftermath of the systemic shock to the airline industry produced by the September 11, 2001 (9-11), terrorist attacks and subsequent events such as the 2002 SARS outbreak, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the accompanying rise in jet fuel prices. Our study focuses on the viability of low-cost versus conventional-cost business models in Canada under the current business environment and the ability of airlines to withstand and effectively respond to catastrophic industry events. Furthermore, we link the effectiveness of the airlines responses to these events to specific elements of their respective business models. We test our hypothesis through a case study. We focus on WestJet as a typical low-cost airline and compare its accounting and stock performance to Air Canada, a legacy carrier and rival in several business sectors. We find WestJet to be much less affected by catastrophic industry events. By decomposing each airline s return volatility, we observe that WestJet s systematic and unsystematic risk increased only slightly during the industry's post-9-11 turmoil when compared to Air Canada. In addition, we find that both WestJet s accounting and stock performance have been highly superior to those of Air Canada. We argue that WestJet s business model provides the firm with significantly more financial and operational flexibility than its legacy rival, Air Canada. WestJet's lower operating costs, high consumer trust, product offering, corporate structure, workforce and work practices, as well as operational procedures are all factors that appear to contribute to its relative success

Confidence in Airline Performance in Difficult Market Conditions: An Analysis of JetBlue's Financial Market Results

This paper examines the stock market s reaction to JetBlue s Initial Public Offering (1PO) and subsequent price movements of the stock. In particular, w e examine whether the euphoria surrounding JetBlue s IPO carried over to other firms in the sector by testing whether the shares of JetBlue s competitors showed a significant price reaction to JetBlue s IPO. JetBlue's IPO took place just a few months following September 11, 2001. These events resulted in dramatic changes in the airline industry and had significant implications on the economic gains of airlines. We examine JetBlue s accounting and stock performance and compare it to the relative performance of Southwest Airlines (SWA), a representative of the loa-cost carrier group. In addition, we compare both JetBlue's and SWA's financial condition and the relative performance of their stock to two mainline U S. carriers, Continental and Northwest. representatives of the conventional-cost carrier group. We analyze whether there are any performance differences among the low-cost carriers and between low-cost carriers and conventional-cost carriers. In particular, we examine whether low-cost carriers were able to sustain the economic impacts of 9/11 better than the conventional-cost carriers

Uji Daya Hasil Pendahuluan Delapan Galur F6 Kapas (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) Serat Warna Coklat

Kapas (Gossypium hirsutum L.) merupakan salah satu tanaman penghasil serat yang memiliki nilai ekonomis cukup tinggi. Sebagian besar permintaan serat oleh industri Tekstil dan Produk Tekstil >99% bahan baku berupa serat masih di impor dari negara-negara penghasil serat (BPS, 2010). Kelebihan kapas serat warna coklat yaitu warna seratnya bisa lebih tahan terhadap pencucian, tidak mudah pudar oleh sinar ultra violet, dan tidak memerlukan proses pewarnaan secara kimia. Penelitian dilaksanakan pada bulan Maret sampai September 2012 di kebun percobaan Karangploso, Balai Penelitian Tanaman Pemanis dan Serat. Percobaan ini menggunakan Rancangan Acak Kelompok (RAK), terdiri dari 8 galur F6 dengan 2 (dua) ulangan. Parameter yang diamati antara lain tinggi tanaman, jumlah cabang vegetative, generative, bulu daun, jumlah buah, panen dan potensi hasil per hektar. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa 8 galur yang diuji tidak memberikan perbedaan pada tinggi tanaman, jumlah cabang vegetatif, dan generatif. Perbedaan nyata terdapat pada jumlah buah, bulu daun dan hasil (kg/30 m2). Galur yang memiliki hasil tinggi dan berserat coklat adalah K1 (06063/3)

The Recognition and Determinants of Depression at a South African Primary Care Clinic

Depression leads to substantial morbidity and mortality on a global scale, but it is frequently underrecognized and inadequately treated in primary care settings. The detection of depression is particularly challenging in under-resourced countries. This study attempts to determine rates of recognition and treatment of depressive disorders at a community clinic in the Cape Flats, South Africa. The diagnostic instrument PRIME-MD was administered and charts reviewed for a sample of 222 patients presenting to the Lotus River Community Health Centre. Outcomes sought were (1) the prevalence of depressive disorders and (2) rates of detection and treatment as indicated by antidepressant prescription through chart review. The prevalence of depressive disorders in the group was found to be 32% (N=70), with 13% meeting criteria for major depressive disorder (N=29). Depressed patients tended to be younger (p\u3c.001) and female (p=.026) and were more likely to describe somatic symptoms than were non depressed (p\u3c.001). There was a statistically significant correlation between a diagnosis of depression and prescription of a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) (p=.028). The sensitivity and specificity of a TCA prescription for depression were 20% and 91%, respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the strongest factor contributing to either a diagnosis of depression or a prescription of an antidepressant was the presence of somatic complaints. In this primary care setting, patients with depressive diagnoses were reliably recognized as indicated by a significant correlation between depression and antidepressant receipt. Physicians appeared to respond primarily to somatic rather than psychological presentations. While depressed patients received antidepressants more frequently than non-depressed, only a minority of depressed patients was recognized as such. Analyzing patterns of recognition requires an understanding not only of physician practices but also of the cultural setting of the health care system

Integrated Airline Organizational Frameworks and Crew Resource Management Effectiveness

It is only through well-designed and implemented Crew Resource Management being deeply rooted in an airline\u27s organizational culture that an airline can achieve its highest possible standard of safety, by having the highest degree of operational efficiency. It is not Crew Resource Management training itself that contributes to well-trained crew members who implement Crew Resource Management principles in flight operations. Rather, it is a strong company organizational culture that contributes, ultimately, to the effectiveness of Crew Resource Management

Growing Elementary Education with Curriculum Founded in Place

Public school education has become increasingly homogenized as teachers work to meet national and state standardized curriculum goals. What is at risk is students losing touch with the places where their learning occurs. By inviting our schoolyard habitats, neighborhoods, and communities back into the curriculum educators can reconnect their classrooms to place allowing the environment, both ecological and cultural, to serve as the foundation for meaningful learning. Through the development of a guidebook, that administrators and educators can use, this project serves as a tool to implement place-based education. The guidebook has been designed as a scaffold of seven core concepts to work grade level content connections into elementary school standards that align learning through place. These core concepts are: encouraging student sense of place, reviving nature study and phenology, mapmaking, water fluency, using learning that occurs across curriculum with content standards as the guide, allowing for an emphasis on inquiry led investigations, and acknowledging that teachers are the “key” to success in place-based learning. The guidebook inspires students to address issues that often have a global scale on a local level, emboldening civic action that is accessible and meaningful, while encouraging students to steward the places where they learn

The Impact of Ground Schools in a Collegiate Aviation Program on FAA Written Exam Scores

This is a longitudinal study, tracing student FAA written exam test scores in a collegiate environment. The exams surveyed were administered in the War Eagle CATS testing center located at Auburn University from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 2000. The purpose of the study was to test the significance of ground schools offered at Auburn University on FAA written exam test scores. In addition, it examined the difference on test scores of Auburn students versus non-Auburn University students. The independent variable was set as the group corresponding to each FAA test ground school. The dependent variable was student performance based on each corresponding FAA written exam score. Statistical analysis revealed that there is no significance on the impact of the independent to the dependent variable, or the impact of ground schools on FAA written test performance is not significant

Safety Performance Comparisons in Scheduled U.S. Carrier Operations: 2000-2004

Airline safety is an important factor that customers seek and expect from air carriers. Safety performance, related to the rate of accidents and incidents, is frequently associated with the effectiveness of a carrier’s internal processes. On-time performance, lost luggage, and customer complaints are, among others, publicly reported performance indicators that may differentiate one carrier from another. This article will consider how safety as a key performance indicator may reflect the effectiveness of the organization’s operational policies and processes. The paper proposes that low-cost carriers (LCCs) demonstrate a better safety performance record than mainline and regional carriers. The results of this exploratory study of five years of safety and on-time performance data involving carriers in the United States suggest that the low-cost carrier segment is less prone to accidents and incidents and offers the best performance. As a result, the low-cost business model may improve an airline’s safety and operational performance since it more efficiently transforms organizational inputs into safety performance outcomes. A model explaining the relationship between key characteristics of low-cost carriers and a higher performance standard is presented

Strategic Management as a Key to Educating the New Aviation Professional

Differences and similarities between management and strategic management are discussed in this article and a framework for the aviation strategic management process is proposed. The steps of the aviation strategic management process include 1) scanning the aviation environment, 2) analyzing the aviation organization, 3) formulating the corporate strategy, 4) formulating the business strategy, and 5) implementing the corporate and business strategies through the formulation of functional strategies. The article argues that knowledge of strategic management principles along the abovementioned process can help aviation organizations, just like organizations in other industries, achieve high strategic and financial performance and develop a clear understanding of industry competitive dynamics. Aviation Strategic Management as a course of study can significantly enrich the educational experience of students in aviation programs and mold them into competent aviation professionals as it provides an effective way to synthesize technical information and applythis information on everyday industry issues. We propose that strategic management can and should be an inextricable piece in aviation curricula, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels and can be used as an excellent theoretical foundation for aviation capstone courses

Stuck in the Middle Revisited: The Case of the Airline Industry

When Porter (1980) introduced his typology of business strategies, he used Laker Airways\u27 as an example to illustrate the danger of being stuck in the middle between the two basic types of competitive advantage, namely low cost and differentiation. However, the changing nature of competitive pressure in many business sectors and the accompanying need to perform well simultaneously in several aspects of operations performance, have eventually lead Porter (1990) to revisit his early idea. When presenting Porter\u27s generic competitive strategies, most strategy textbooks now offer a new choice, namely the integrated cost leadership/differentiation strategy (Coulter, 2002; Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2003), or the best-cost provider strategy (Thompson & Strickland, 2001). Given this background, the purpose of this theoretical paper is to build upon the strategic management and operations strategy literature to develop a conceptual framework that will subsequently be used to explore the extent that airline companies successfully pursue the best-cost provider (or integrated cost leadership/differentiation) strategy, and how they manage to resolve the trade-off between low-cost and differentiation. We aim at revisiting the stuck in the middle prescription by demonstrating that a number of aviation strategic options exist between the \u27\u27traditional\u27\u27 and low-cost model