Publications

July 1989
Case

NWA, Inc. - Northwest Airlines Revenue Management

Northwest Airlines is evaluating improvements to its revenue management system. This system executes a program of economic price discrimination under which the airline attempts to control the conditions on its discount fare offerings. Students must evaluate the effect... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Air Transportation; Management Systems; Corporate Finance; Air Transportation Industry; United States

September 1988
Case

Frontier Airlines, Inc. (A) (Condensed)

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes a regional airline that is on the losing end of a strategic application of information technology. Management is focusing on internal data processing issues while its principal, and larger, competitor is using its computerized reservations system to gain... View Details

Keywords: Adoption; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry

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1992
Chapter

The Hubris of Regulated Competition in Airlines

By: R. H.K. Vietor

Keywords: Air Transportation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Air Transportation Industry

October 2019
Supplement

Airbus vs. Boeing (H): Wing Cracks and Battery Fires (2013)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes an issue with the batteries of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner planes overheating and sometimes catching fire in 2013. The planes were grounded for several months until Boeing introduced new safety measures. The case also discusses a problem with cracks on... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Air Transportation; Projects; Competition; Safety; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Europe

December 2001 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Aviation Security after September 11th: Public or Private?

Was the public or the private sector best positioned to provide security and baggage screening services? The suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the plane crash outside Pittsburgh, marked September 11, 2001, as the date of the most severe... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; National Security; Air Transportation; State Ownership; Air Transportation Industry; United States

July 2006
Case

Boeing's e-Enabled Advantage

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Joseph S. Valacich, Mara Vatz and Christoph Schneider

Examines Boeing's new strategy of offering services to regain market dominance and help its struggling airline customers improve efficiency and profitability. View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Business Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Air Transportation Industry

August 2019
Case

Kazakhstan Railways: From the Middle of Nowhere to a Center of Trade?

By: Willy Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes the evolution of Kazakhstan's rail connectivity strategy post-collapse of the Soviet Union and its now central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. This meant shifting from a north-south orientation towards an east-west one, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; China’s Infrastructure Exports: The ‘Belt And Road’ Initiative; Logistics; Trade; Economic Growth; Geopolitical Units; Geography; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry; Rail Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan; China

October 2005 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Sales Force Integration at FedEx (A)

By: David B. Godes

Federal Express' (FedEx) recent acquisition of RPS--a ground delivery firm--gave the firm the potential to offer a single source for a client's delivery needs. However, to deliver on this potential, the firm needed to deliver the integrated solution through a single... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Salesforce Management; Transportation; Compensation and Benefits; Transportation Industry

July 2000 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Embraer: The Global Leader in Regional Jets

By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Gustavo A. Herrero and Luiz Felipe Monteiro

Embraer is the story of a company from a developing country, Brazil, that has become the leader in a high-tech field, regional passenger jets. Embraer's first family of regional jets has been highly successful and, at the time of the case, it is embarking on a major... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Capital Structure; Corporate Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Air Transportation Industry; Brazil

March 2013 (Revised May 2013)
Supplement

Distribution at American Airlines (C)

By: Benjamin Edelman

Presents 2011-2012 updates to American's distribution strategy including new challenges and disputes. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Distribution; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry

March 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Buenos Aires, Argentina

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Alan D. MacCormack, Nori Gerardo Lietz, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Karina Souza and Zeke Gillman

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Argentina. It highlights Argentina's economic and political transformation in the decades leading up to 2024. The case gives an overview of some of the main obstacles faced by businesses operating... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Economy; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry; Argentina; Latin America; Buenos Aires

July 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Northwest Airlines: Brush with Bankruptcy (A)--November 1992

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Davis Dyer

Deals with Northwest's financial crisis between the fall of 1992 and the following spring. Northwest's leaders face the problem of how to meet an impending $600 million payment on the 1989 LBO loan when the airline had run out of cash. Concludes by outlining options... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Restructuring; Leveraged Buyouts; Crisis Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Strategy; Financial Crisis; Air Transportation Industry; United States

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2017
Government Testimony

Passenger Right to Record—Petition for Rulemaking

By: Benjamin Edelman and Mike Borsetti

We ask DOT to affirm that passengers have the right to record what they lawfully see and hear on and around aircraft. We explain why such recordings are in the public interest, and we present the troubling experiences of passengers who have tried to record but have... View Details

Keywords: Aviation; Consumer Protection; Recording; Video; Audio; Privacy; Social Media; Air Transportation; Rights; Contracts; Air Transportation Industry

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June 1982
Case

Union Pacific Railroad Co.

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Keywords: Rail Transportation; Rail Industry

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June 2002
Case

Tale of Two Airlines in the Network Age: Or Why the Spirit of King George III Is Alive and Well!

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes an airline service incident that ought not to have happened in the network age. Inadequate use of available technology creates service problems. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Information Management; Information Technology; Service Delivery; Problems and Challenges; Air Transportation Industry

December 2024
Supplement

Norse Atlantic Airways

By: Willy C. Shih

Charles Duncan discusses the jobs that customers hire Norse Atlantic Airways to do, and the challenges associated with its low-cost long-haul business model. View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Business Model; Air Transportation Industry; Europe; United States

April 2012
Case

People Express Airlines

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lauren Barley

Recounts the history of People Express Airlines, which grew rapidly after its inception in 1980 then failed spectacularly in 1986. Profiles People's aggressive strategy and its distinctive approach to human resource management, which emphasized job rotation and minimal... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Air Transportation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Human Resources; Business Startups; Air Transportation Industry

December 1974 (Revised February 1985)
Case

Southwest Airlines (A)

Southwest Airlines, a small intrastate carrier serving Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, begins service in 1971 in the face of competition by two larger, entrenched airlines. Improved quality service, lower prices, and innovative advertising and promotional strategy... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Marketing Strategy; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; Texas

June 1975
Case

Marsh & McLennan (B)

Presents the results of a computer simulation of aircraft hull insurance. Discussion will focus on the interpretation of the results described. Designed to be handed out in class. Rewrite of an earlier supplement by P. Vatter. View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Insurance; Air Transportation Industry; Air Transportation Industry