Research On U Airlines Passenger Sales Channel In South China

Under the general background of economy globalization and air transportation freedom,the Chinese market of civil aviation and passenger transportation is becoming more and more active following relevant terms of General Agreement for Trade of Service from the World Trade Organization,which for sure brings more fierce international competition of the industry.Market trend between China and the US,the two superpowers are particularly eye-catching.With the opening of two countries’ air traffic rights,more in-depth and frequent communications in politics,economy,trade and culture,more and more Chinese airlines and foreign-capital airlines are participating into the operation of Sino-US air traffic routes.The number of online cities,non-stop flights and transit flights are increasing sharply in recent years.U Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world headquartered in Chicago,Illinois.It operates average 4,500 flights per day and flies to 339 destination airports all over the 5 continents.In the year of 2015 U Airlines and its subordinate airlines operated over 1.5 million flights and provided high-quality airline services to over 140 million passengers worldwide.U Airlines also runs the most non-stop flights between China and the US across the Pacific Ocean.Since the setup of South China Office in 2004,it grows rapidly.However in recent year with the increasing competition from other airlines,especially the marketing and pricing impact from Chinese and Asian carriers,South China Office of U Airlines is slowing down its pace of development and exposed several problems in its distribution channels.Based on the marketing management theories of Philip Kotler,this thesis analyzed market environment of South China,the airlines industry competition,existing problems of the sales channels of U Airlines and provided possible optimization solutions,by using tools like PEST analysis,Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model analysis,individual interview and Boston matrix analysis,etc.It targets at improving sales channel and passenger sales performance to the carrier.