If You Could Start Your Own Airline

Another idea:

UK Airways

London City to
Birmingham 1x daily
Manchester 2x daily
Leeds 1x daily
Newcastle 1xdaily
Amsterdam 6x daily

Fleet: 2 Dash 8 100s

It would be primarily targeting buisness travelers, with low fares and some frills. Seating pitch higher than most airlines, only 30 seats on the planes.

good stuff james – welcome onboard

If i could start my own airline…….

My airline would be called simple-aviation.com.

Based at Exeter International (EXT) which has the second best wx record in the UK, and currently very under-served in the domestic market. The catchment area is huge, and a market is crying out to be served.

Initially, 2 ATR72’s in an all economy class (but generous leg room) would serve destinations such as Glasgow (GLA), Edinburgh (EDI), Birmingham (BHX) and Belfast (BFS) which is popular with the local military bases. A link to London, probably City (LCY)would be introduced later on (any other London airport would effect EXTs charter business). AMS and CDG would also be considered at a later stage.

A point to point airline, similar to Ryanair/easyjet, with a big online reseravtion system (hence the name) but with a few more thrills, including ticket flexibility.
Maintenance to be carried out at FlyBE’s ever expanding maintenance hangars on site.

Subject to demand, a possible a/c upgrade to the Bae146 varient, which again can be maintained care of FlyBE.

simple-aviation.com. Its as Simple as that!!!

IATA offers courses year-round in various colleges on airline management.

Aetos Cypreikos, perhaps you should consult with EAL King on your group sim project, as he is currently in the stages of starting an airline! 😉

Mongou and rest

this is the third time I attempt to write this thread. And always before press the post button my computer crashes and ..here we go again. Lets hope Im lucky this time.

Mongou you are correct, the university also offers MBA. Generally speaking it is a postgraduate university i.e. it does not offer Batchelor degrees. Greekdude1, the university is situated close to Cranfield village, at Bedfordshire, (approximately an hour from London).

MSc Air Transport Management is offered either as full-time or part-time course. Full-time is one full year, and part time the minimum years are two.. depending how much timeand effort you are able to dedicate to the master.

I was accepted for the master, by having a 2.1. BA Business Administration degree with only experience two years in Rescue Co-Ordinated Centre where I was assigned while performing my national service obligation. The brochures do not state for aviation experience as prerequisite (however knowledge for airline industry is desired.)

Th core modules taught are:

Introduction to Air Transport management,
Air Transport Management Skills
Airline Economics and finance
Infrustructure and the environment
Airline operations
Airport Economics and Finance

In addition, we are allowed to choose two optional modules from the list below

Airline Marketing
Air Transport Engineering
Airport Planning
Air Transport Forecasting
Safety Management

I know it is a hard list to choose from.

Also, part of the master we need to perform a group simulation project with aim to prepare a business plan for a start-up airline and present it to investors to convince them about the sustainability of the airline and gain their investment. Finally, we need to produce a 20,000 word thesis, topic which you can either come up with or choose from a list offered. My topic concentrates on the impact of deregulation in EU Remote regions.

I enjoyed studying for the master. The lecturers are professionals, class of their own with a lot of experience in the aviation industry. I gained a lot of knowledge for the airline industry. It worthed every sacrifice I made during the last nine months that I began studying… but it did worth it.

For further information please refer to www.cranfield.ac.uk the website of the university.

I 100% agree. Too much emphasis is placed on airlines as a national icon, it is an outdated system and frankly airlines should be a business not part of a countries vital infrastructure.

Governments bailing airlines out in crisis (would this of happened in any other industry?) and agreements that protect an airlines identity plus market are all rooted in a different era. It is survival of the fittest today and with concepts such as Open Skies plus foreign ownership it is time airlines and governments woke up to the fact that to survive national identity cannot be a stumbling block and consolidation must occur.

Though within the EU does competition regulations not come into play?

Governments around the world seem to regard airlines as being immune to market forces. I can’t think of any other business where all these draconian and restirctive regulations exist, apart from defence work. The irony is that the airlines need to consolidate.

The only big market where this is possible is Europe – a ban on “foreign” ownership would be illegal within the EU (foreign = another country within the EU) so there will certainly be consolidation in Europe. The rest of the world needs to follow.

There is your problem with foreign ownership then. No airline in their right mind would be interested in touching a troubled alliance partner with a bargepole. Having said that, Qantas were interested in American while prices were low though I doubt BA or Lufthansa would be so forward in helping out.

I’m at that stage in my career where I want to try something else, so an Air transport masters looks appealing. What are the entry requirements – I have a BA in Business Studies and will shortly be a chartered certified accountant. Do you need experience in the airline/travel industry to be accepted?

Also – Cranfield has a management school too, teaching MBA’s doesn’t it?

My other option is to go for an MSc in financial regulation, or the Institute of Directors’ chartered director qualification. Neither has quite the same appeal, if you know what I mean!

Saab – it would be a brave investor who was happy with 49% control. I know SIA did it with Virgin, but in general if I was an airline CFO or CEO, I wouldn’t like it.

Oh, ok, sorry about that! That’s gotta’ be a great thing to major in! I would actually even study. How far is Cranfield from London?

Greekdude

Actually it meant to give him a couple of short advices but it ended up like that! :pPp I know he must like a lot airlines; therefore it meant to give him a taste of the “real world”! :p

Anyway, I was just carried away, who doesnt when starts talking about Airlines…

But buying B727’s in 10 years time this was classic! thank god he didnt ask for Tridents.. emm the Chinese have some available at a museum.. :p.

Btw im studyign Air Transport Management that deals with all the aspects of the airline industry, not just airports! 🙂

Cypriot Aetos, I just read that loooong post, and I’m very impressed! I actually briefly knew a Cypriot living in the L.A. area that was studying Airport management at Cal St. L.A. So you’re basically telling me that a ‘snot-nosed’ 15 year old kid has no business even thinking about starting an airline (I’m 29, by the way), RUBBISH!! 😉

Yes, I am aware of the Bermuda II deal about who can and can’t operate from LHR and who has to go to LGW or STN plus the destinations that can/can’t be served from LHR….rediculous.

Originally posted by mongu
Then, your pilots will demand pay rises every week 🙂

…in order to edge their salaries closer to those of the accountants 😉

Thanks Mongu for the extra information you provided

Regarding your question about whichuniversities offer MSc Air Transport Management, I believe there are two in UK; Cranfield University (the one Im studying ) and City University started recently offering such master. However, Cranfield University is more acclaimed and well established in the aeronautical and aeronautical engineering industry.

Moreover, your report on how to run the business suggested a lot of headaches daily that a packet of panadols per day may be inadequate. But isnt it really this that makes airline industry as exiting as possible!?

Also, Adrian thank you for your comments about the report. It is correct that there are a lot of “games” going on with bilateral agreements. Another example is BMI (British Midland International) main desire to begin operations to JFK from LHR. Currently as there is no open sky policy, only AA UA, BA and VS (Virgin Atlantic) are allowed to operate to LHR. All other airlines have to go either Stansted or Gatwick if they wish to travel to London. Luton is a bit out of the question due to runway limitations. BMI has a lot of slots available at LHR however they are underutilised because they are forced to concentrate only in Europe

But raising the stakes from 25% to 49% is possible without changing the current ownership laws to help recovery. I think Bush’s administration is in agreement with that.

GWB is protectionist, so I don’t think the foreign ownership ban will be lifted any time soon.

Cyprioteagle, that was pretty interesting to read. I am quite interested in getting into the position you are in when I am older so reading that was rather insightful.

I believe that there would be problems with foreign ownership as well if you wanted to set up a carrier in the US. The EU would like to loosen ownership and control regulations also in this Open Skies deal with the US, however, at the moment an airline like Virgin could not start up a carrier as it is forbidden for outside an investor such as an airline, to control or set up another airline over there.

Quite an oddity considering an airline like Qantas could help partner American out by investing in them. Currently they could only take a 25% voting share in the airline though probably raising this would help as with the state of the airline industry it could spur on recovery.

Cyprioteagle – a very good post! Which universities offer air transport courses?

The other area I would look at is insurance and financial management. If you go to your normal insurer and ask for a quote to cover your airline, they’ll have a laugh. Say, £10m a year premium and a £100m excess level per claim made. Most big companies do not go to insurers these days, for such reasons. They instead resort to “captive insurance companies” which is basically where you set up your own insurance subsidiary which only insures you and nobody else. In the US, the dreaded IRS is fretting about it a bit (for various techincal reasons such as transfer pricing, which would be a digression too far), but basically half of corporate America is covered with captives and they are here to stay.

Financial management – well, most of your funds will be borrowed and you have to manage that well or people will get nasty to you! You have to chase debtors (travel agents, credit card companies and so on) and be mean with creditors (fuel suppliers, airports and so on) to give yourself some slack. It’s known as the “working capital cycle”. But do it too much and it could all go wrong. You will be mega-susceptible to interest and exchange rates, and will need to hedge your risk with investment banks.

If you go to a venture capitalist, they will vet you thoroughly and insist you stay at the job for 7-10 years. They will have lots of power and will interfere at the drop of a hat.

Then, your pilots will demand pay rises every week 🙂