The Retaling Environment (Week 3)

A. Type of retailer.
The retailer we choose is Singapore Airlines.

B. Variety and Assortments
“A Great Way to Fly”

One of the variety and assortment that SIA provides is the different classes of air tickets available. There is the Singapore Airline Suites which are available on the Airbus A380, the First class, Business class and Economy class.

Singapore Airlines provide flights to 61 destinations. A non-stop air service between Singapore and USA was first marked in 2004.

Besides that, SIA also has a “Frequent-Flyer Club” which provides benefits for those that travel more than the average. There are 2 categories of the Frequent-Flyer Club; KrisFlyer and the PPS (Priority Passenger Service).

KrisFlyer members can earn miles that can be redeemed for travel. The PPS members are put at a higher priority. They are preferential treatment, personalised service and exclusivity. The PPS value cannot be earned while flying in the Economy Class which thus sets the difference with KrisFlyer.

C. 2 challenges faced by SIA
One of the challenges faced by the natural disaster. Natural disaster are hard to predict. Thus a little symptom of the weather changes also might lead to a delay or cancel of flight.
For example: If the situation is so bad, they would have to cancel the flight. All the passanger are not able to return back to their destination. SIA would have to re-schedule the passengers flight and they might not have the available seat for them.

Another challenge faced by SIA is the economic crisis. Whenever an economic crisis arises, the demand for flights decreases drastically. Therefore, many flights have to be cancelled and the profits of SIA will also decrease.

In the recent economic crisis, SIA only averaged 62.6% in March 2009, which is 7.4% below break-even. In this case, if not handled properly, the co-operation could be bankrupt.
Besides that, more people opt for budget cost flights. SIA already saw the threat of the lower-cost market and thus, established Tiger Airways in 2004. With that, they are able to get both markets.

Done by Phyllis Ng and Tiffany Siew