5.5 Today’s Taking Flight Industry (Airlines and Airports)
5.5 Today’s Taking Flight Industry (Airlines and Airports)
The Taking Flight industry (i.e., airline, airport, aviation) has connected our world for more than a century. This sector of hospitality and tourism has overcome challenges and grasped opportunities to revolutionize travel. Today, the global airline industry consists of more than 5,000 airlines operating approximately 39,000 aircrafts (Supply Chain Management Outsource, 2019). In 2017, the world’s airlines cracked the 4-billion passenger mark for the first time (Statista, 2024). By 2023, the industry employed 11.3 million people, contributing over $700 billion to global GDP (Aviation Benefits Beyond Borders, n.d.).
The United States has the world’s largest air travel market, with 666 million passengers in 2021 (Statista Research Department, 2023a). To meet the high demand, U.S. American passenger airlines are some of the world’s largest, with American, United, and Delta ranked among the world’s largest. Indeed, the world’s largest airline by fleet size and passengers serviced is American Airlines, based in the United States. Several factors explain the airline dominance in the U.S. market, mainly the country’s large population, geographic positioning, and economic power. Combined with the lack of a high-speed passenger rail network, these three factors create enormous demand for domestic flights, which is usually the only feasible option for long-distance travel.
“These numbers would indicate that the skies are becoming an increasingly crowded space. According to FlightRadar24, who tracks aircraft around the world [and is based in Sweden], there are over 16,000 planes in the air at any given time on peak traffic days” (TravelWeek, 2017, para. 5).
Classifying Airplanes, Airports, And Flight Routes
There are numerous ways to classify this industry. Airline size, routes, home country, locations serviced, and many other ways exist and are used by industry professionals. Furthermore, the airport industry is a separate entity than the airline industry. Tourists may not recognize this difference but industry professionals need to.
Flight routes are one method for differentiating airlines and airports. Airport managers undertake extensive segmentation projects to optimize complex interconnected airline networks. Meanwhile, airlines utilize hub-and-spoke systems built around flow patterns to maximize their profits while hopefully helping passengers reach their destinations most easily. Connection times and loyalty programs allow airlines to differentiate consumers, and subsequently they can tailor services toward premium long-haul travelers. Low-cost carriers notice the customers that the primary carriers often overlook and market the lowest rates. These low cost carriers institute yield management techniques such as the elimination of seat classes to meet consumer demand at specific price points. Furthermore, by targeting short, point-to-point trips, they can appeal to price-driven leisure passe