Portfolio Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Portfolio - Assignment Example While such competition among scheduled airlines and low cost carriers (LCCs) is rather indirect, the travel preferences of passengers are what matters at the end. The global financial meltdown changed people's travel habits as they looked for cheaper alternatives to their previous destinations. Have the needs of travelers diverged or changed dramatically? Do they prefer cheaper prices or comfort and good service during the flight? Today it becomes vitally important to understand the consumers’ needs, requirements and expectations from the contemporary air travel services, which should become an integral part of airlines’ future strategies. UK Airline Industry Overview Recently all UK carriers, including LCCs, experience the increasing competitive threats, including potential to depress onboard loads and dilute yields, continuous and increasing pressure to reduce unit costs, need to maximize aircraft utilization, and all magnified by the global economic crisis. Though, a t the same time opportunities for UK airlines include potential traffic stimulation, new markets and route access, new partnerships, and new business models. According to the research by White and Crasta (2010), there are four main purchase criteria of travelers while buying airplane tickets, including price of the ticket, convenient flight times, distance of the airport used by the airline, and brand of the airline. While all four criteria are important for travelers, the price occurred to be the most important factor among 80% of respondents while the rest 20% care more about brand name of the airline and convenient flight times. Throughout the world, British Airways is recognized as the leader in the service industry and as one of the companies which internal and external practices proved high quality service for the clients and care about the employees. Being the largest international scheduled airline of the United Kingdom, British Airways provides flights to more than 550 dest inations at the most convenient times for its customers. Charts 1 and 2 in the Appendix show international versus domestic capacity share and international capacity of British Airways by region in 2011 accordingly. Macro Environmental Analysis PESTLE analysis described below will help to analyze the macro environment of the UK airline industry, including such factors as political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. Political Factors The current political environment in the United Kingdom is supportive to aircraft services providing loans and funds toward different social and environment projects and programs. Traditionally, many UK companies are based on trade unions, which recently increased their pressure inspiring employees’ strikes. Financial Times informed that 78.5% of BA employees voted for walkouts and strike ballots supported by trade unions as the result of news about merger between BA and Spanish airline Iberia (Groom, 2011). UK government tu rned their main attention toward the security issues of airplanes as the result of several accidents, which will increase the

Breeding Thoroughbred Racing Horses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Breeding Thoroughbred Racing Horses - Essay Example They are also frequently cross-bred with other breeds to generate new breeds or to develop new ones, and have been important in the conception of many significant breeds, for example the Quarter Horse, the Standardbred, the Anglo-Arabian, and a variety of Warmblood breeds. Thoroughbred racehorses act with highest force, which has given rise to high percentage of mishaps and other health troubles. Racing has been established to have a higher casualty rate than all other human and animal games. As well, Thoroughbreds are inclined to other health problems that include bleeding from the lungs, low fertility, unusually small hearts and a small hoof to body mass ratio. There are a number of theories for the causes behind the occurrence of accidents and health complications in the Thoroughbred breed, and study continues into how to decrease the fatality rate and nurse those animals that are wounded. The archetypal Thoroughbred spans between 15.2-17.0 hands high. They are mainly reddish-brown, brown, chestnut, black, or gray (Patten, 191-195). A fewer familiar colors consists of roan and palomino. Although white is uncommon, however is a standard color distinct from gray. The face and lower legs may be stained with white (Bongianni, 1987); even though white will commonly not displayed on the body. Skin patterns that have more than one color on the body, such as Pinto or Appaloosa, are not present in the Thoroughbred (Glyn, 50). Excellent Thoroughbreds have a well-chiseled head on a long neck, high withers, a deep chest, a short back, good depth of rear legs, a slim body, and long legs (Bongianni, 1987; Montgomery, 338-354). Thoroughbreds are grouped among the fiery breeds, which are animals raised for quickness and rapidity and are normally regarded as brave and gallant (Henry 60, 66). Selective Breeding Theory It is advocated that the speed is improved in an already quick animal by raising muscle mass, a variety of selective breeding that has fashioned animals intended to win horse races (Kluger, 2006). Hence, the contemporary Thoroughbred moves quicker than its skeletal composition can bear (Finley, 1993). Consequently, all aggressive contemporary Thoroughbreds are strongly dominant however osteologically weak animals, notably more so than any fossil or living, found in the natural habitat. A top-down observation of skeletal muscle is contractile tissue of the body and is issued from the mesodermal layer of nascent germ cells. Selective breeding in domestic animals is the method of developing a sophisticated breed in the fullness of time. Horse-racing is an equestrian sport pursuit which has been accomplished over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times were an early example. Crossbreeding Thoroughbreds are often crossed with other horses to produce new breeds or develop existing ones. They have been prominent on many new breeds, for example the American Quarter Horse, the Standardbred, and perhaps the Morgan, a breed that continued to impact many of the gaited breeds in North America. Other familiar crosses with the Thoroughbred consist of crossbreeding with