United Airlines Company’s Post-Covid-19 Project

Introduction

United Airlines is a major airline carrier based in the United States, which operates a large network of routes both domestically and abroad. The COVID-19 pandemic, which started at the beginning of 2020, significantly disrupted various spheres of the economy and the airline industry was not an exception. According to the data provided by the International Air Transport Association, in 2020, the number of air passengers decreased by 60%, while the industry suffered a loss of more than $100 billion (“Airline industry statistics,” 2021).

Nevertheless, such difficult circumstances enabled many airline carriers to seize new opportunities and produce innovative solutions, such as the use of biometrics technology and touchless interfaces (Amankwah-Amoah, 2021). It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect countries around the world and millions of people. Yet, despite the advancements in mass vaccination, some people are still anxious to engage in in-person activities (“Stress in America,” 2021). United Airlines can treat the current situation as an opportunity and ensure complete safety for its passengers by offering COVID-free flights.

Summary

The project will focus on the topic of The Provision of Virus-Free Flights to United Airlines’ Passengers.” The premise for the current paper is the substantial drop in the number of airline passengers due to fears of traveling during the pandemic. The scope of the project will involve the goal of proposing a viable measure to reduce the infection possibility on United Airlines flights. Moreover, the objectives to achieve the goal will imply collecting data on techniques and technologies promoting safe travel during pandemics.

The project will also comprise a proposal report containing thoroughly selected information on the most effective way to seize the market opportunity and deliver virus-free travel experiences to United Airlines’ passengers. The action plan for the study will be based on four stages, the last of which will involve a presentation of the proposal in from of an audience. I am capable of conducting the current project since its tasks fit my ability to act and think creatively and take the initiative, as indicated by my BetterUp score.

Discussion of the Proposal

As mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic considerably undermined the airline industry, which, nevertheless, did not prevent companies from designing and implementing various strategies and solutions to avoid complete bankruptcies. United Airlines is a major company that offers hundreds of destinations to clients, which means that it also suffered a significant loss during the pandemic. United Airlines net loss in 2020 was more than $7 billion since the lack of passengers due to various travel restrictions forced the company to lose money (“United announces 2020 financial results,” 2021).

Despite the fact that the pandemic became a substantial challenge for the company, United Airlines’ top management stated that by 2023, the organization would be able to recover fully (“United announces 2020 financial results,” 2021). Yet, currently, taking into consideration the emergence of new variants of the virus, it is not clear when the continuing pandemic will finally be over, and no approximate forecasts can be correct. As a result, the plan developed by the managers of United Airlines may not be successful, and the company may face additional economic pressure due to the rise in the number of infections.

When assessing United Airlines’ current situation with an intention to discover possible opportunities for growth and development, it is important to conduct internal and external analyses. The former was carried out with the help of the SWOT framework, which assists in defining the key areas of the company. The results have shown that in terms of strengths, United Airlines possess a large number of highly-qualified employees working in different departments of the company. Additionally, the company is extremely popular with customers, and in 2019, more than 150 million people used United Airlines (Salas, 2021).

Nevertheless, the primary weakness of the company is its poor reputation, as demonstrated by the customer reviews on Skytrax (“United Airlines,” n.d.). The key opportunity for the company is adjusting to the new circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic by satisfying the customer demand for safe travel. Finally, its main threat is the continuing pandemic and the inability to stay competitive in the current situation.

The external analysis was conducted based on the PEST framework, which helps to analyze various factors affecting the company. Political factors impacting United Airlines are the travel bans and other types of pandemic-related restrictions imposed by the government. Economic factors include a lack of opportunities for potential clients to travel due to loss of income because of the pandemic. The main social factor is the fear of people becoming infected when flying on a plane. Technological factors involve the possible creation of new aircraft capable of transporting people without subjecting them to the risk of infection.

Additionally, it is important to analyze the information on the current state of affairs in the airline industry and the attitudes of people towards flying during the pandemic. Data collected from the International Air Transport Association showed that the demand for domestic flights in April of 2021 decreased by 25% compared to the same period in April 2019 (“April travel demand,” 2021). Such evidence demonstrates the fact that the airline industry is still experiencing considerable difficulties and cannot fully recover from the effects of the pandemic. Moreover, considering the possibility of new virus variants, it is hard to say whether the passenger traffic will reach its pre-pandemic level in the near future.

It is also essential to assess the opinions of potential airline passengers about the possibility of flying. In a study conducted by Lamb et al. (2021), the majority of airline passengers, when asked about their traveling experience during the pandemic on the airplane, said that they had trust issues and fear associated. Such data shows that people are still anxious to board planes even one year after the start of the pandemic.

Thus, based on the aforementioned information, the proposal which can be presented to United Airlines is to provide its clients with an opportunity to fly in safe conditions. Airline carriers have already attempted to introduce various boarding arrangements to reduce the possibility of infection, but they were mostly ineffective (Islam et al., 2021). United Airlines must introduce measures that would have a maximum guarantee of not getting infected with COVID-19 on the company’s aircraft.

One way to do it is to introduce special flights which would be available only to vaccinated individuals and people with negative COVID-19 test results. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in its official guidelines on international travel during the pandemic, recommends getting a vaccine before a trip (“International travel,” 2021). Thus, United Airlines can introduce the same practice for domestic flights, which constitute an important source of revenue for the company. Nevertheless, the particular ways to ensure patient safety must be researched additionally during this project. Such measures will help United Airlines attract more passengers by giving them a chance for safe travel.

Strategy and Scope

Thus, the topic of the current proposed project is “The Provision of Virus-Free Flights to United Airlines’ Passengers.” The scope of the current project will consist of several components, namely, the primary goal, objectives to achieve the goal, and deliverables. The main goal of the current proposal is to design a strategy for providing safe travel to passengers of United Airlines in order to increase their number.

The objectives of the project include collecting data on various techniques for minimizing the spread of infection onboard commercial aircraft. One such source is the article by Islam et al. (2021) discovered in the Capella Library on the use of special boarding techniques. Another objective of the research is the assessment of the technological solutions to the issues related to the COVID-19 infection introduced by airlines during the pandemic.

A good source for such data is the article by Amankwah-Amoah (2021), once again discovered in the Capella Library. The deliverables will include the final proposal paper containing all the key information about the project and offering informed arguments in support of utilizing the opportunity to provide safe airline travel. Another deliverable is the presentation which will graphically demonstrate information about the research and the proposal.

Action Plan

The action plan will involve four stages, collection of data, analysis of the received information, creation of the proposal, and presentation of the results. The first stage will imply identifying several resources, such as the Capella Library, with quality sources and collecting those featuring relevant data. The data necessary for the project will also be accessed through popular databases, as well as websites. All the information required for the proposal will concern effective ways of ensuring a safe travel experience for passengers during pandemics. The second step will involve analyzing the collected sources and distilling the information, which would make the proposal more reliable.

During this stage, the ultimate measures for minimizing the incidence of virus infections onboard aircraft will be identified. Then, based on the collected and analyzed data, the report will be compiled, and it will include the final proposal on how to use the existing opportunity in the market. Finally, during the last stage, a presentation of the proposal will be held, and the report will be distributed to everyone who is interested in it.

Conclusion

The current project proposal will concern exploring the market opportunity for the provision of virus-free airline travel. United Airlines is a company that experienced significant financial losses during the pandemic, and it has to develop new ways of staying competitive in a difficult situation for the entire airline industry. The project will focus on finding the best practice for United Airlines to minimize the possibility of infection on its flights. The safe air travel options provided by United Airlines will help the company to attract people who avoid flying due to the fear of getting the virus.

The current project will allow me to demonstrate my creativity and the ability to take the initiative, qualities for which I received the highest scores on my BetterUp testing. By sharing the insight I gain during the project with others, I will also prove my coaching skills. The current project will be accomplished on time without any delays and will adhere to the highest quality standards, as well as all the project requirements. I would like to kindly ask you to grant me permission to proceed with working on the project.

References

Airline industry statistics confirm that 2020 was the worst year on record. (2021). IATA. Web.

Amankwah-Amoah, J. (2021). COVID‐19 pandemic and innovation activities in the global airline industry: A review. Environment International, 156, 1– 7. Web.

April travel demand a tale of 2 markets: Domestic recovery & international stagnation. (2021). IATA. Web.

International travel during COVID-19. (2021). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.

Islam, T., Lahijani, M. Srinivasan, A., Namilae, S., Mubayi, A., & Scotch, M. (2021). From bad to worse: Airline boarding changes in response to COVID-19. Royal Society Open Science, 8(4), 1–13. Web.

Lamb, T., Ruskin, K., Rice, S., Khorassani, L., Wintera, S., & Truonga, D. (2021). A qualitative analysis of social and emotional perspectives of airline passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Air Transport Management, 94, 1–8. Web.

Salas, E.B. (2021). A number of passengers boarded by United Airlines from FY 2014 to FY 2020. Statista. Web.

Stress in America. (2021). American Psychological Association. Web.

United Airlines. (n.d.). Skytrax. Web.

United announces 2020 financial results: 2021 will focus on the transition to recovery; expects to exceed 2019 adjusted EBITDA margin by 2023. (2021). United Airlines. Web.