The company was established in 1977, after the dissolution of East African Airways. It was privatized in 1992, and it is publicly listed I in the National Security Exchange. The problem: Kenya airway has been experiencing low passenger numbers that has resulted to it making losses over the recent few years. This financial year, it posted a net loss of SSH 7. 8 billion. It started experiencing this problem 3-4 years ago.
This is occasioned by the following: Lack of marketing intelligence For a long time, Kenya Airways has enjoyed monopoly operations in the African raked and all connections into and out of Africa. They did not realize when this changed and competitors slowly encroached and took over their traditional markets. 1) Euro crisis The financial crunch that has affected mainly Europe and America has greatly affected the traditional tourist markets into Kenya and the rest of Africa. 2) Wrong products for the various market segments Kenya Airways’ market can be put into various segments all with different needs.
The wrong products were applied to the wrong segments and this led to customer dissatisfaction. 3) Unsuitable aircrafts. Recent aircraft acquisitions by Kenya Airways saw them take delivery of the Embrace aircrafts which are small and do not have enough cargo capacity that their market demands. 4) Competitors As Kenya airways continued experiencing these problems, its competitors moved in by taking advantages of its weak points and in the process taking over the market share that it previously occupied. . Research Objectives When the problem has been carefully defined, the marketing manager and researcher must set the research objectives, that is, the outputs or end results of the research effort. Titus Massy out put and end results 3 (Research Design) Mural Descriptive Research Design – Involves describing certain variables of interest to the Airline Research on Marketing Strategy Improvement By Jody the frequency with which something occurs or the extent to which two variables co- vary. 4.
Data Collection Jacques Questionnaires: This is by far the most common instrument in collecting primary data. Broadly speaking a questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to respondents for their answers. The questionnaire is very flexible in that there are many ways to ask questions. Questionnaires must be carefully designed and tested before they can be used on a large scale. QUESTIONS YOU CAN ADD TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE 1) What is your reason of travel? Which is your airline of choice? Would you choose Kenya Airways?
Why? 2) 3) Why 4)What one reason would make you change your airline The mail questionnaire is the best way to reach individuals who would not give personal interviews or whose responses might be biased or distorted by the interviews. Mail questionnaires require simple and clearly worded questions, and the response rate is usually low and/or slow. 0 Telephone interviewing is the best teeth for gathering information quickly; the interviewer is also able to clarify questions if they are not understood.
The response rate is typically higher than in the case of mailed questionnaires. However, only people with telephones can be interviewed and interviews have to be short and not too personal. 0 Personal interviewing is the most versatile of the three methods. It provides additional observations about the respondent, such as dress and body language. Its main drawbacks are that it is the most expensive method and requires more administrative planning and supervision. It is also subject to interviewer bias or extortionist. C) THE FINDINGS Giovanni sunset 1) Most of Kenya Airways’ western Africa passengers were mainly traders and merchants who travel to mainly the Middle East and Asia to buy goods for trade. Their biggest need is to have the cheapest fare and for their goods to arrive on time and in one piece. Due to the unsuitable aircrafts that the airline has, it often leaves behind cargo for this group of passengers and this has greatly inconvenienced them and led to loss of business for traders. ) Most business people who use the airline do so because of the wide network coverage they have across Africa and the world. The airline, of late, has been experiencing frequent technical problems and operational disruptions that lead to delays and cancellations. This has led the passengers to seek out other airlines that have a more stable schedule than Kenya Airways’. 3) In the last 2-3 years, there has been a sharp increase in the domestic travel market to the point that the airline cannot cope with the number of passengers traveling especially on weekends.
This has led to domestic passengers going directly to the competitors to book their travel plans because they know they will never find business people searching for new and untapped markets in Africa. What they require the most is frequent and connecting flights to new and non-traditional destinations in Africa, I. E. Other towns within countries apart from their capital cities. Kenya airways has traditionally concentrated of flying to the capital cities whereas the market demands other cities. ) Tourists, especially form Europe and America, have been affected by the credit crunch and are no longer taking holidays to places like Kenya and Africa. RECOMMENDATIONS TO KENYA AIRWAYS 1) The airline should plan to acquire aircrafts with enough cargo capacity and deploy them to routes that are required, I. E. Hose that are frequented by the traders and merchants. Its competitors like Emirates and Ethiopians Airlines have taken advantage of this weakness and have acquired large aircrafts to accommodate this segment of the market. ) Kenya airways, should work at normalizing its operations so as to protect is schedule integrity.
