xExamination Paper: Aviation Management
1
IIBM Institute of Business Management
IIBM Institute of Business Management
Examination Paper MM.100
Aviation Management
Section A: Objective Type (30 Marks)
• This section consists of Multiple Choice Questions and Short note type Questions
• Answer all the questions
• Part one carries 1 mark each and Part two questions carry 5 marks each.
Part One:
Multiple Choices:
1. Which of the following are comes under ‘Air safety topic’?
a. Lightning
b. Ice & snow
c. Fire
d. All of the above
2. JATO stands for _______
3. Beam movement, location of beam related to airport and loser stability comes under which of the
following of analyzing the hazard?
a. Situational factor
b. Operational factor
c. Laser/bright factor
d. Pilot/aircraft factor
4. Which of the following-is not the aviation standarda.
ARINC 429
b. ARIN 424
c. ARINC 653
d. ARINC 444.
5. The total weight of the passengers,: their luggage, and cargo is known as:
a. Payload
b. Ramp weight
c. Brake release weight
d. Landing weight
6. Which of the following are not the primary areas of concern?
a. Eye damage
b. Temporary flash blindness
c. Glare & disruption
d. none of these
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
2
IIBM Institute of Business Management
7. STOL stands for_______
8. A landing by an aircraft made under factor outside the pilot’s control such as the failure of
engine, system component or weather, is known as-:
a. Hard landing
b. Forced landing
c. Water landing
d. Belly landing
9. De-crab is the technique of _______
a. Crosswind landing
b. Belly landing
c. Deadstick landing
d. Emergency landing
10. RATO stands for_______
Part Two:
1. Discus the areas of concern in ‘Aviation’.
2. Describe classification of ‘Indian aviation sector’
3. Define sources from which aircraft noise originates.
4. Write short note on “Global air traffic management”.
END OF SECTION A
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
3
IIBM Institute of Business Management
Section B: Caselets (40 Marks)
• This section consists of Caselets.
• Answer all the questions
• Each Caselet carries 20 marks.
• Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 150 to 200 Words)
Caselet 1
In relation to Aus Airlines, the scenario of airline industry is understood as a highly competitive industry.
Commercial air transport is considered to be important for personal mobility, commerce and national
security reasons. It facilitates growth, world trade, international investments and tourism and is thus
considered to be very significant to the globalization taking place in many industries. The demand for
airline service is income elastic. As real income increases, passengers spend more money on air travel.
Conversely, as fares rise, passengers spend less on air travel. An airline is one service sector which is
subject to various price controls and capacity restrictions. In this sector, prices are generally needed to be
approved by government.
Airlines are expected to provide safe and timely transportation to air passengers. It should provide certain
intangible elements like transportation itself, service frequency, pre-flight, in-flight and post flight
service. Tangible elements like the aircraft and food and drinks served are also included. The profitability
of airlines depends on the quality service it offers to the air-passengers.
In airline industry, technological improvements will have an impact on airfares. Advances in aircraft
design, construction, aircraft engines and operating procedures increases productivity. Increase in
productivity led to reductions in per-seat-costs and permitted reduction in airfares. Value-added services
are significant in a highly competitive industry like airlines. Passengers inspect friendliness, efficiency,
creativity of announcements made and willingness of crew members to help.
Airline industry invariably encounters problems related to marinating labor relations. There is a constant
struggle to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Aus Airlines consistent profitable business was because of its low costs and customer loyalty. It offers
simple approach customers. It did subscribe to the big reservation computers used by travel agents. The
airline operated only Boeing 737, which minimized training and maintenance costs. Moreover, the
employees at Aus Airlines are hard working.
Aus Airlines competitive advantage lies in its low cost maintenance and its loyal customers. Due to its
low cost structure, Aus Airlines offered its customers with low price+s, this helped the company to gain
customer’s loyalty.
Aus Airlines may lose its advantage, it faces price war from its competitors, necessitating to reduce the
airfares. If the industry experiences overcapacity of flights, it may affect the stable
Position of the airlines, moreover, the airlines, should also maintain standards to maintain quality of
services, which enable it to retain the customers.
Questions:
1. Identify the challenges faced by the Aus Airlines in a run to survive.
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
4
IIBM Institute of Business Management
2. What type of strategy helps in increasing the revenues of the Aviation Industry?
Caselet 2
Inside his 20th floor office in Air India Building, a chairman and managing director V Thulasidas is
reading a new master plan to revive the airline’s fortunes. For the past few years, Air India has been
steadily losing market share to international airlines like British airways, KLM, Emirates and Singapore
Airlines. Despite being the national carrier, its market share of outbound traffic from India has come
down to just 20percent from 40 percent in the 1970s. If that weren’t enough, now low-fare airlines from
the gulf and South-East Asia are eyeing the Indian market.
That’s why, for the past one year, the chairman and his team has been scripting a plan to start their own
low-fare airline from April 2005. Air India Express will offer fares that are 25 percent cheaper than the
existing fares of Air India.
The rationale is simple. For years, Air India’s price-sensitive customers had demanded such a service.
The question was: could Air India provide one without losing money? For the fares to be cheaper, the
costs would have to be lower. But Air India’s cost structure was already high. “If we had launched a lowfare
airline with these costs, we would only end up losing more money,” says Thulasidas. In other words,
Air India needed to build a model where the costs could be controlled. That meant creating a venture from
scratch.
But an airline-within-an-airline model isn’t a proven formula yet. On the contrary, most leading airlines
like British Airways, United Airlines, KLM and Delta have struggled to build a sustainable model. While
British Airways’ Go Airlines has sold out to easy Jet, United Ted, Delta’s Song and KLM’s Buzz are in
very poor financial condition. “The airline-within-airline (model) has never worked. If you’re going to fix
the factory, fix the factory. Don’t create a sideshow outside and say how beautiful it is. The most
consistent comment coming out of Song passengers is: ‘Why can’t Delta be like this?’
Of course, that isn’t deterring other Asian carriers. Singapore Airlines’ parent company Teams and a
group of other investors are launching a low-cost airline Tiger Airways. Two weeks ago, Qantas launched
a low-cost airline based in Singapore. Others like Thai Airways are also looking at a similar venture to
regain share.
Air India, of course, has a lot riding on the budget airline: the latter will generate some surpluses for the
parent. But, more importantly, it will give Air India an opportunity to upgrade itself and reposition the
brand. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Air India brand stood for quality, and it was a premium airline. But,
over time, it began to be seen an airline frequented by the budget traveler to destinations like the Middle
East. For the past 10 years, Air India has not added a single aircraft to its fleet.
The plan is to now allow Air India Express to operate an all-economy service on short-haul flight of 3-5
hours to destinations in the Middle East and South-East Asia, while Air India focuses on premium quality
traffic on medium- and long-haul flights. Air India will also offer full-service flights to select places in the
Middle East and South-east Asia. Over time, Air India will vacate these traditional Middle East sectors
and evolve into a truly international airline. “We will acquire more aircraft, and upgrade our service. The
idea is to grow in size and improve quality,” says Thulasidas.
Meanwhile, the key to the Air India Express strategy is to lower costs by driving efficiency. Air India
Express will not have any business class, since that typically goes empty on these routes. (Air India will
cater to the little business class traffic to Dubai and Singapore to Mumbai). The budget airline will also
have more seats. The Boeing 737-800, which it will take on dry lease, will have 181 seats as against 145
seats in Indian Airlines’ Airbus 320s. And it will offer point-to-point service and ensure quick
turnarounds, to save on hotel and layover allowances for the crew. In fact, manpower costs will be lower
than that of Air India. For that, the employees will be hired on different terms: the pilots and cabin crew
would be on contract. Also, new aircraft will offer better fuel economy.
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
5
IIBM Institute of Business Management
Besides, passengers on Air India Express may have to forego the complimentary drink and settle for a
snack on three-hour flights. On longer flights, they can expect a hot meal, albeit scaled-down. The crew
complement will also be less: the jumbo jets will have 19 members; the 737-800 planes6-7 people.
Barring core activities like flying or cabin, it will outsource other services. The cash costs per return flight
for Boeing 737-800 is around 35 percent lower than that of the Airbus 310 Air India currently operates.
There are plans to sell tickets online, but travel agents will also be used.
Thulasidas has to ensure that the two entities are very distinct from each other. Otherwise, the initiative
could well backfire. “If you carry the culture from one airline, from one business model to the other, the
second one is bound to fail,” says an expert. Thulasidas says: “If the new entity is run independently
within a given company mandate, there’s no reason why it should fail.” In fact, the new airline is
expected to depend on Air India only for certain services like distribution and maintenance. If things go
well, it is expected to throw up Rs 250 crore in profits every year.
But how different will the culture be? It’s not clear. A few of the key people on the board of the
subsidiary will be from Air India. “You can’t recruit raw people; there will be few people on deputation
for some time. There won’t be a problem as they will have clear cost and revenue parameters within
which they have to function,” says Thulasidas. It does look like the best bet for a Maharaja who has fallen
on bad days.
Questions:
1. What strategy should Air India follow to satisfy its ‘Price- sensitive’ customers without losing
money? Comment.
2. Suggest some features that Air India could adopt to differentiate itself from its competitors.
Section C: Applied Theory (30 Marks)
• This section consists of Applied Theory Questions.
• Answer all the questions
• Each question carries 15 marks.
• Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 Words) .
1. Define landing, and also explain the types of landing?
2. Explain aviation industry in India, and list the challenges faced by aviation industry?
END OF SECTION C
END OF SECTION B
1
IIBM Institute of Business Management
IIBM Institute of Business Management
Examination Paper MM.100
Aviation Management
Section A: Objective Type (30 Marks)
• This section consists of Multiple Choice Questions and Short note type Questions
• Answer all the questions
• Part one carries 1 mark each and Part two questions carry 5 marks each.
Part One:
Multiple Choices:
1. Which of the following are comes under ‘Air safety topic’?
a. Lightning
b. Ice & snow
c. Fire
d. All of the above
2. JATO stands for _______
3. Beam movement, location of beam related to airport and loser stability comes under which of the
following of analyzing the hazard?
a. Situational factor
b. Operational factor
c. Laser/bright factor
d. Pilot/aircraft factor
4. Which of the following-is not the aviation standarda.
ARINC 429
b. ARIN 424
c. ARINC 653
d. ARINC 444.
5. The total weight of the passengers,: their luggage, and cargo is known as:
a. Payload
b. Ramp weight
c. Brake release weight
d. Landing weight
6. Which of the following are not the primary areas of concern?
a. Eye damage
b. Temporary flash blindness
c. Glare & disruption
d. none of these
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
2
IIBM Institute of Business Management
7. STOL stands for_______
8. A landing by an aircraft made under factor outside the pilot’s control such as the failure of
engine, system component or weather, is known as-:
a. Hard landing
b. Forced landing
c. Water landing
d. Belly landing
9. De-crab is the technique of _______
a. Crosswind landing
b. Belly landing
c. Deadstick landing
d. Emergency landing
10. RATO stands for_______
Part Two:
1. Discus the areas of concern in ‘Aviation’.
2. Describe classification of ‘Indian aviation sector’
3. Define sources from which aircraft noise originates.
4. Write short note on “Global air traffic management”.
END OF SECTION A
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
3
IIBM Institute of Business Management
Section B: Caselets (40 Marks)
• This section consists of Caselets.
• Answer all the questions
• Each Caselet carries 20 marks.
• Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 150 to 200 Words)
Caselet 1
In relation to Aus Airlines, the scenario of airline industry is understood as a highly competitive industry.
Commercial air transport is considered to be important for personal mobility, commerce and national
security reasons. It facilitates growth, world trade, international investments and tourism and is thus
considered to be very significant to the globalization taking place in many industries. The demand for
airline service is income elastic. As real income increases, passengers spend more money on air travel.
Conversely, as fares rise, passengers spend less on air travel. An airline is one service sector which is
subject to various price controls and capacity restrictions. In this sector, prices are generally needed to be
approved by government.
Airlines are expected to provide safe and timely transportation to air passengers. It should provide certain
intangible elements like transportation itself, service frequency, pre-flight, in-flight and post flight
service. Tangible elements like the aircraft and food and drinks served are also included. The profitability
of airlines depends on the quality service it offers to the air-passengers.
In airline industry, technological improvements will have an impact on airfares. Advances in aircraft
design, construction, aircraft engines and operating procedures increases productivity. Increase in
productivity led to reductions in per-seat-costs and permitted reduction in airfares. Value-added services
are significant in a highly competitive industry like airlines. Passengers inspect friendliness, efficiency,
creativity of announcements made and willingness of crew members to help.
Airline industry invariably encounters problems related to marinating labor relations. There is a constant
struggle to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Aus Airlines consistent profitable business was because of its low costs and customer loyalty. It offers
simple approach customers. It did subscribe to the big reservation computers used by travel agents. The
airline operated only Boeing 737, which minimized training and maintenance costs. Moreover, the
employees at Aus Airlines are hard working.
Aus Airlines competitive advantage lies in its low cost maintenance and its loyal customers. Due to its
low cost structure, Aus Airlines offered its customers with low price+s, this helped the company to gain
customer’s loyalty.
Aus Airlines may lose its advantage, it faces price war from its competitors, necessitating to reduce the
airfares. If the industry experiences overcapacity of flights, it may affect the stable
Position of the airlines, moreover, the airlines, should also maintain standards to maintain quality of
services, which enable it to retain the customers.
Questions:
1. Identify the challenges faced by the Aus Airlines in a run to survive.
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
4
IIBM Institute of Business Management
2. What type of strategy helps in increasing the revenues of the Aviation Industry?
Caselet 2
Inside his 20th floor office in Air India Building, a chairman and managing director V Thulasidas is
reading a new master plan to revive the airline’s fortunes. For the past few years, Air India has been
steadily losing market share to international airlines like British airways, KLM, Emirates and Singapore
Airlines. Despite being the national carrier, its market share of outbound traffic from India has come
down to just 20percent from 40 percent in the 1970s. If that weren’t enough, now low-fare airlines from
the gulf and South-East Asia are eyeing the Indian market.
That’s why, for the past one year, the chairman and his team has been scripting a plan to start their own
low-fare airline from April 2005. Air India Express will offer fares that are 25 percent cheaper than the
existing fares of Air India.
The rationale is simple. For years, Air India’s price-sensitive customers had demanded such a service.
The question was: could Air India provide one without losing money? For the fares to be cheaper, the
costs would have to be lower. But Air India’s cost structure was already high. “If we had launched a lowfare
airline with these costs, we would only end up losing more money,” says Thulasidas. In other words,
Air India needed to build a model where the costs could be controlled. That meant creating a venture from
scratch.
But an airline-within-an-airline model isn’t a proven formula yet. On the contrary, most leading airlines
like British Airways, United Airlines, KLM and Delta have struggled to build a sustainable model. While
British Airways’ Go Airlines has sold out to easy Jet, United Ted, Delta’s Song and KLM’s Buzz are in
very poor financial condition. “The airline-within-airline (model) has never worked. If you’re going to fix
the factory, fix the factory. Don’t create a sideshow outside and say how beautiful it is. The most
consistent comment coming out of Song passengers is: ‘Why can’t Delta be like this?’
Of course, that isn’t deterring other Asian carriers. Singapore Airlines’ parent company Teams and a
group of other investors are launching a low-cost airline Tiger Airways. Two weeks ago, Qantas launched
a low-cost airline based in Singapore. Others like Thai Airways are also looking at a similar venture to
regain share.
Air India, of course, has a lot riding on the budget airline: the latter will generate some surpluses for the
parent. But, more importantly, it will give Air India an opportunity to upgrade itself and reposition the
brand. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Air India brand stood for quality, and it was a premium airline. But,
over time, it began to be seen an airline frequented by the budget traveler to destinations like the Middle
East. For the past 10 years, Air India has not added a single aircraft to its fleet.
The plan is to now allow Air India Express to operate an all-economy service on short-haul flight of 3-5
hours to destinations in the Middle East and South-East Asia, while Air India focuses on premium quality
traffic on medium- and long-haul flights. Air India will also offer full-service flights to select places in the
Middle East and South-east Asia. Over time, Air India will vacate these traditional Middle East sectors
and evolve into a truly international airline. “We will acquire more aircraft, and upgrade our service. The
idea is to grow in size and improve quality,” says Thulasidas.
Meanwhile, the key to the Air India Express strategy is to lower costs by driving efficiency. Air India
Express will not have any business class, since that typically goes empty on these routes. (Air India will
cater to the little business class traffic to Dubai and Singapore to Mumbai). The budget airline will also
have more seats. The Boeing 737-800, which it will take on dry lease, will have 181 seats as against 145
seats in Indian Airlines’ Airbus 320s. And it will offer point-to-point service and ensure quick
turnarounds, to save on hotel and layover allowances for the crew. In fact, manpower costs will be lower
than that of Air India. For that, the employees will be hired on different terms: the pilots and cabin crew
would be on contract. Also, new aircraft will offer better fuel economy.
Examination Paper: Aviation Management
5
IIBM Institute of Business Management
Besides, passengers on Air India Express may have to forego the complimentary drink and settle for a
snack on three-hour flights. On longer flights, they can expect a hot meal, albeit scaled-down. The crew
complement will also be less: the jumbo jets will have 19 members; the 737-800 planes6-7 people.
Barring core activities like flying or cabin, it will outsource other services. The cash costs per return flight
for Boeing 737-800 is around 35 percent lower than that of the Airbus 310 Air India currently operates.
There are plans to sell tickets online, but travel agents will also be used.
Thulasidas has to ensure that the two entities are very distinct from each other. Otherwise, the initiative
could well backfire. “If you carry the culture from one airline, from one business model to the other, the
second one is bound to fail,” says an expert. Thulasidas says: “If the new entity is run independently
within a given company mandate, there’s no reason why it should fail.” In fact, the new airline is
expected to depend on Air India only for certain services like distribution and maintenance. If things go
well, it is expected to throw up Rs 250 crore in profits every year.
But how different will the culture be? It’s not clear. A few of the key people on the board of the
subsidiary will be from Air India. “You can’t recruit raw people; there will be few people on deputation
for some time. There won’t be a problem as they will have clear cost and revenue parameters within
which they have to function,” says Thulasidas. It does look like the best bet for a Maharaja who has fallen
on bad days.
Questions:
1. What strategy should Air India follow to satisfy its ‘Price- sensitive’ customers without losing
money? Comment.
2. Suggest some features that Air India could adopt to differentiate itself from its competitors.
Section C: Applied Theory (30 Marks)
• This section consists of Applied Theory Questions.
• Answer all the questions
• Each question carries 15 marks.
• Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 Words) .
1. Define landing, and also explain the types of landing?
2. Explain aviation industry in India, and list the challenges faced by aviation industry?
END OF SECTION C
END OF SECTION B
