Outsourcing in air transportation industry: the case of Turkish Airlines

Abstract

Air transportation industry, in all over the world, is developing and changing day by day in a very competitive environment. Airline companies have to adopt themselves using different strategies to give more efficient and effective services to survive in that market. Outsourcing is one of these strategies to be able to reach the sustainability of airline companies. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of outsourcing for the airline companies. For this reason, first outsourcing in air transportation industry is reviewed. Then, the preferable services - such as information technologies, catering - for outsourcing is discussed in this industry. As a result, to analyze the view of point of Turkish Airlines-the flag carrier-, a semi-structured questionnaire is given to the authorities. The results show that to increase productivity, profitability and to decrease cost airline companies use outsourcing for the services that need know-how and great investment.