Competitive Strategies in the Airline Industry

Introduction

In today's globally competitive world, businesses operating in a turbulent environment constantly interact and thus ensure their sustainability. Businesses must be flexible to maintain their competitive structure to ensure sustainability in the ever-changing competitive environment. They must constantly compare with their competitors to realize the best practices in the sector and perform their activities efficiently and effectively by focusing on their core competencies (Porter, 1996). Competition is defined as the tactical struggles between businesses in an industry to gain a competitive advantage (Grant, 2005). Porter stated that a consistent competitive strategy must be successfully implemented to achieve a long-term competitive advantage (Kling & Smith, 1995). Today, while businesses are looking for the most suitable strategy for themselves, they plan counteractions by monitoring the competitiveness and strategies of their competitors.

The competitive strategy aims to gain a competitive advantage against its competitors in the market (Porter, 1980) and defines how the business should take a position against its competitors while continuing its activities. In other words, a competitive strategy can be defined as a long-term action plan by which a company aims to gain a competitive advantage after examining and comparing its strengths and weaknesses against its competitors (Okumus, Altinay, & Chathoth, 2010).

The airline industry is one of the sectors where intense competition is experienced in the global sense today. The airline industry is competitive in origin, and as a service-oriented industry, competition and interaction within the industry are very high. Several unpredictable exogenous forces have plagued the airline industry in recent decades, including major worldwide events. The September 11 attacks, SARS crisis, economic crisis, and lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the industry. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, air transport almost stopped in initial reactions. While most passenger flights have been cancelled due to the epidemic, cargo flights have been cancelled, and only relief flights, referred to as “rescue flights” by countries, continued (Kiliç & Sengur, 2021). In recent years, innovative business models have also resulted in industrial transformation. While industries have witnessed the low-cost revolution against the full-service carriers for the last decades, today, hybridization became an industry reality (Sengur & Sengur, 2017). In this turbulent environment, airline companies must accurately analyze themselves, their competitors and the structure and competitive environment of the market to ensure their permanent sustainability in the market in which they operate, maintain their market share and reach their predetermined targets (Brueckner, Lee, & Singer, 2013).