Abstract
The increased competition in the air travel industry over the last couple of decades witnessed a revamped approach and new ways in conducting business. Multiple airlines have adopted various ways of branding themselves but the most common approach was adoption of corporate social responsibility. These companies feature more of giving back to the community and participating in activities entirely different from their main line of operation. This paper conducts an empirical and qualitative evaluation of eight major airlines in the air travel industry and their adoption of corporate social responsibility.
The paper is mainly structured in two major parts. Broadly stated, the first part is a theoretical perspective whereas the latter part captures the practical evaluation of CSR in eight airlines. Therefore, the first part irons the researcher’s understanding of CSR theory such as the participating stakeholders. In addition, this part captures an overview of CSR in the air travel industry as well as outlining accumulative gains to this trend.
The second part covers the broader part of this thesis taking a practical approach. This part includes qualitative analysis, evaluation and review of CSR application programs in eight of the sampled airlines. The chosen airlines where selected by sampling from among three of the largest airline alliances globally. The sampled airlines include British Airways, America Airlines, Qantas, Lufthansa, All Nippon Airways, Air France-KLM, Delta Airlines and Cathay Pacific. The practical part also discussed critical CSR elements as adopted by these airlines subject to an overview of each airline and CSR theory. Notwithstanding, the researcher evaluated various CSR program styles, presentations and structures.
Following qualitative analysis and evaluation of the findings, the paper concludes that increased pressure from