EasyJet: Providing Affordable, Reliable Travel in Europe - Essay Sample

Introduction

EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a low cost and no frill airline company that was established by a businessman Stelios Haji-Loannou in 1995 (Urbano 2017). EasyJet has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom and mainly operates within the Europe continent. EasyJet offers low cost domestic and international flights that are reliable and affordable to most of their target population. Their mission statement is "To provide our customers with safe, good value, point-to-point air services. To effect and to offer a consistent and reliable product and fares appealing to leisure and business markets on a range of European routes. To achieve this we will develop our people and establish lasting relationships with our suppliers" (Morlotti et al. 2017, p.23). EasyJet is guided by the values of safety for their customers, simplicity, integrity, passion, team work and pioneering (Morlotti et al. 2017).

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Since its establishment in 1995, EasyJet has continued to register tremendous growth over the years and by 2018, it had an approximate of 14,000 employees, a fleet size of over 300 aircrafts traversing over 130 destinations worldwide and their operating income was approximately 592 million pounds by 2018 (Urbano 2017). EasyJet has maintained an increment of passengers over the years since its establishment. Their target market is mainly individuals who pay for their own flights such as entrepreneurs, those traveling for leisure and family visits etc. Additionally, EasyJet has also managed to capture customers from their competitors such as the British Airways due to their low cost flights that are safe and reliable (Morlotti et al. 2017).

PESTEL analysis is a crucial element in enabling EasyJet to meet its objectives because it helps the company to recognize and act to changes in the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal sectors relating to EasyJet. PESTEL would help EasyJet to achieve its objectives by thoroughly analyzing their strategic plan and identifying potential threats that would otherwise affect the company negatively (Lawton 2017). PESTEL enables a company to formulate effective strategies that would reduce the impacts of the potential threats. PESTEL analysis would aid EasyJet in achieving their objectives by providing a deeper understanding of their strategic plans and guiding them into formulating effective marketing plans that would bring more customers and ultimately increase the finances of the company. Moreover, PESTEL analysis would enable EasyJet to exploit new opportunities that are untapped by other airlines and help them assess the consequences of venturing in the new opportunities (Lawton 2017).

Globalization has had a significant impact on EasyJet because globalization leads to increased competition of the products and services offered by EasyJet and their ticket prices (Eriksson and Steenhuis 2015). Due to the increased competition, customers have a wide range of airlines to choose from and thus EasyJet had to change its strategic plan so as to remain profitable. First, EasyJet managed to achieve quick turn arounds for their flights implying that they were able to fly to many more routes unlike their competitors whose aircrafts had slow turn arounds (Lawton 2017). Secondly, EasyJet adopted a point to point mode of flying, making it a preferred airline because passengers spent less time on air and spent less amount of money because the costs of connecting flights were not incurred (Lawton 2017). Most of EasyJet's competitors had not adopted the point to point mode of flying and thus they ended up losing their customers to EasyJet. Lastly, EasyJet offers low cost flights that are reliable and safe, and hence attracts a higher number of customers unlike their competitors whose flight prices are high.

In addition to competition, globalization led to increased use of technology in the airline industry. EasyJet quickly integrated technology in their strategic plans and this helped them to remain relevant and profitable. To begin with EasyJet was among the first airlines to incorporate technology in retailing air tickets and marketing. By use of technology, EasyJet's customers were able to book their tickets online by use of e-mails and would later use their email reference numbers when boarding the flights. Use of technology in booking flights saved time and costs for both the customers and the airline. EasyJet has continued to use technology in producing their goods and services as well as communicating to their customers. With the EasyJet mobile application, the efficiency and effectiveness of Easy Jet's operations has continued to increase. With the EasyJet App, customers are able to book their flights efficiently with less amount of time. EasyJet App is also real time and therefore customers are able to get real time updates concerning their flights. With the help of technology, communication to and from the customers has been made easy by the help of emails and other social networking avenues. Customers are able to make enquiries and get feedback on time and EasyJet is able to make important announcements and other communications to their customers on time (Eriksson and Steenhuis 2015).

EasyJet's main target market is the business travelers who wish to reduce their travel expenditure and ultimately make savings (Urbano 2017). The business travelers are mostly entrepreneurs and individuals whose companies intend to cut travel costs. Additionally, EasyJet targets young and middle aged customers who wish to travel to different places around the world for leisure and vacations but are constrained by the traditional flight prices that are way too expensive. EasyJet also targets families and groups who wish to travel together with a low cost budget because travelling with EasyJet would save a lot of money compared to travelling with other airlines whose prices are high (Urbano 2017).

Having a target market is important for EasyJet because it helps them to identify the most effective marketing strategies and campaigns that would be effective. Focusing on a specific target market has enabled EasyJet to formulate a precise business strategy that identifies new opportunities and provides clear guidelines on how to maximize on the new opportunities in the market. Through identifying their target market, EasyJet has managed to allocate their resources effectively on the specific market sectors that are more likely to produce results and ultimately this strategy has enabled Easy Jet to save on their resources (Morlotti et al. 2017).

EasyJet has a diverse workforce that comprises of both male and female employees, locally and internationally. EasyJet has a goal of being a good employer that attracts, retains and develops talents and abilities of their employees. As such, EasyJet has endeavored to create an environment that takes care of the health and general well-being of their employees by setting out considerate working hours and shifts that would enable their employees to have quality time with their friends and families. Further, EasyJet continues to motivate their employees through offering them cash and other reward tokens in addition to other mandatory benefits such as health insurance. Employee engagement has been a front line objective of EasyJet, where employees are engaged in making some of the company's decisions (Urbano 2017).

Depending on how a company treats their employees, the company might succeed or fail. Companies who treat their employees well have reported success because their employees are motivated and are loyal. Treating your employees well ensures that they give top notch customer service and treats the customers to their satisfaction. Employees are treated well generally are easily retained and have lesser sick days and leaves and this ultimately increases the productivity of a company. Creating a conducive environment for the employees enables the employees to grow their talents and discover their hidden potentials which can be used for the success of the company (Eriksson and Steenhuis 2015).

Airline industry business ethics play an integral role in guiding the operations of EasyJet. First, observing and managing the business ethics of safety has enabled Easy Jet to gain customer's confidence. Through following the safety ethics, EasyJet has recorded close to zero air accidents since it was established and this has over time attracted a lot of customers because customers are confident on the employees and they feel safe while on board. Good safety record has immensely contributed to the growth of the company. Business ethics has also enabled Easy Jet to maintain the integrity of their employees and their systems. Employees joining EasyJet's must agree to the code of EasyJet and must at all time maintain the confidentiality of their customers (Eriksson and Steenhuis 2015).

To reduce carbon emissions, EasyJet has adopted measures such as the one engine taxiing, where the pilot is supposed to shut one engine of the aircraft while landing and this ultimately reduces the amount of carbon emitted. The use of Recaro seats on EasyJet aircrafts has helped reduce the amount of carbon emitted since Recaro seats are light weight and causes lesser fuel burn that in turn translates to lesser emission of carbon. EasyJet has continued to invent more measures that aims at reducing carbon emission such as the use of electronic devices in place of paper documentation (Gilligan 2017).

EasyJet has managed to remain effective in the business world as a result of deliberate efforts on strategy plan analysis using PESTEL, incorporating technology in their daily activities, identifying their target market and treating their employees well, observing work ethics as well as conserving the environment through the innovative measures of curbing excess carbon emissions.

References

Eriksson, S. and Steenhuis, H.J. eds., 2015. The global commercial aviation industry. Routledge.

Gilligan, A., 2017. EasyJet to filter toxic air in cabins. The Sunday Times, Londres, 17.

Lawton, T.C., 2017. Cleared for take-off: Structure and strategy in the low fare airline business. Routledge.

Morlotti, C., Cattaneo, M., Malighetti, P. and Redondi, R., 2017. Multi-dimensional price elasticity for leisure and business destinations in the low-cost air transport market: Evidence from easyJet. Tourism Management, 61, pp.23-34.

Urbano, F., 2017. Easyjet Plc (Doctoral dissertation).