Publications

June 2002
Case

Southwest Airlines in Baltimore

By: Rogelio Oliva, Jody Hoffer Gittell and David Lane

The number of connecting passengers through Southwest Airlines' Baltimore station has grown 100% CAGR since 1997. Originally designed as a point-to-point network, this load of connecting passengers has been stressing Baltimore ground operations, resulting in an erosion... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Growth Management; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Air Transportation Industry; Maryland

McLean revolutionized the centuries-old shipping industry by developing the first safe, reliable, and cost-effective approach to transporting containerized cargo. By pioneering containerized shipping, McLean soon dominated the shipping... View Details

Keywords: Transportation

August 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Teaching Note

Two Ways to Fly South: Lan Airlines and Southwest Airlines (TN)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Jorge Tarzijan and Jordan Mitchell

Teaching Note for 707414. View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry

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

01 Jun 2015
News

Lessons from a Megacity

The first step in researching the public transportation system in Buenos Aires: send the private driver home. “How could we be there studying public transportation and not use it?” asks Eryn Schultz (MBA... View Details

Keywords: April White; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation

01 Jun 2004
News

The Sky’s the Limit

Flying has it all — science, freedom, beauty, and adventure,” says Robert A. Hamilton (MBA 1985), by way of quoting Charles Lindbergh. “I wholeheartedly agree.” These days, Hamilton is getting huge doses of those four elements at Seattle Avionics, the start-up aviation... View Details

Keywords: Seattle Avionics; Transportation; Transportation; Transportation

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

01 Jun 2014
News

Ready for Takeoff

previous World Cup and Olympic hosts. But the country's lack of transportation alternatives—particularly a useful rail system—has also put an extraordinarily heavy burden on the airlines to move fans to disparate match sites. "I don't... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Air Transportation; Air Transportation

April 2000 (Revised December 2001)
Case

AirTex Aviation

By: Brian J. Hall and Carleen Madigan

Two young and inexperienced MBAs buy a virtually bankrupt company. They design a decentralized control system organized around profit centers. As a case in control systems, there is ample detail for a discussion of design issues, control of independent profit centers,... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Management Systems; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Air Transportation Industry

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

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

Praised by his employees at American, Smith led the passenger transport revolution in the airline industry. Under Smith’s guidance, American became the first airline to use the popular DC-3 planes in 1936, allowing the carrier to turn its... View Details

Keywords: Transportation

02 May 2016
News

Can Brian Shortsleeve Fix the MBTA’s Budget Woes?

The Boston Globe has a long feature on Brian Shortsleeve (MBA 2001), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) new chief administrator. The piece notes Shortsleeve’s challenge: $5.5 billion in debt and a $7 billion... View Details

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

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2017
News

3-Minute Briefing: Wick Moorman (MBA 1989)

When I stepped down from Norfolk Southern after 45 years, I absolutely did not plan to take another job. I said no to Amtrak. Then they called again. I negotiated hard, obviously, for compensation. I’m making a dollar a year. . . . I think passenger rail View Details

Keywords: April White

April 2016
Teaching Note

HNA Group: Global Excellence with Chinese Characteristics

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

This teaching note is designed to support the teaching of HBS case number 316-013, "HNA Group: Global Excellence with Chinese Characteristics." View Details

Keywords: Corporate Culture; Airline Industry; China; Cross-cultural Adaptation; Air Transportation; Business Conglomerates; Globalization; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Air Transportation Industry; China

October 2019
Supplement

Airbus vs. Boeing (I): Airbus Introduces the A350 (2015)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the introduction of Airbus’ A350XWB (Xtra Wide Body) in 2015. It also describes Airbus and Boeing’s current endeavors in 2015, including Airbus’ development of the A330neo (new engine option) , Boeing’s work on the 737 MAX, and Boeing’s announcement... View Details

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

February 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Case

FlightSafety International (A)

Describes the flight training industry and its premier competitor, FlightSafety International. Traces the rise and subsequent slowdown in the growth of this firm. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Strategy; Value Creation; Air Transportation; Business Growth and Maturation; Air Transportation Industry

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October 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Supplement

Airbus vs. Boeing (G): New Planes and Upgrades (2011)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the first commercial flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in 2011, three years after originally planned, as well as the first commercial flight of Airbus' superjumbo, the A380, in 2007. It also describes the companies' current endeavors in 2011,... View Details

Keywords: Airbus; Boeing; Product Development; Air Transportation; Projects; Competition; Air Transportation Industry; Air Transportation Industry