Premium Essay

Northwest Airlines

In:

Submitted By envyvaid
Words 1602
Pages 7
Sub : Northwest Airlines and the Detroit Snowstorm Analysis in January’1999.
-------------------------------------------------
Date : March 17, 2014
The incident involving the Detroit snowstorm and Northwest Airlines is the quintessential of a failure to deliver a “Now you're flying smart" experience for our travelers. The course of events detail the experience of travelers, mis-calculated decisions by the ground staff and the lack of an effective emergency response plan that should have been implemented to provide the promise of delivering passengers from point A to point B.
The “act of god” and the associated repercussions in this case could have been managed and avoided with the following recommendations:
a. The passengers aboard the NW 1829 to Detroit had already been through the agony of a layover in Tampa, FL. (The experience involved waiting in long lines to check-in and eat at the buffets at the selected layover hotels.) This was coupled with an all over the place approach to accommodate their not too smooth transition to the next flight. After reaching their hotels at midnight, the passengers were made to arrive at the airport by 05.30 am for a flight that eventually took off only at 11.00 am.
Recommendation: A probable solution in the case above could have been having adequate staff to manage the experience of the passengers at the hotel and answer queries related to the delay. If the consumers were made aware that their concerns were being handled, they would have been more receptive to the problem. This would have gone a long way in handling the irate customers and delivering an efficient service experience associated with flying smart.
Rationale: Understanding the bad weather conditions, the passengers had minimum to low tolerance expectations from the hotel or the airline and saw the gesture of accommodation and meals as an acceptable gesture of

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Essay Pengguna

...D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000[1] in ransom and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.[2][3][4] The suspect purchased his airline ticket under the alias Dan Cooper, but due to a news media miscommunication he became known in popular lore as "D. B. Cooper". Hundreds of leads have been pursued in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts. The discovery of a small cache of ransom bills in 1980 triggered renewed interest but ultimately only deepened the mystery, and the great majority of the ransom remains unrecovered. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by experts, reporters, and amateur enthusiasts.[2][5] While FBI investigators have insisted from the beginning that Cooper probably did not survive his risky jump,[6] the agency maintains an active case file—which has grown to more than 60 volumes[7]—and continues to solicit creative ideas and new leads from the public. "Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream...

Words: 3497 - Pages: 14

Free Essay

Klm Marketing Strategy

...world. The airline method of providing its services it what differentiates it product and allows it to offer many benefits, such as space, seat, comfort and in-flight services. KLM also provides a vast variety of products that would benefit the economy and business class travellers such as post cards, sky shop, local groceries etc. KLM should be presented as one product that meets the needs of both leisure and business class travellers, who would normally take Finnair, or Lufthansa instead. Not only should KLM meet the needs of these travellers, it also has a goal of exceeding the needs by insuring the quality and increasing product innovations. All KLM flights are intending to alter the kind of fuel to benefit the environment. As part of the service, KLM’s pilots and maintenances are trained to the highest level to guarantee a satisfaction for the passengers. KLM is also using the most advanced technology on their products to ensure the leading position among its competitors. As business class travellers, they are able to receive the top quality services such as 250% mileages, priority boarding, extra seating space and baggage allowances, elite cuisines, etc. In addition, the comfortable seats and delicious meals onboard KLM are well known within the Europe. Price Airline | Economy Fare(EUR) | Business Fare(EUR) | KLM | 668 | 2298 | Lufthansa | 860 | 3248 | Amsterdam – NYC (KLM) vs Berlin – NYC (Lufthansa) on 20/12/12 – 20/1/13 Chart 1.1 Airline | Economy Fare(EUR)...

Words: 640 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Diversity

...Delta Airlines – Embedding Diversity into Culture ________________________________________ Employees of Delta Air Lines had traditionally attended day-long diversity workshops intended to raise awareness of prejudices and biases in the workplace, and targeted at translating diversity into a business capability. To effect a paradigm shift, Delta wanted to embed the philosophy into the behaviors and beliefs of its people and into its processes, rather than supporting an event after which people could say, “I took a class and now I’m diverse!” The Business Need Delta Air Lines needed a tool to communicate why the company believed in diversity. Delta’s leadership had four objectives: • To enlarge the view of diversity within Delta. • To position Delta’s diversity philosophy as part of the business. • To defeat the notion that diversity is about “them” and not “all of us.” • To proliferate Delta’s philosophy of diversity throughout the organization to allow mutual trust, understanding, and knowledge and really differentiate the company from its competition. Delta had worked with Root Learning on prior projects, and leadership determined that Root’s visual/dialogue methodology and diversity experience would best deliver the services needed to articulate the new diversity focus. The Solution “Our goal was to find a product that would allow teams to come together and be very interactive and engaging with one another,” said Robin L. Stricklin, General Manager, Global Diversity/Community...

Words: 556 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Transmile Group

...Transmile Group 1. Fuel Tank Explosion http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003016407_webntsb24.html?syndication=rss NTSB investigating reported fuel-tank explosion on Boeing 727 in India The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sending a team of investigators to Bangalore, India, to assist in the investigation of a reported wing fuel-tank explosion on a Transmile Airlines Boeing 727-200. Transmile is a Malaysian air-cargo company. The incident occurred May 4 while the airplane was on the ground in Bangalore. There were no passengers and no one was injured. The investigation comes just ahead of the 10th anniversary of the loss of TWA-800 off the coast of New York state, with the deaths of all 230 people aboard that Boeing 747. The plane was brought down by a mid-air explosion inside the center fuel tank — not the wing tank. The cause of the ignition inside the tank was never identified. Since then, prevention of fuel-tank explosions has been an intense focus at the NTSB and at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). "The tragic TWA 800 accident in 1996 highlighted the vulnerability of transport aircraft fuel tanks," said NTSB acting chairman Mark Rosenker in a statement today. "A decade later, the issue remains a major concern of the Safety Board and is on our Most Wanted List of Safety Improvements. I am hopeful what is learned in this investigation may provide added impetus for a resolution of this problem without further delay." After...

Words: 537 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Introduction to Csr

...to the organization. 1.1 Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility In general term CSR refers to: ‘The comprehensive approach which organization takes to meet the expectation of stakeholders by putting away such measures as revenues, profit and legal obligations. Community development, welfare, human rights and ethical conduct are key factors which come under the CSR umbrella’ (Laurie J. Mullins). I would like to discuss the CSR issues in Aviation Industry that’s why I have chosen Air France-KLM and Ryanair. 1.2 Air France-KLM Overview: Air France and KLM merged together in 2004 to form Air France-KLM Group while both airlines operate individually to retain their brands and identity (Air France-KLM CSR Report 2010). Air France was elected best airline of the year 2010 in Business Travel Awards (The Financial). Air France-KLM is the only airline which is selected in Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2008.This group is the biggest in the whole world according to their profit growth which is €24.7 billion in 2008-2009 and €21.0 billion in 2009-2010.The passenger business, with €16.28 billion of revenues, makes the Group the global leader in both long and medium-haul passenger transportation and contributes some 80% of total revenues and second largest in terms of passenger carrier which is 71.4 million (Air France-KLM Financial Report 2010).Despite of its very difficult financial...

Words: 6157 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Annual Report

...you take advantage of one of the world’s leading networks with our SkyTeam partners. II _ Air France-KLM 2010-11 Annual Report airfrance.com making the sky the best place on earth Editorial We can face the challenges with confidence Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Chairman of the Air France-KLM Board of Directors On the North Atlantic, the leading long-haul market globally, Air France-KLM has established a significant lead over the other alliances, and particularly Star Alliance, through the joint-venture that the Group has created with Delta and Alitalia. Our goal is to extend this model to all our SkyTeam partners, and particularly our Chinese partners. Furthermore, we are actively engaged in membership negotiations with other airlines in Brazil, India and elsewhere in Asia. On this basis, SkyTeam stands to benefit from global coverage. After a challenging time in 2009-10, our Group has succeeded in stemming the haemorrhage and returning to profit while also reducing debt. Our recovery has been remarkable. This success is thanks to the outstanding work of the Air France-KLM teams and the resolute commitment of all our employees within a difficult environment. I would like to thank everyone for their efforts. To confirm this recovery, the Air France-KLM group was able to implement the strategy required to win back market share lost during the crisis in both the passenger and cargo businesses. But make no mistake: we are still in an uncertain air transport environment...

Words: 16208 - Pages: 65

Premium Essay

Delta's Struggle to Keep Up Staff Morale

...Delta’s Struggle To Keep Up Staff Morale July 19, 2010 MG 729 By: Group 4 Misty Savage Melanie Scanlin Sheldon Shuman Chamyne Thompson Janet White Sakura Yuasa Delta Airline’s long history and wide spread reach influences the daily lives of people all over the world including 160 million customers each year and 70,000 employees. Delta was founded in the 1920’s as the first commercial agricultural fleet; present day the company services commercial flights in over 350 destinations on 6 continents. The company’s merger with Northwest in 2008 created an international airline with locations in every region of the world. In 2009, Delta celebrated 80 years of passenger service and became the only airline to offer nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. Since 2001, Delta has had many financial difficulties. The negative effects of the September 11th terrorist attacks and recent recession are among the most notable. Despite their financial woes, which ultimately resulted in bankruptcy in 2007, Delta has continued to stay innovative by introducing new technologies, internal restructuring, and expanded service (www.delta.org). Due to the monumental presence of Delta in the global market, the moral of its employees in response to the organization’s behavior is constantly under scrutiny. Delta employee’s behavior, attitude, and work ethic have the ability to positively or negatively impact the customer and ultimately the success of the...

Words: 3827 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Airline

...The main cause that makes a company have to make changes is the external environment. It usually forces organizations to make changes to its mission, culture, leadership, and operating strategies. Changes in the 12 drivers bring a series of change to the overall structure. Changing anyone of the 12 “pillars” will influence the adjoining ones. But, changing the entire structure may or may not affect the entire system. These changes are influenced by the motivation of the individuals. They will impact the change to the entire organization. They all interact with each driver on the model. The Burke-Litwin Model has these basic parts that make up an overall change for a company. Change effect one part and then affect the overall performance of the model. 1. External environment: The key external cause on the organization must be identified and clearly established. 2. Mission and Strategy: The overall “vision” should be seen through the eyes of the employee. 3. Leadership: Leadership should be understood. 4. Organizational Culture: This should understand implied rules, regulations, customs, principles, and values. 5. Structure: The function based structure should be understood, such as responsibility, authority, communication, decision, making, and control structure. 6. Systems: This includes all the policies and procedures. 7. Management Practices: How the management accepts and conforms to the overall concept of the organizations strategy. ...

Words: 3568 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Delta Airlines

...information was sent to the right stakeholders which were the employees of Delta Air lines, this communication or information was not meant for other stakeholders such as the customers of Delta or the employees of Northwest Airlines. This communication was also sent out at the right time, a day before the media got the news ensuring that the employees do not hear the news of the final merger agreement from an outside media source. The internal memorandum sent out within Delta Air lines gave the employees an idea of the change going on in the company and how they would be affected. In communicating change, the reasons for the change, and the benefits of the change should be stated. These areas were all communicated through the internal memorandum. Reading the internal memorandum one can see that the voice of the memo tries to connect with the readers. The style, tone, voice, and word choices Delta CEO Richard Anderson used in the memo effectively communicated the change. The memo listed out what has been changed hierarchically, who the new CEO and CFO would be due to the merger of both Delta and Northwest Airlines and what has been changed, talking about the physical office location, and also how this change would benefit his employees and the employees of Northwest airlines (Cite)...

Words: 482 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Strategic Commitment in the Airline Industry

...ABSTARCT: This report aims to give a brief understanding of strategic commitments, the rationality of predatory pricing and the extent to which predatory pricing strategies are used in the global airline industry. DATE: 5th March 2015 Introduction This report aims to give a brief understanding of strategic commitments and the rationality and extent to which predatory pricing strategies are used in the global airline industry. The Airline industry, being highly competitive, offers many examples of both Strategic Commitment making and Predatory Pricing strategies. What are Strategic Commitments... The commitments that firms make are two pronged, having direct and strategic effects. The direct effect is the clearly identifiable aspect of the commitment. The strategic effect of the commitment is more subtle, as it is the influence and response which the commitment generates from the competitors in the market in regards to their intended short/medium term tactical plans. Strategic commitments can be described as a form of strategy that firms have at their disposal, in which information on plans or intended actions by the business are publically released with the purpose of influencing the actions of other key market players. To be considered a strategic commitment the announced plan/action must have visibility so that those it is intended to influence can observe it, and it must be difficult to reverse, due to costs or other factors such as potential damage to a firm’s...

Words: 2211 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Delta Airlines

...Delta Air Lines INC is a major United States airline that services both domestic and international travel. Delta is part of the “big four” legacy airline carriers, contributing to approximately 15.1% of the US domestic airline market share. Delta and its subsidiaries offer flights to 341 destinations with over 13,000 flights daily. Established in 1924, agricultural scientist Collet Woolman founded Delta as a crop dusting service. A few years later, the crop dusting service broke away and formed Delta Air Service. As time passed, Delta successfully expanded through technological innovations, research and development, and acquisitions with alliances. Product quality, consumer relations, and product safety are all key components to a successful airline carrier. In the past, Delta has demonstrated strong customer safety initiatives, thus contributing to their success. In contrary, Delta has been faced complainants from customers related to lost luggage, poor performance, and poor operations. Merging airlines is often complex can sometimes backfire. Much of Deltas growth in the last 10 years is attributed to the Northwest Airlines acquisition in 2008. When the two airlines merged, revenue increased and net income grew substantially, despite other costly economic factors. In order to successfully execute this merge, the management executives at Delta carefully planned the various stages of this risky move. Before merging, Delta faced issues with customer service, labor...

Words: 1441 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Political-Legal Environment: Delta Airlines

...Environment: Delta Airlines Delta Air lines is not immune to the political and legal structures that exist both domestically and globally. There are many factors that affect the political and legal structures for Delta in their domestic environment of the United States and also in the global environment of Europe. Teresa Cederholm in her article on MarketRealist.com states “The airline industry is widely impacted by regulations and restrictions related to international trade, tax policy, and competition” (2014) She goes on to elaborate further on issues that impact the airline industry such as “war, terrorism, and the outbreak of diseases” (2014). All of these issues require the government to set in and set different rules for airlines on how they operate both at home and abroad. There have been many factors that have recently affected the political and legal environment for Delta Airlines. One of the biggest events of our generation that affected the airline industry was the terrorist attacks of September 11th. After September 11th, the United States government many security regulations in place to make air travel safer for both the passengers and the crew of the air plane. With many of the restrictions in place, Delta Air Lines faced many problems financially. According to Cederholm, the revenue for all the United States airlines dropped to $107.1 billion in 2002 from the $130.2 billion in 2000 (2014). Cederholm goes on to state that “the global airline industry recorded...

Words: 781 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Classic Airlines Marketing Solution

...Classic Airlines Marketing Solution Classic Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world. Their routes include more than 240 cities and more than 2,300 flights a day. In 2004, they had a net operating income of $10 million dollars (Classic Airlines Scenario, 2011). Despite this achievement, Classic Airlines has been experiencing many challenges in operations that are threatening their profitability. These challenges include increased competition, higher overhead costs, decreased employee morale, dwindling stock prices, shrinking consumer confidence, market uncertainty, and customer dissatisfaction. Classic Airlines could use the nine-step problem-solving model to find the true cause of these symptoms and rectify the problem. Profitability will increase once the true problem is solved effectively. According to the Critical Thinking textbook, “Problem solving is applying critical thinking to achieve the goals and personal harmony that are important in our personal and professional lives” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 1999, p. 251). There are many approaches to problem solving. We will use the nine-step model described in Problem Solving-Based Scenarios (Problem Solving-Based Scenarios, 2011). The first step is to describe the situation. Classic Airlines has experienced a 10% decline in share prices. Customer surveys show that they are becoming dissatisfied with the airline’s customer service and frequent flier program, Classic Rewards. Rewards membership has decreased...

Words: 2340 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Improving Delta

...Evaluation of Alternatives 37 Recommendation 38 Decision Implementation 39 References 40 Introduction Delta Airlines was founded by C.E. Woolman, an agriculture extension agent (Anthony, Kacmar, & Perrewe, 2010).  C.E Woolman was not a banker, venture capitalist or war pilot, as many of the competing airlines were.  He didn’t have the aggressive military style that many of the other airline founders had.  What C.E. Woolman instilled within the employees at all levels of the organization is that people matter and should be treated fairly and equitably.  This philosophy led Delta Airlines to be the leader in customer service from the company’s inception through the many mergers over the years.  Through the difficult financial times when other airlines were laying off employees and filing for bankruptcy, Delta continued to pay their people well and keep them employed. There was an exception during the Ronald Allen CEO era of 1987 thru 1997.  Human relations took a significant down turn during his tenure as CEO, especially during 1993 and 1994, but Delta decided to part ways with Allen and began repairing those fragile relationships with its employees.  Delta Airlines still focuses on the human relations factor and has been able to repair the relationship with its employees, they believe it is their key to success. External Environment General The airline industry is a fast growing sector demonstrating a very strong growth rate. It is associated with a number of social...

Words: 10181 - Pages: 41

Premium Essay

Delta Case Study

...Summary Delta airline has a long history whose roots begin at the year 1924.This airline has grown to become one of the largest airlines serving the United States of America and also majority of the world through its international routes. The aim of this paper is to see the history of the airline together with its financial position with concentration on the various strategies the company has implemented to reach where it is right now. The paper will also include various suggestions to the airline to help it to grow further. Delta airlines began in the year 1924 but during that time it was known as Huff Daland Dusters. This was the first aerial crop dusting which had its headquarters in Georgia. The following year, the company moved its headquarters to Louisiana. The directors of the company were B.R Coad and Collett Woolman.Huff Daland went on its first international route and that was to begin its services in Peru which brought in enough money and increase in purchasing power. The year 1928 gave birth to what is known as Delta Airlines today. Furthermore, the year 1930 came with a major setback to the airline. Delta failed to secure a commercial airmail contract and therefore suffered major losses which forced the airline to suspend passenger service. As time went by, the year 1934 seemed to be the year for Delta Airlines as they secured a low-bid contract for the new Route 33 airmail service between Dallas and Charleston, South Carolina, via Atlanta .The airline also resumed...

Words: 3203 - Pages: 13