مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

As alliances can improve profitability and market share, they enjoy increasing popularity in the airline industry (Topaloglu, 2012). Between 2003 and 2010, the number of alliance members grew by 60% (Hu et al., 2013). Most large and mid-sized network carriers are engaged in one of the three big alliances e Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam (compare Table 1). The case of Lufthansa and StarAlliance as examined later in this contribution underlines this increasing diffusion of code-sharing. Competition among alliances is replacing competition among individual airlines, as each alliance strives for the best customer service and the most extensive network.

The success of alliances is explained by their benefits. Airlines use the alliance’s brand awareness to attract more passengers and to access partners’ infrastructure – compare Youssef and Hansen (1994) for an exemplary analysis of the case of SwissAir and SAS. Alliances establish standards of safety, technical equipment, and customer service. They promise passengers better connections, higher service quality, more lounges, and frequent flyer miles – see Goh and Uncles (2003) for a critical analysis. However, alliances also challenge airline planning: They increase process complexity, which can negatively impact performance.

This contribution highlights alliance challenges particularly for revenue management. Revenue management describes the art of selling the right seats to the right customers for the right prices at the right times (compare Smith et al., 1992). It is a central component of the airline planning process: Given a demand forecast, optimization determines revenue-maximizing inventory controls, which are implemented in the sales process.