Next spring WestJet is planning to start operating flights from St. John’s Canada to Dublin Ireland. This would further ramp up competition with rival Air Canada. By connecting to Dublin, passengers could then take advantage of the many low cost airlines operating in Europe, such as Ryanair that has its hub in Dublin. Passengers could also rent cars once in Europe and continue their travel by car. Flying to Europe would also increase the flow of international passengers who are planning to come to Canada and once in St. John’s they could further their travel on board WestJet to any point in Canada.

Flying to Europe however can present many challenges to the company, which WestJet is not prepared to deal with. For example the fact that the airline would be flying from St. John’s and not from the major canadian cities could push passengers off and at the end they would still choose to use major international airlines like Air Canada. The airline would also have to purchase larger airlines in order to become competitive in the market. However passengers who are not in hurry and care about the price tag would most likely use WestJet since it is more affordable.

Blog by Chris Sorensen: http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/11/15/westjet-bound-for-europe/

When the flight’s safety video comes on, usually people do anything but watch the video. That is the reason why Virgin America Airline Group has launched its new video in the hope of getting people to watch and pay attention to the safety tips provided. Having a video of that sort however can both have its positive and negative aspects.

Yes the video is entertaining and if I was a customer on board that airline I would most defiantly pay more attention to the safety tips provided. Th reason for that is because the video is catchy and intertwining, which I think does not occur often on other onboard safety video. However the video can also have its negative sides. People watching the video might miss out on the idea of why the video is there in the first place. They might take the video as more of an entertainment rather then paying attention to its tips.

Overall however I believe that the video done by Virgin America is interesting to both grasp the customers attention, whilst at the same time focusing on portraying the message about the safety tips on board of an airline.

Elaine Chang’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/echang28/2013/11/14/we-are-not-the-entertainment-industry-or-are-we/

Article and video: http://mashable.com/2013/10/29/virgin-america-safety-video/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfcnFpb3Y4bTFvZWpoczJ1eXZuejc1djFxM2VfIn0

On November 11 each year, China celebrates Single’s Day. It is a day where products are sold at half price on almost all major e-commerce websites. It is a day when single and not single customers go crazy to buy as much as possible. Only 6 minutes after midnight for example, $164 million was spent on Tmall.com, China’s Amazon and eBay mixed into one.

Having such huge sales on the internet can sometimes have its limitations. Due to the enormous wave of customers, the webpages were quickly getting blocked and customers throughout the day had to stay on the webpages refreshing and waiting for the right time to purchase their product. For some customers this proved to be very frustrating and despite the good deal they were willing to give up and not buy the products.This shows some of the limited cases where customers just have to click few buttons and they would pay their money, however the sellers were not allowing them to do so. However it can also be argued that if it was that easy to get 50% off then everyone would do it. At the end of the day most of the people ended up being happy since customers who managed to buy 50% off they were satisfied as well as the sellers who now had huge revenue streams formed in just one day.

Article: http://onlinenewsunitedkingdom.com/world/2013/11/11/the-consumerism-of-singles-day/

Ryanair shares have dropped by 13% this year due to warnings from the company that the profits were going to drop. In the large scale we might look upon this issue as some of the people who have sold their shares due to the expected decline in profits, however drop in profits is not necessary bad for the company.

The company has often been criticized for making the passengers pay extra fees once and prior to the flight, which are not included in the ticket price. Such extra fees include oversize baggage and additional fee for late boarding time. However if we look at this issue from the side of Ryanair we can see that the company is encouraging people to follow the rules of the airline and at the end of the day the people who complain are people who have not followed the rules.

Another interesting aspect is that despite the warnings that the profits would go down is that people should focus more on the costs. Due to the bad economy costs will drop and Ryanair would continue dropping its costs, which in first place are already pretty law. At the end of the day, Ryanair actually might start making more profits in the long run. The drop in shares and the great emphasis on the issue might just be another part of the media overreacting.

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24800604

Chinese National Television has recently released a survey that it did. In it it discover that the prices of Starbucks beverages in China are higher than anywhere else in the world. For example any Starbucks store in China would sell a 354ml Latte for 27RMB, while a store in London for example would sell the same coffee for 24RMB. This difference has gotten many customers upset due to the price discrimination Starbucks shows. However many of them are still willing to buy the coffee.

Starbucks at this moment has no plans of bringing the price down. The reason for that is because the company has a strong image and is popular worldwide. The company also has no competition from the local coffee shops in China since they are not as “westernized” as Starbucks. At the end of the day it does not matter how much the population hates the price discrimination they would still buy coffee from Starbucks since its cool and “western”,  which is something the Chinese customers would do anything and pay anything to be a part of.

Article: http://www.chinasmack.com/2013/stories/cctv-reports-starbucks-prices-higher-in-china-chinese-reactions.html

The Walt Disney Company has announced that it will release the next Star Wars film on 18 December 2015. Star Wars initially belonged to Lucasfim before Disney bought the company for four billion USD. Since then the company has been working on the new Star Wars movie and the new film is a great opportunity for the Disney company to increase its profits and pay back the initial investment to buy the Lucasfim company.

Disney announced the  release date as it reported a better-than-expected 12% jump in net profit for the three months to 28 September.  The new movie would also benefit the company in several other ways such as all the fans of the Star Wars movie would now watch other Disney movies and by so increase the companies profits. The new movie would increase publicity especially the fact that there have been other Star Wars movies in the past and people would be interested to find out what happens in this one. Also the company would build a strong loyal customers segment, which will help the company prosper in the future due to customers who would watch future Star Wars movies and continue to contribute to the companies’ increasing success.

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24862359

In the recent days the British Airports Commission has said that the southeast of England would need more runway capacity in the years to come. This problem does not seem big in the short term, however if we look at it in the long term then the consequences could be devastating. If a new runway or some other form of expansion does not take place at the airports in London and the region then that could have huge impact on the businesses in the area.

An example is British Airways, which is as Airline Company with its hub at Heathrow Airport in London. If the government does not approve expansions, then the company would suffer horribly. For instance the company would no longer be able to expand and would slowly be overwhelmed by other companies, which are able to offer their customers more regular flights as well as flights to more destinations.

Article Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24429443

On Monday the aircraft manufacture company Airbus announced their first deal with the Japanese national carrier JAL. The Japanese company ordered 31 planes from the new A350 manufactured by Airbus. The deal was not pleasant news for Airbus biggest competitor Boeing, who is producing the Dreamliner B787. That is because the A350 is a similar aircraft to the B787 except that the A350 uses 25% less fuel then previous generation wide-bodied aircrafts.

The deal also came as a treat to Boeing since it backed Airbus plans to continue expanding its sales in the Asian market, which is the most popular market for aircrafts in the world and it is most likely to stay that way in the future fifteen to twenty years. However due to the size of the Asian market, Boeing is still strongly continuing its sales despite the technological problems that the B787 Dreamliner has experienced in the beginning of the year.

Eli’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/elisei/2013/10/07/airbus-and-japan-airlines-agree-on-historic-9-5bn-deal/

BBC Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24424873

This weekend China’s free trade zone was launched. This zone is believed to be the next stage of China’s reforms. The zone allows tax breaks of imports and exports as well as banks for example may be given more freedom over interest rates. People believe that this is a start for the money to move more freely within the Chinese market.

The opening of this free trade zone in Shanghai however is not such good news for places like Hong Kong. Thought the years Hong Kong has been acting as the bridge between China and the world, however if this free trade zone in Shanghai were to become successful then Hong Kong would experience trouble. In that case curtain businesses such as the RMB trading business would have to relocate from Hong Kong to Shanghai. This could potentially lead to a downfall in Hong Kong’s economy.

Many other people however argue that Hong Kong’s clean government and English speaking stuff would be able to keep business within Hong Kong. This advantage as well as many others such as Hong Kong’s rule of law would be able to keep Hong Kong’s competitiveness even if Shanghai opens further.

Original article and video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24326880

Abercrombie & Fitch is a clothing brand known for providing stylish clothes to teenagers and young adults. The company has always been associated with scandals regarding the looks of the people who shop and work in its stores. The companies’ CEO Mike Jeffries however when overboard and publicly announced that the brand is focusing on targeting only the cool and popular kids. The CEO also mentioned that fat and non-popular kids should not be allowed in the stores. This was also evident by the companies’ action to not produce clothes larger then size 10.

Jes Baker, who is a size 22, was typically disturbed by the way A&F treats its customers. He believed that the company is not being ethical by being discriminant towards oversized customers and employees, so he changed the brands logo to Attractive & Fat. By doing so he was able to associates and attracts the attention of others and is able to mock the Abercrombie & Fitch brand as well as create awareness.

Personally I believe A&F are not being ethical when it comes to market only certain types of people due to the discriminating nature of their marketing strategy, however I also understand that by being discriminant to “non-popular kids” as quoted by the brands CEO, the company is able to attract other customers who share the same thoughts as him and therefor build exclusionary brand image.

Original Article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/23/living/abercrombie-attractive-and-fat