CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

CASE STUDY - Essay Example The US industry has endured tough times like the economic crisis of 2009, which forced many of the airline companies to close shop, while others deciding to merge to increase their competitiveness in the competitive industry. Merging perhaps can be one of those approaches that has helped small airline companies to remain in business after they were declared bankrupt. The result of these tough economic times saw the introduction of low-cost carriers that operate from one point to another as opposed to flying to certain particular destinations. The US airline industry has become very competitive in the recent past, with emerging airline companies developing different competitive strategies different from those of companies that have been in the industry for a long time. For instance, the economic crisis made many of the seemingly small companies to be declared bankrupt with formation of mergers being the only approach that would help them regain a substantive market share and consolidate on it (Kowit 7). For instance, The US airways pushed for a merger with American Airlines after realizing that they could not manage the tough business environment. According to this case, the main reason for the many mergers in the industry included the need to reduce excess capacity and reduce the operational costs. Additionally, it would also serve as a perfect strategy for elimination of much duplication in the competitive approaches, thus providing more return on the investments of these airlines. After 2010, many companies stabilized from the effects of the economic crisis, with small companies developing cost-effective competitive strategies that included introduction of low-cost flights among others (Kowit 8). The US airline can be described as having certain strategic groups depending on their competitive approaches. For instance, many of the new entrants in the industry have concentrated