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Airline Industry

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Submitted By laurame
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The airline industry is one of the biggest industries in the UK. From October 2007 to November 2008 there have been a total of 238,912,000 passengers flying from UK airports (CAA 2008). Over recent years there has been an increase in the number of airlines going into liquidation. Most recently XL Leisure, which was the UK’s third largest travel operator, went into liquidation in the summer of 2008. This left tens of thousands of passengers stranded at home and abroad.
Since the start of the 21st century there have been many events which have affected the industry. According to Doganis (2006) the downturn which some airlines were feeling in 2000 turned into disaster in 2001. The attacks in the USA in September 2001 had affected the industry globally. This brought about a lot of changes in the way the general public flew. This crisis was followed by a major increase in the price of fuel in 2004. According to Doganis (2006) this had a major effect on airlines, some worse off than others. Many airlines lost millions of dollars, some collapsed and some had to be rescued by their governments.
I am a keen traveller and am constantly using different airlines to travel to different parts of the world. When asked to choose an industry to research I felt it best to research an industry which I am interested in. I had also been affected when XL airlines went into liquidation and was stranded in Egypt. Therefore the opportunity to analyse the industry is one which I believe I should take.

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