春秋航空差異化競爭優勢的構建

Abstract

三大國企航空長時間掌握主導地位的中國民航歷史上，民營航空將是曇花一現,還是將成為21世紀民航改革交響樂中的一個完整樂章? 回顧中國民航歷史，2004年是中國民航業改革的分水嶺。潮湧潮動,春風拂面,只存在國有航空的中國民航業終於迎來了第一波民營航空組建潮，春秋、吉祥、奧凱、東星等民營航空公司相繼成立，一時熱鬧非凡。不過，大浪淘沙,市場風雲變幻,幾年後，這些航空公司的境遇卻大不相同，除了春秋、吉祥尚在運營外，東星航空已經破產，鷹聯航空、東北航空則因經營不善先後被收歸地方國有，而奧凱航空也一度停飛陷入危機。 9年後的2013年年末，中國民航又迎來了新一輪民營航空組建潮。中國民航局相繼批准了福州航空、九元航空、長龍航空、瑞麗航空的籌建申請。此次“組建潮”主要是民營航空唱主角。這些新航空公司能否順利成長，還要等待市場檢驗。 中國加入世貿組織以來，眾多國外航企持續拓展國內二、三線市場，而高鐵網路快速成型，給低成本航空有優勢的短途航空市場帶來了巨大衝擊。另一方面，國內三大航仍佔據了大多數的優質航線資源。面對國內外航企的殘酷競爭，新老民營航企如何施展商業手腕“虎口奪食”，將成為成敗的關鍵。 世界著名競爭戰略學者邁克爾•波特認為，差異化是公司最重要的競爭戰略選擇，也是公司競爭優勢的主要來源。 由於航空運輸產業的同質性,進行差異化競爭必然成為我國航空公司建立競爭優勢的重要途徑。新老公司必須依靠差異化經營，贏得市場，否則兩三年後，或將迎來又一波重組並購潮。 作為中國第一家低成本航空，春秋航空從首航的2005年只有2架飛機和10餘條國內航線，經過多年艱苦經營，截止到2013年末已擁有39架飛機和64條國內外航線，平均客座率始終保持在95%左右，飛機日利用率11小時以上，旅客運輸量、旅客周轉量分別從2005年的18萬人、2.34億人公里增長至2013年的1,055萬人、164.94億人公里，成為大中華地區領先的低成本航空公司。 本文系統梳理了春秋航空9年來的低成本創業歷程，以差異化競爭理論和藍海戰略為指導,在前人研究的基礎上，結合經濟學、管理學理論，運用實證分析方法，跟蹤研究春秋航空運用差異化競爭戰略的具體實施過程與成效，以此探討差異化競爭優勢在航空競爭中起到的作用，以及在實施差異化競爭戰略中需要改進的問題，進而全面研究如何構建春秋航空的差異化經營優勢，為中國低成本航空的發展，乃至為中國民航強國的建設提供借鑒。

In the history of Chinese civil aviation industry, facing the situation which three top state owned airlines still take the leading position, the private airlines are only a flash in the pan, or will push the Chinese civil aviation industry reform forward in the 21st century? Reviewing the history, 2004 was a watershed of Chinese civil aviation industry reform. After establishment of Spring Airlines, Yuneyao Airlines, Okay Airways, East Star Airlines etc., the fledgling private airlines filled a niche in the civil aviation market long dominated by stated owned companies. But the market is unpredictable, survival of the fittest. Within a few years, the status of these private airlines are not identical.Unlike Spring airlines and Juneyao Airlines still in operating, East Star Airlines went bankrupt; United Eagle Airlines and Northeast Airlines were nationalized as bad management; Okay Airways also once stopped operating in short term. Since the end of 2013, Chinese civil aviation industry has been ushering in a new round of development again for the private airlines. Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has approved the application of preparatory establishment for Fuzhou Airlines, JiuYuan Airlines, Loong Airlines, Ruili Airlines. Especially the private airlines will lead this new development trend. But it will be tested by market whether these new airlines could grow up. Since China has entered WTO, more and more foreign airlines constantly develop and occupy the civil aviation market to second and third -tier cities in China, and high speed railway network also quickly takes shape, which will all impact the short haul aviation market for low-cost airlines. On the other hand, the three top state-owned airlines still hold much good resource, such as the aviation right and timetable. In the face of fierce competition from domestic and foreign airlines, even high speed railway, how will the private airlines win more market shares that will be the key factor to success. The world famous strategy scholar, Michael E. Porter points out, the differentiation is an important factor for competition strategy, and a main source of competition advantage. As the homogeneity of civil aviation industry, the differentiated competition is an important approach to establish the competition advantage. The companies must depend on the differentiated operation to win the market, if not, it will have to usher in a new round of merger and reorganization once again. As the first low-cost airlines in China, Spring Airlines had only 2 fleets and 10 domestic routes from the beginning in 2005. Through the hard operation,it had 39 fleets and 64 domestic routes , which always keep about 95% of average load factor and more than 11 hours per day of operated aircraft utilization at the end of 2013. The passenger traffic and turnover of passenger traffic increased to 10.55 millions and 16.494 billions in 2013 from 0.18 millions and 0.234 billions in 2005. Spring Airlines has become a leading low-cost airline in Greater China. Under the guide of the differentiated competition and blue ocean strategy, the article systematically analyzes the developing course of Spring Airlines on low-cost business model in the past 9 years. On the base of the previous study, through combining with the economics and management science, and using empirical analysis method, we evaluate the implementation process of Spring Airlines’ differentiated competition strategy for discussing the effects of differentiated competition advantages and its problems to improve. We comprehensivly study how to establish the differentiated competition advantages of Spring Airlines which will provide some useful reference for the development of Chinese low-cost airlines and the construction of our powerful nation by the civil aviation industry.