A good book to get introduced to airline business

[exekcabincrew]

Hi everyone!

I have a question on learning here.. Now I am studying a Msc degree in finance and one of the potential career paths I plan to take is aviation management and/or aviation MnA and private equity roles.

Do you know of any good book I could read while I'm studying to get to understand how an airline works? Logistical aspects, financial management, insurance, risk management, route planning, revenue projections, etc. Corporate finance in general.

There are so many books on Amazon and some are quite expensive, so I don't know which one to pick. Have you read anything you would recommend?

Cheers!

[gopaisleygo]

Try Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First. Well worth the read, turning a basket case into a profitable world class leading airline.

[DaveReidUK]

Stephen Shaw's "Airline Marketing & Management" is generally regarded as one of the definitive texts.

[exekcabincrew]

Thank you a lot for your suggestions!

Do you know anything about this book?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1409454878/ref=pd_luc_rh_bxgy_01_03_t_img_lh?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It seems to look at aviation from a more economics and strategy perspective.

[sparkymarky]

For the mechanics of the industry, I found this quite accessible:

Straight and Level
http://amzn.eu/4J8ahoI

A couple of books covering the more human and social side of actually running an airline which I enjoyed are:

Go / Barbara Cassani
http://amzn.eu/491YFyw

Blue Streak: Inside JetBlue
http://amzn.eu/b97NVj7

[Cyrano]

This is one of the standard reference works on the economics of the industry and I'd recommend it:Flying Off Course (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Off-Course-Rigas-Doganis/dp/0415447372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487066298&sr=8-1&keywords=rigas+doganis)

[FRatSTN]

There's so many good ones out there. Some that I've read and would recommend for what your'e looking at are...

Rigas Doganis; "Flying Off Course: Airline Economics and Marketing" - (cyrano just beat me to it :{)

John G. Wensveen; "Air Transportation: A Management Perspective"

Michael Sales; "The Air Logistics Handbook; Air freight and the global supply chain"

Stephen Shaw's "Airline Marketing and Management" is good too but has more of a focus on the marketing macro-environment and uses a lot of analysis tools (eg PESTLE, Porters Five Forces etc). I'd recommend the others more for what you're doing as they have a better economic focus.

Hope that helps!

[PAXboy]

From the Pax perspective I agree that Gordon Bethune (from worst to first) described how to revive ANY business. I only wish that someone in BA would read it ...

[willy wombat]

I endorse From Worst to First as an essential read. For what it is like to actually be there, warts and all, "Fuelled by Belief - The Cityjet Story" by Pat Byrne is quite old but a very good insight (and cheap to buy). Others I like include "Nuts" which is about Southwest Airlines, "Poor Sailors' Airline" which is the story of PSA by Gary Kissel and, again quite old, "easyJet" by Lois Jones. While for your purposes you will need to read a couple of the text books by the academics (Shaw, Doganis etc) I think you will get a better feel for the trials and tribulations, stress, worry but also occasional joy of running an airline by reading airline histories, especially when written by those who were actually there (spoken as one who spent 30+ years at the coalface).

[HZ123]

It is probably worth a trawl of the business history of Court line, as though a long time ago, the same mistakes are still being made today. Time permitting see what info is available on Emirates,Etihad and Qatar as their strong growth has hit the buffers!

[willy wombat]

not about airline management but a brilliant book if you want help understanding what makes your pilots tick, "Fate is the Hunter " by Earnest K Gann is outstanding and you can pick up a copy on line for a fiver.