Operations Strategies and Competitive Advantage of African Airlines: A Case of Kenya Airways

In today’s business environment, competitive advantage goes to those organizations most able to adopt effective operations strategies. It is believed that operations strategies are responsible for spurring competitive advantage in different organizations. As a result, many airlines have adopted diverse strategies to enable them obtain competitive advantage. However, it was still unclear whether these strategies actually contributed to the envisaged competitive advantage. This study was carried out to ascertain whether the operations strategies adopted had any significant influence on competitive advantage of Kenya Airways. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the influence of operational efficiency, product and service innovation, continuous process improvement and customer orientation on the competitive advantage of Kenya Airways. The study was guided by the rational choice theory, resource-based view theory, the neo-institutional theory and the Porter’s Five Forces Model. The study was anchored on the descriptive survey design and targeted senior and middle level operations managers at the Kenya Airways headquarters in Embakasi, Nairobi and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport that serves as the operations hub to Kenya Airways. The study was a census comprising of 125 study participants. Data was collected using a questionnaire. A pilot study was carried out to guarantee the reliability of the instrument. Reliability was tested using Cronbach alpha and Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained and deemed satisfactory. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics included means, frequencies, percentages and standard deviation while the inferential statistics included Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was utilized to examine the data. The findings showed that the regression coefficient of operations efficiency was 0.309 (p-value=0.001), innovation of product and services was 0.321 (p-value=0.002), continuous improvement was 0.223 (p-value=0.002) and customer orientation was 0.137 (p-value=0.000). The results revealed that 30.9% of the variance observed in the competitive advantage of Kenya airways was influenced by operational efficiency while 32.1% was influenced by innovation of product and services. Also 22.1% of the variance in competitive advantage was contributed by continuous process improvement while 13.7% was influenced by customer orientation. The study concludes that for airlines to achieve competitive advantage they must focus on reducing flight delays and cost of operations, conform to operational charter and the overall corporate strategy, strive to offer superior products and services, explore new routes, introduce new aircrafts and offer attractive products and services, maintain a culture of continuous improvement and learning by availing the products and services that fulfill and satisfy the unique needs of the customers as well as their demands. The study recommends that the management of airlines should ensure that their operations are efficient and invest more in research to identify new products and services. The management of airlines should also ensure that they adopt products and services that meet customers’ needs and satisfaction.