Airtran Airways
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AirTran Airways was formerly known as ValuJet which grounded all flights for three months after the crash of its Flight 592 in the Everglades in 1996. In 1997, ValuJet merged with AirTran Airways. By 2004, it became the second largest affordable fare scheduled airline in the U.S.
AirTran is among the top players in the low cost airline industry in the united states. Additionally, it has a much better financial rangle than most of its equal in the airlines. Substaintial financial reserves allows the organization to capitalize on market opportunities, investment and growth actions that are not easily reached to alot of underdeveloped organizations with a smaller capital.
Being the second largest operators of the boeing planes, they have a well known recognized name to boost about which is part of their strength. Additionally, the company manages 508 daily flights to 48 destination which creates a repute of excellence among carriers.
The weakness of AirTran would be the number of accidents that occured since 1996 which would have shaken the faith of consumer towards them concerning their own safety. Additionally, the long term debt that the company have is putting them in a difficult spot to outreach for better investment and urgrades of services and planes.
An opportunity that we see is that the carrier has acquired the newest edition of the Boeing fleet, the Boeing 717. This means that there may be fewer incidents that may occur and at the same time the customers are getting a more value for their money. Moreover, there are talks of possible merger with one of the other low-cost carriers in the industry. Not only does the company acquire a greater range of assets and resources, it will also have an opportunity to expand the existing market share of the company.
A chief player, with considerably superior fiscal, marketing and operating sources than AirTrans, may perhaps go into this market at any instant and vie openly against the company. The United States low-cost carrier industry is booming with cutthroat players like Spirit Airlines, Frontier, and JetBlue. AirTrans has to be conscious of competition on every level and sustain its operational performance if it is to keep hold of its position as among the countrys top low-cost carriers. With overcapacity arising, small jet regional carriers are slowly emerging as they have a low start up fare as compared to big carries thus the threat is eminent.