Legacy and non-legacy carriers
Legacy carriers are airlines that have a large route network. These are airlines that existed prior to the deregulation act (Mellat-Parast, 2015). Such carriers are obsolete in terms of service delivery and their operational procedures. Therefore, by the standards of the current trends, the legacy carriers’ industry model is outdated. This means that they still exist and they are still utilized but they are obsolete (Mellat-Parast, 2015). Non-legacy carriers on the other hand are newer airlines characterized by new technologies. Such carriers have the most modern electronic devices and their business models are up to date. Non-legacy carriers do not utilize the conventional airlines’ business models and they are mostly run on new and highly innovative business strategies.
I have flown on non-legacy airlines but I have never been into a legacy airline. However, it is common knowledge of how the older generation of flight used to operate. The new generation airline services are more liberal and easy to use. This includes booking protocols and other aspects such as safety measures, fare pricing, onboard catering among other differences (Mellat-Parast, 2015). Legacy airlines are more reserved and they seem to hold on to outdated airline’s practices while the non-legacy seems to break the rules of operations by creating new easy to follow procedures.
What differentiates a legacy carrier from a flag carrier?
A legacy carrier is an old modeled form of the air travel business and it is majorly made of different airlines serving a large route network. Mostly, such airlines are privately owned. They serve a specific market and they are not recognized as national or state carriers. On the other hand, the flag carriers are partly owned by the government. Such airlines are state-owned and they represent the country in the airline business. They are the official state airlines and they mostly bear the name of the nation and the flag. Such airlines include British Airways, the American airlines among others.
A business decision that set the Latin airlines apart
The business decision that set the Latin airline apart from the rest of the airlines was the agreement to merge. The merger between American airlines with the US airways was announced in December 2003 and this caused a shift in the operations procedure of the Latin airline market (Flottau& Buyck, 2014). This merger allowed the Latin airways to run its operations through the American headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. This was a major breakthrough for the airline.
Effect on passengers’ load factor
The merger was like a business expansion to the Latin airline. Therefore, the passengers’ load factor was not negatively affected. It was an advantage to the business since the number of customers increased significantly.
Benefits of Alliance membership
Alliance membership increases the number and scope of operation for an airline. It also increases the customer base. As the number of customers increases, the probability of making profits rises.
Six observations of the airlines in this chapter
- None of the airlines have cheap fares.
- All of them offer luxurious treatment to customers onboard.
- They all have different classes and onboard customer categories.
- Most of these airlines are in alliance memberships either as a legacy or non-legacy airlines.
- They all have new and old business models considering their time and error of operation.
- They are all interstate airlines.
References
Flottau, J., & Buyck, C. (2014). Stopping the slide: Scandinavian legacy airlines hope new aircraft revive their fortunes. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 176(41), 15-27.
Mellat-Parast, M. (2015). An institutional theory of quality outcomes in strategic supply chain partnership. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 32(4), 11-13.