Strategic Marketing Approaches within Airline Management: How the Passenger Market causes the Business Concepts of Full Service Network Carriers, Low Cost Carriers, Regional Carriers and Leisure Carriers to overlap

On the German passenger market, airlines approach different business concepts in order to cope with the threats and to be successful. The case of the Lufthansa Passenger Airline and its subsidiary Germanwings has been discussed many times currently. Together they have implemented a restructuredconcept of the Low Cost Carrier Germanwings in order to overcome their weaknesses. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of economic success of this strategy change. Therefore, the papercomprises three main areas. The first one is the theoretical part, which explains the differences between Full Service Network Carriers, Low Cost Carriers, Regional Carriers and Leisure Carriers. Secondly, the analysis takes place by applying Porter’s five forces model. Subsequently, the strengths and weaknessesof the Lufthansa Passenger Airline and Germanwings are highlighted and the new business concept isintroduced. Finally, all findings are put into relation using the SWOT-analysis.