Strategic Marketing Concepts of Airlines in the German Passenger Market. Present Challenges

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Bremen, course: Internationales Management, language: English, abstract: On the German passenger market, airlines approach different business concepts in order to cope with the threats and to be successful. The case of the Lufthansa Passenger Airline and its subsidiary Germanwings has been discussed many times currently. Together they have implemented a restructured concept of the Low Cost Carrier Germanwings in order to overcome their weaknesses. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of economic success of this strategy change. Therefore, the paper comprises three main areas. The first one is the theoretical part, which explains the differences between Full Service Network Carriers, Low Cost Carriers, Regional Carriers and Leisure Carriers. Secondly, the analysis takes place by applying Porter's five forces model. Subsequently, the strengths and weaknesses of the Lufthansa Passenger Airline and Germanwings are highlighted and the new business concept is introduced. Finally, all findings are put into relation using the SWOT-analysis.