Write 11 pages with APA style on Competitive Edge of Virgin Atlantic. As a flight operator, Sir Branson saw this as an opportunity to cross-sell package tour holidays to the same customer segment – pa

Write 11 pages with APA style on Competitive Edge of Virgin Atlantic. As a flight operator, Sir Branson saw this as an opportunity to cross-sell package tour holidays to the same customer segment – passengers who took trans-Atlantic flights on Virgin Atlantic Airways. One notable thing about the Virgin Atlantic airline is it was launched as a low-cost alternative to those bigger more-established airlines with no-frills but superb cabin service. It is a joint venture between Sir Branson and Singapore Airlines (51% and 49%, respectively). It has 38 different sizes of aircraft available for flights to some 30 major destinations, with pending orders for 31 additional aircraft.

It has come a long way since its humble beginnings of leasing its first-ever aircraft from Aerolineas Argentinas in 1984, as it presently caters to 5.77 million passengers annually. This is a testament to its great value-for-money and excellent customer service that its clients remained loyal and gave it repeat business. Virgin Atlantic Airways was established barely six years after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 in the U.S. It must be borne in mind that at around this time, there was a surfeit of post-deregulation budget or low-cost airlines like the People Express. This segment was pioneered by Southwest Airlines as early as 1971.&nbsp.

There are two major drivers of the airline industry, the quality of service and the cost of aviation fuel. This slight digression to the airlines' industry is necessary because the holiday package tour market is heavily dependent on airlines, which is the case with Virgin Holidays in relation to the Virgin Atlantic Airways. Without the airline, Virgin Holidays by itself alone would be hard put to survive in a cut-throat business where price cuts are the norm, especially in a dwindling tourism market due to the current economic recession. The airlines industry is a service industry which means service delivery is crucial to customer perception.