airline market positioning

• definition of level and content of the value proposition
• identification of the price level
• implementation of the communication campaign
• level of distribution of value proposition

Positioning strategy, and the five different alternatives

1.     Primary Hub

The airport enterprise aims to operate as hub focusing on facilitating passengers and goods travelling on a transitional level. This goal will be best achieved by first attracting one or, possibly, a couple of airlines that will develop their main base of operations at the airport.

In this sense, strategies and performance of the hub carrier are key in terms of the growth potential and long-economic viability of the primary hub airport.

Primary hubs have historically been developed at major political and business locations. In these locations, the hub carrier will able to count on a significant base of O&D (Origin & Destination) traffic. The airline will create opportunities for growth in connecting and transit traffic due to its links with spoke destinations. The primary hub formula targets both business and leisure, thanks to the large amount of system capacity offered to and from the airport by the hub carrier.

Example: London Heathrow, which is historically considered by USA travellors as the main European gateway, thanks to the unmatched level of frequencies along US-UK city-pair destinations.

2.  Secondary Hub

An airport enterprise with a secondary-hub objective acts within a smaller geographical and commercial horizon than that of primary hubs. In fact, this kind of airport aims to manage, almost exclusively, connecting traffic on a regional basis. 

The location of secondary hubs is similar to that of primary hubs, that is in regional business or leisure centers with strong O& D inbound and outbound traffic; as is the of Barcelona. Clermont Ferrant, Basel, Seattle, ST, Louis, Mumbai and Nairobi.

The commercial success of secondary hubs can be related to lower congestion level that permit smoother transfer times, as is the case of Clermont Ferrant in France.

3.     Regional Airport

These airports usually manage 10-15 million passengers per year. They do not host any hub carrier as they traditionally play the role of spokes within major airlines networks. Regional airports promote a significant offer of regional carriers, the latter acting indecently or through a bundle of different partnerships with network airlines. Regional airports tend to focus on point-to-point traffic, with very little connecting traffic.

The commercial success of a regional airport relies mainly on the chance to exploit a favorable geographic location and proximity to a city’s downtown area. 

4.     City Airport

A subcategory of the regional airport model is provided by City airports

These operate inside city boundaries and, for this reason, are usually subject to some operational limitations in take-off and landing procedures or in the type of aircraft permitted. City airports serve exclusively business targets that are willing to pay premium for a closer-to-city departure point, faster handling services and a huge number of point services to the main regional financial centers.

5.     Charter Airports – A second subcategory of Regional Airport

Charter Airports host the seasonal if traffic of charter carriers. Here the target cluster becomes a purely leisure one and the range and bundle of services offered will be reduced to stay in touch with the strict economic requests by airline operators. Many airports included in this category are now evolving themselves into the paradigm of low cost airports.

All- Cargo Airport

The main distinctive feature of this cluster of airports is that are fully dedicated to the cargo business, thanks to a package of state-of-the-art intermodal solutions (rail, road and sometimes, water)

By exploiting a favorable location, which is usually far from cities to avoid environmental limitations, this kind of infrastructure may be able to operate on a 24 hour basis.

The above framework which categories airport positioning strategies into five main areas is, of course, a simplification of the actual situation which exists in the Airport industry.

In fact, there exists much higher variance as many as 19 different market positioning that have been identified on a basis of worldwide empirical research.