ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the air transportation and aerospace industries. It describes a background on the current global industry including a regional analysis, explains current and future evolvement of the industry in terms of trends, discusses challenges and strategies impacting the industry, explores the new breed of airlines, and also discusses why airlines fail and what can be done to achieve success. Airlines are important to the global economy because they link regional economies with the rest of the world. Airlines are changing distribution methods with a huge reliance on the Internet for ticket sales and there is a shift in in-flight services to more economical offerings. Airlines have privatized and the region has experienced the growth of low-cost airlines and the growth of alliances including airlines and airports. Airlines are impacting low-cost strategies and safety and security continue to be issues requiring addressing.
