A STUDY ON THE COMPETITION STRATEGIES OF THE AIRLINE COMPANIES IN TURKEY

This study aims to determine how the airline companies perceive the competition environment they are in, which competitive strategies they implement and to find out how and by which factors they are affected while forming these strategies. Qualitative research method was used in the study. The population of the study consists of the airline companies which have mainly local capital, the management centres of which are in Turkey and which have the licence of scheduled and non-scheduled domestic and international flights. A descriptive analysis was made for the data. The result of the study reveals that the competitive strategies implemented especially focus on obtaining the cost leadership. In addition, costs, customer satisfaction and service quality, employees, innovation and technological changes appear to be the most important elements among the factors which affect the competitive strategies.