BRIEF AIRLINES BACKGROUND
Oasis Hong Kong airline is a budget airline established in Hong Kong. Founded by the Lees (Raymond & Priscilla) in cooperation with Dragonair Chief Executive Steve Miller, the said airline saw its beginnings early in 2005, February, to be exact. The civil aviation company has its hub in the Hong Kong International Airport, servicing passengers headed towards the London Gatwick Airport destination late last year in October. The firm claims that their raison d’être for operation is to make frequent long haul travel accessible to everyone. After the first long-haul passenger airline that adopted a budget airline model became defunct (Laker Airways) due to bankruptcy twenty-five years ago, Oasis became the second airline to operate on the mentioned model.
They bought two previously owned Singapore airlines Boeing 707 aircrafts in order to facilitate their business and has plans of growing their fleet number to 25 aircrafts within a period of five years. The airline is currently operating on one route, from Hong Kong International Airport to London Gatwick Airport and vice versa. The Oasis management have very ambitious expansion plans for the company and in order to realise them their approach to marketing their services need to be in shape. This paper focuses on the analysis of Oasis Hong Kong Airline’s marketing strategies, and how such approaches to promoting the business is helpful or detrimental to the good of the business as a whole, and how such strategies may be improved to benefit the airline under analysis.
COMPANY VISION
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines is dedicated to making long haul travel more accessible and affordable for both business and leisure travellers. Rooted in the culture of Hong Kong, the airline is committed to the pursuit of excellence and operates on biblical principles with a deep respect for all races, religions and creeds, treating all our customers, employees and business partners with care and respect. We will provide our passengers with dependably low fares and high standards of comfort and service – never compromising on safety or security. Oasis Hong Kong Airlines will contribute to building an aviation culture in Hong Kong and to strengthening the city’s position as a leading aviation hub in Asia Pacific.
CIVIL AVIATION INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Many analysts argued that the Gulf War, worldwide recession and terrorist attacks had put an end to the growth in the airline industry. For the first time since 1945, air travel had actually declined worldwide. The airline industry is rapidly creating integrated global airlines. These global airlines often have local partners for particular segments of service, but each airline retains a distinct global identity and marketing philosophy. The carriers benefit from the ability to offer end- to-end service to minimize interconnection problems for passengers. They profit from the economies of their hub systems for the use of aircraft, and, most vitally, they benefit from integrated information systems to manage pricing, seating capacity, aircraft scheduling, and passenger booking. The analogies for communications include control over low-cost infrastructure, sophisticated tariffing and traffic management schemes, and proprietary software for service applications (Yeung, 1998).
Airlines worldwide have been trying to strike a balance between cooperation and competition. They have been seeking alternatives to their conventional merger and acquisition strategies, such as strategic alliances, to expand services rapidly and to buttress market share without undertaking the difficult task of acquiring a rival. Many airlines are still partially owned by their respective nations, and treaties between them determine which airlines can land in which locations. To get around national laws and regulatory problems and to compete effectively, airlines have formed global networks and individual alliances major airlines from the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific have forged their own alliance groups to offer better services internationally. It is estimated that international travel will grow faster than domestic U.S. travel. Consequently, carriers find it advantageous to create collaborative ventures with international carriers as an entry point into new markets (Culpan 2002).
PRESENT MARKETING STRATEGIES
They are currently selling their travel tickets through their website, which can be accessed at Although not in par with the websites of old-timers like Cathay Pacific Airways that is also Hong Kong-based,
FUTURE PLANS
As the airline is currently operating on one route only (Hong Kong International Airport to London Gatwick Airport), they have plans of expanding to other routes this year and the years to follow. Number one in their list of priorities is to be able to fly their growing number of loyal passengers to Vancouver International Airport, but negotiations to give license to fly to said airport is still on-going, subject to government approval. It is widely speculated that next in their priority list is the Oakland International Airport, and other airports that also route budget carrier hubs, like easyJet and Westjet. Oasis is also currently in the process of negotiations with Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways for potential partnership arrangements.
CONCLUSION
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines’ primary marketing objective is to attract more consumers away from the conventional long haul travel services offered by previously existing in Hong Kong in order to maximise profits and achieve market leadership. Another marketing objective of the company is to decide on whether to continue or not the space bed project. Lastly a marketing objective is to improve the service the company offers at the same time lowering the costs made by the company. In relation to the marketing objectives the strategies the company can use is the following. Singapore airlines can decide on continuing the seat bed and have it made on lower costs. The company can improve the image of the flight attendants since some people don’t appreciate the image of the flight attendants. The company can train the employees to be more conscious and obedient to clients. The company can implement discounts and other benefits on flight fares to attract consumers to avail their services. Lastly a strategy by the company is a continued use of different media to promote the company’s services in relation to such the company should use more advertisement techniques like the Singapore girl to make consumers associate a certain advertisement with the company thus when recall of a consumer exists more clients will avail of the services.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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