Aviation Consulting Services

Airline Restructuring
Today, more than ever, airlines of all shapes and sizes across the world face significant challenges: deregulation, consolidation, increase factor input costs, shareholder value creation and increased competition from new business models, to name just a few. Often carriers fail to respond adequately or rapidly enough to changes in the marketplace. This may be due to the complexity of their organization or strained stakeholder relations – or they may simply have overlooked or misinterpreted a lasting change in operating conditions. Either way, this can trigger a financial crisis and expose an urgent need to restructure their operations.
Airline restructuring is one of the most challenging and complex fields in airline consulting, since it potentially involves every single link in an airline’s value chain – from financial management and ground operations to strategy and network development. By definition, restructuring is an intricate, goal-oriented and time-definite sequence of activities, all of which aim to bring about a lasting improvement in competitiveness. SAS Consultant’s approach to restructuring takes into account a methodological approach to bringing about improvements in the short term to help prevent or recover from a crisis, in the medium term to reinvigorate employees and customers, and in the long term in order to drive sustainable competitiveness and maintain customer loyalty. Restructuring can be the first step towards preparing an airline for a forthcoming privatization and transforming it into an attractive investment for potential investors. SAS Consulting has the necessary competence and experience in every airline-specific area to make your restructuring effort a success. Our holistic approach takes account of a client’s specific ability – in terms of capacity, resources and competence – to manage restructuring. We help to define improvement measures, set up the project organization and assist you in implementing the turnaround and restructuring plan.
SAS Consulting offers a wide range of corporate restructuring support. This includes management consultancy, project management and shadow management (management secondment). We can also assign executives to fill certain positions within your airline on a temporary basis.
Airline finance services for your success: SAS Consulting offers clients a wide range of airline finance services. These focus on:
· Cost Cutting Programs
· Result Improvement Programs
· Merger and Acquisition, M&A-Services.
The airline environment is characterized by a high demand and growth volatility, fast changing market conditions especially in regard to fuel cost and high customer expectations. Thus Cost Cutting Programs play an important role within the volatile environment of the airline business. The SAS Group has a long standing history of successful cost cutting initiatives in all areas.
In order to sustainably improve the overall results it is also important to include the revenue side. Furthermore, process efficiency can be improved and the cost of capital optimized. SAS Consulting has developed a dedicated airline Result Improvement Program based on various proven initiatives and with the clear goal to achieve result improvements in a short period of time.
Due to the high similarity of businesses in the airline industry, Mergers & Acquisitions are a viable opportunity to achieve growth and reduce costs. However, particularly in this market, M&A transactions have to be thoroughly prepared and analyzed from a strategic point of view in order to truly benefit from the advantages of such growth strategy.
As the airline experts with profound expertise in all areas related to the airline business, Lufthansa Consulting supports its clients in defining the optimum M&A strategy, identifying adequate targets or investors and maximising value creation. SAS Consulting offers support along the whole M&A process – from the first contact with potential targets or investors to negotiations support. This includes organization of beauty contests, commercial due diligence, financial modelling and review or challenge of existing business plans. Following a successful M&A process, SAS Consulting experts also support clients during the integration phase. In order to efficiently steer an airline it is of major importance to have a Management Information System (MIS) including the necessary data as well as key performance indicators available. It is also important to have a controlling function in place that bundles all planning, steering and reporting processes.
SAS Consulting can introduce an MIS as well as state of the art controlling processes. Furthermore, LCG can establish airline benchmarks/comparisons with regards to geographical regions, business models and dedicated airline functions.