Today’s competitive environment in the airline industry has never been tougher or more unforgiving. More and more players are one strategic misstep away from competitive extinction. Approaches that worked in the past simply don’t cut it in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace.

According to a recent study on high performance in the airline industry, there are key imperatives airlines need to address to navigate through today’s increasingly uncertain times:

• In their efforts to manage growth, airlines should dominate home markets and create an adaptive culture—one that can leverage the opportunities of a rapidly changing marketplace.
  
  
• In an industry of paper-thin margins, airlines need to significantly improve their customer experience, and do so throughout the travel value chain.
  
  
• And carriers might need to rethink their existing operating models to manage operational excellence by wringing out value from merger and acquisition activity, through sales and marketing and by new market entry and alliances.
  
  

Accenture has worked in nearly every aspect of airline operations—from the ground to the cockpit—over the past two decades. We understand that high performance isn’t only about success during market booms. It is about sustaining success regardless of boom or bust cycles. Accenture can show you how.

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The industry is undergoing a significant evolution. Accenture serves as a trusted guide for airlines embarking on the journey to high performance. Our airline group has professionals in key locations around the globe—a team dedicated to serving the transformational goals of our clients.

We draw from the expertise of functional-expert consultants—a bench strength that makes us renowned for our ability to execute large-scale projects with global span. Our people are a part of the fabric of the airline industry, serving clients from small start-ups to low-cost carriers and major flag network players.

They draw from Accenture’s industry research that illustrates what airlines can do to get ahead, and stay there. Accenture offers expertise in management consulting, systems integration and outsourcing—combined with our extensive research on the world's most successful companies—to help us guide clients through areas critical to achieving high performance.

The Accenture Global Delivery Network
By applying a systematic approach to creating and capturing proven, repeatable processes, methodologies, tools and architectures, professionals in the Global Delivery Network enable Accenture client teams to deliver customized services and solutions in less time than would be required to develop them independently. And they create a scalable and flexible network that truly enables clients to source the right skills and services at the right price wherever they are available: onshore, near-shore or offshore.

The future of airline travel will likely change dramatically in the coming years: Rising fuel costs will put pressure on passenger loads. Traditional hub traffic flows are changing with the entry of large-capacity carriers. Against this backdrop, Accenture helps clients managing the right balance between demand and capacity. We work with airlines to expand skills in sales and marketing, enabling carriers to strengthen their customer-centricity and pursue secondary revenue sources.

With competition and a dwindling passenger base heating up, airlines need to ramp up their delivery of the customer experience. And not just at the gate and on board—carriers need to understand their customers’ needs along the full spectrum of travel: from ticket purchase to destination arrival.

Accenture helps carriers create a customer-centric organization that extends beyond in-flight services. Our work covers everything from online portals to airport biometrics. We enable analytical skills that unearth customer insights and drive customer experience management. Our approach identifies areas that hold the largest payoffs in terms of boosting customer loyalty.

Accenture’s research into the industry’s high performers shows that the most successful airlines continually strive for operational excellence. These airlines have moved beyond the traditional levers of cost management to drive even deeper levels of efficacy and efficiency.

At Accenture, we help clients improve their overall cost base and drive flexibility throughout sourcing, procurement and IT, and are industry leaders in outsourcing in these areas. Through assets like Navitaire, we help established carriers take from the strategies of their low-cost/lean-running peers.

We have a depth of experience in Lean Six Sigma-an innovative methodology for achieving high performance by integrating the production efficiencies of Lean Manufacturing with the cost and quality tools of Six Sigma.

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