The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the economy, especially on the airline industry. policies during this time that required civilians to keep their distance or even quarantine seemed to close the door to economic movement, especially in the airline sector, making most airline companies affected by their finances, even though around 23% of international airlines declared bankruptcy during that time. Of course, some international airlines still manage to sustain themselves, such as Fly Emirates, which has an excellent reputation for its services and facilities. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new situation in the airline industry where the large number of airlines that have collapsed creates opportunities for those who want to make new airlines related to the reduced number of competitors. 

When it comes to Fly Emirates, which has built its international flight service perspective with very high standards and also a vast range of flight destinations, the competitors that Fly Emirates has to face are quite a lot. Let’s call them competitors from neighboring countries such as Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, and Saudia which are similar in building their service perspective. Fly Emirates and its competitors are aware of this and respond by improving services with innovations such as Etihad Airways as a direct competitor is trying to reduce CO2 emissions by using their services to protect the environment. Not only its competitors, Fly Emirates also innovates in their services with attractive prizes for their passengers by being given the opportunity to stay for free in Dubai, adding an extra touch of luxury to their travel experience. 

The growth of the airline industry after the COVID-19 pandemic has started to increase with mobility between countries becoming more dynamic. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced everyone to start adapting to online devices and as we know that online is able to spread information very quickly which makes globalization even faster. This boosts human mobility to work, study, or seek new opportunities in various countries. 

In response to the high level of cross-border mobility, almost all airlines are enhancing their operational capabilities and services to meet the growing market demands and remain competitive. Fly Emirates recognizes this and is working to improve this by increasing its flight routes. This of course aims to expand their market because the more coverage of flight routes, the more likely potential customers from various regions will choose to use Fly Emirates. Not stopping there, Fly Emirates also increased innovation in its services by introducing the use of Airbus A350 aircraft that have been integrated with electronic technology so that the aircraft is predicted as an aircraft to start the next generation in the airline industry. 

However, keep in mind that Fly Emirates’ rival airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, and other executive airlines are also responding to the increasing mobility and almost all of the upgrades are the same as for example Qatar Airways with the use of its Airbus 777 aircraft which is claimed to be the largest aircraft that is also facilitated by the use of the internet. This certainly needs to be something that Fly Emirates needs to be aware of to continue to make breakthroughs so that they are able to outperform rival airlines. 

The tight competition amidst the high growth of this industry certainly causes a high number of switching costs. This is certainly done for the benefit of Fly Emirates and other airlines to remain competitive in the industry to maintain and win loyal customers from certain airlines. Fly Emirates itself provides offers such as child services that lets infants under two years old ride on a passenger’s lap or in a bassinet for a discount, and children from ages two to 11 will also receive a discount. Not only that, Fly Emirates gives customers complimentary transit visas who want to extend their layover. This is one form of switching cost carried out by Fly Emirates to maintain the loyalty of their customers and also an attempt to win customers from rival airlines through attractive services and offers. 

In the airline industry, fixed and storage costs are generally considered high due to the nature of the business. An airline company usually needs to pay for the aircraft and its maintenance, its personnel such as pilots and flight attendants, fuel, and other costs to support its facilities. Reporting from kumparan.com, the price of avtur fuel itself touched IDR 17,753 per liter and according to pramborsfm.com/news for one commercial aircraft alone requires around 10,165 liters. Not only that, the salary for a pilot alone requires funds in the range of IDR 100 million to IDR 4 billion and this does not include personnel costs other than pilots and also the initial capital costs for the use of the aircraft and its supporting facilities. 

This fixed and/or storage makes the exit barriers in the airline industry high. However, this is not the only thing that makes exit barriers in this industry high, but the difficulty of mergers and acquisitions because there are concerns that mergers could reduce competition in the market, which could harm consumers with higher ticket prices and inferior services. Companies usually merge or acquire to maintain the stability of the company, which may not be good at the time. However, the regulations of most local governments have strict regulations that make it difficult to transfer ownership of the company. Not only that, the regulations of most countries seem to protect a company from declaring bankruptcy which creates high exit barriers in this industry. 

In the end, there are several things that threaten the existence of Fly Emirates such as the existence of a price war even though the price launched by Fly Emirates has been calculated with existing services and facilities and if a new trend model occurs that requires all flights to provide much cheaper prices, of course, it will have a huge impact on business planning from Fly Emirates. Another thing is changes in regulations from several regions because every airline company including Fly Emirates has a regulatory framework that has been adjusted to international aviation regulations and local governments. Regulatory changes will certainly have an impact on the standard operating procedures of the company. 

However, there are also positives that present opportunities for Fly Emirates in the industry. One of them is that already having a strong branding in the market as a company with exclusive flight services is an opportunity as well as an advantage for Fly Emirates in the airline industry. The use of increasingly sophisticated technology in Fly Emirates’ services is also an added value in running their services in the market.

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