Introduction
Capital Airlines (CA) is a US-based airline with 30,000 employees headquartered in Seattle, WA. CA is primarily focused on the domestic market and has three reservation centers in New York City, Cleveland, and San Diego.
Background
CA recently announced they will be opening new offices in Asia and Western Europe and will be offering non-stop flights to Tokyo, Madrid, and Barcelona as part of its published 10-year growth strategy into the international market. A new reservation center is also slated to open in Madrid with some US-based employees moving to Spain to start training new staff. CA is not currently part of a major airline alliance or partnership and the CEO hopes that expanding to international destinations will spur other airlines to consider a partnership with the airline company.
With the expectation that these international flights will commence in 15-months, the CEO realizes the organization does not have the internal capacity to manage all aspects of this growth plan. CAs’ leadership team has identified additional focus areas that are critical to success:
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Navigate through the numerous international compliance demands and risks of moving into this market
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Train new European employees on CAs’ existing reservation system and all employees about the new, streamlined business processes that will be implemented in all offices
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Engage key stakeholders through communication and change management activities about upcoming changes
