Introduction
Airlines carrier’s system in the united states has been in the past few years been ranked as the most organized and fastest route architecture (Mallikarjun, 2015). This has been attributed to a systematic change from point to point route architecture to a more diverse hub and spoke architecture. The event chosen for this paper was the comparison between the point-to-point and hub and spoke airline route architecture. This event in the airlines is theoretically interesting in a way that it affects the logistics plans of business travelers and other travelers, and thus it is an overall country’ economy shaper.
Relevant theories
The theories considered for the comparison purposes vary in nature depending on the sole purpose of the travelers and the airline management (Yao et al., 2016). One of the theories is the scope of operation. This describes the geographical operations route for the airlines under study. Connectivity is the other theory of relevance in terms of where the principal business transactions and trade take place. The other theory of importance is the dependence theory in such a way that the routing architecture may be dependent on the operation of the other routes of it could be operation solely by itself. The market size theory is determined by the regional area, and the number of market traders covered in a single airline flight.
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The frequency of the airline's flights is a theory that determines the number of flights in a day for an airline depending on the type of market and the density. Pricing comes in as a theory since the frequency of the flights is at times attributed to fare rates of such airlines. Asset utilization such as network geography and connections timing affect how the airlines operate. The cost of operation is a theory in terms of seats per mileage across the cities of operations.
Event description
The point-to-point is an airline carrier route architecture that is characterized by the flow of aircraft from one city or region to another directly without the passengers switching planes for one reason or another. On the other hand, hub and spoke airline carrier architecture is a route system whereby airlines from different cities or regions converge, and the passengers are transferred to another flight for one reason or another. In the past decade, for instance, there was a need for people traveling from different cities or regions to meet for a few minutes either for business or for other reasons and the only way to solve this was to introduce a meeting point along the journey generally referred to as the hub. This is the heart or the center for the hub and spoke route architecture.
Theory selection
The theory selected for analysis is the market size theory. This theory is relatively essential as far as airlines carriers are concerned. In a point-to-point route system, the target market is usually the two cities or regions that the airline is serving. No other city can be directly involved in the market between the two destination points since the flight is a continuous one without intermediary stops along the way. On the other end of the theory exists a large market attributed by the hub and spoke airline carrier route architecture. This is usually referred to as ‘anywhere to everywhere’ route system as it involves different airline carriers from different cities or regions and converging into a common temporary destination termed as the hub. From the hub, the next destination is determined by choice of the passengers. Two available options are either the passengers perform their business at the hub with the other passengers from other cities and board a flight back home, or the passengers continue with their flight from the hub to their final destination city which is diversified in nature.
Theory evaluation
The market size theory has its roots deep into the economy of the hub or the destination cities. This forms the strengths with this theory in a way that it is possible for two people coming from two different regions to interact at the hub and thus creating a conducive environment for business opportunities. Any similar event as the one described above in the airline industry would find its solutions in this theory.
Critique
The limitation of the market size theory is that it provides economic growth in higher margins in just one small geographical area and rendering all the other surrounding cities market less (Daft, 2015). When many resources are introduced in a small area, this may lead to inflation and thus affects the way the business takes place. In future, this could be sorted out by having each destination operating as a hub and not a spoke.
References
Daft, Josts. (2015). “An Imperial Analysis of Airline Business Model Convergence.” Journal Of Air Transport Management. Issue 46.
Mallikarjun, Sreekanth. (2015). “Efficiency of US Airlines: Strategic Operating Mode.” Journal of Air Transport Management. Issue 43.
Yao, Ting et al. (2016). “Strategy, Structure, and Performance: A Study of US Airline Industry”. A Journal of Academic Management. Issue 1 .
