Rethinking Managerial Practice on Low-Cost Airline Organizational Structures: The Lesson-Learned Amid the Pandemic – Case in Thailand

Introduction

The widespread of COVID-19 is severely derailed airlines’ operations alike other businesses. Additionally, the airline industry is highly vulnerable to external environment namely; political, economic, social, technology, and environmental issues. Furthermore, the destructive competition, the threat of new entrants, the customer’s buying power, the threat of substitution, and the bargaining power of suppliers which is known as five forces indicated the airlines are defenselessness (Kankaew, 2016, 2022). In addition, in the era of fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) all kind of organizations must learn to transform themselves respectively to the changes (Kankaew et al., 2021) that placing more tough managerial issue in organizational structure. In the antecedent of the COVID 19, airlines were competing strongly by proposing its service quality and employing the price mechanism attracting their customers. Specifically, the price mechanism was heavily administered as a pull factor attracting passenger to purchase the ticket. Yet, at that time there were customers flying enhanced the airlines’ s financial stability. Logically, customers are the major veins that survive the airline interim of funding and operations. Therefore, some airlines are still kept in track on its businesses and services in such fluctuated crises (Kim & Sohn, 2022). Howbeit, with the penetration of the COVID 19, its dreadful impact has ruined the tourism and transport industry because of the stringent restriction and prohibition travelling across frontier in myriad countries (Scarlett, 2021) caused people ceasing to fly. As in Thailand, the Ministry of Interior (2021) has set up Coronavirus Disease 2019 Epidemic Administrative Center issuing various measurements to control the virus dissemination, such as set up curfew, quarantine travelers flying from both domestic and international, fine people who ignore of wearing mask, and distribute vaccinations throughout the country. Over and above, the COVID-19 delta variant exposed in the country the government has implemented stricter regulations. This was resulted to seize the air operation in certain cities, decrease its flights and change the type of aircraft for save the operation fortune. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand-CAAT (2021), then, has announced the notification forbidden to fly from July 21st 2021 onward until further notice when the pandemic was relieved. The CAAT, at the same time, regulated the airlines to maintain social distancing onboard the aircraft. This regulation means that airlines could carry passengers only 50 percent of its aircraft capacity. Hence, it is barely for air carriers to run the business especially low-cost airlines that the ticket prices are rather cheap.