Using an AIRLINE for T8

Is there any limit for the number of abbreviations that can be used. i used the following abbreviations. Emirates airlines - EK, cathay Pacific - CX, return on assets - ROA, operating profit magin - OPM, fixed asset turnover - FA net debt/equity - ND/E and currency billion as bn and currency million as m.

@amal3008 - Yes in that it can drive the marker crazy! Some abbreviations are fairly standard e.g. ROCE and EPS but ND/E is not of them. Even if you provide an abbreviation list it often means the reader has to break off, refer to the list and then re-read the passage (and this can be very annoying as well as frustrating). My marker friend says if this happens to her repeatedly she fails for communication as the reading flow is disrupted and her understanding compromised. Her advice is to stick to conventional abbreviations (EK and CX would be regarded in this category provided you use the full version at least once at the beginning), and if in doubt about whether to use a particular abbreviation or not is - don't!

Do i need to inform Oxford Brooks about the company and the competitor i have selected. Is it a requirement? If yes is it the right time to inform them. And do i need to register with Oxford Brooks as well or No!!! Thank you!!!!!!

@Jahnvi - I would include both current ratio and EPS if you can squeeze in the words. Perhaps you don't have to say much about the current ratio a graph and that it is above 1. EPS is related to profit of course. If you prefer use dividends per share which may reflect both profit and retained earnings and subsequent future investment strategies (retained earnings for business expansion plans or new aircraft) Regarding aircraft utilization you have practicality answered your own question. Aircraft and airlines only make money when the aircraft are in the air. Newer aircraft (like New cars) need less maintenance but have higher depreciation, whereas older aircraft have parts that need replacing, and more regular checks (many of these are mandatory and linked to aircraft age and flight cycles, that is the number of take-offs and landings, as well as number of flying hours) I suspect WestJet is buying and using old jets that have higher scheduled maintenance and need to spend more time on the ground undergoing engineering checks (some of which may be unplanned -as just like older cars they become less reliable)

Worth a line then: - Air Canada is not declaring dividends right now preferring to retain earnings to maintain a higher current asset balance having recently heavily invested in a new fleet. This should secure future earnings and dividends going forward.

Thanks @trephena for your prompt reply. Actually i have written net debt/equity ratio(ND/E) as the heading and used the abbreviation only under that heading and nowhere else. Other places i have used net debt/equity.

@saheraden said: Is'nt topic 8 just An Evaluation of Business and Financial Performance of any Airlines? Do we need to make an entire comparasion of the airlines we are making our project on with any. I have just compared the financial statements not the entire business and environment. I am making my project on Emirates Airlines and have comapred the financials statements with Qatar airways. Do i need to further talk about Qatar airways beyond its figures? I have used SWOT, PESTEL and Porters 5 forces but I have only talked about Emirates Airlines. Do i need to research on Qatar Airways too?

Hello, I am doing re-submission I have chosen Emirates Airlines as the main and Qatar Airways as the competitor. Both the companies financial statements are in different currencies. 1 AED=0.99 QR riyals. As I am going through the forum, currency translations doesn't seem important. How do I compare the cash flows for both the companies ? Also due to different currency , should I convert the competitors to the main ones for comparing CASK and RASK. Can someone please guide ?

Focus on the individual company's trends for these measures as that is what they will be doing and then you can compare percentage increases/ decreases in these KPIs when assessing their performances against each other (Translating currencies is wrong because the airlines themselves report and mainly operate in their own currencies and although the USD rate and other currencies do impact this would normally be shown through the currency losses or profits separately in the Income statement.)

Thank you Trephena, Can you also guide while doing business analysis (for re-submission), can I update it with the recent trend ? Or just like the financial analysis it should be till 2016 ?

If I am doing Topic 8 for the south west airlines, and while doing the S.W.O.T. analysis, which mentioning about the S. , I have said that to provide low fares airlines use saleleaseback method 2 maintain better CF, or employee productivity or emplyee/ aircraft is low or going for aircraft that are younger so maintenance cst can be controlled to a greater extent. I got all these points from the book Southwest Airline book "Nuts!" All these methods that they mentioned about cost control have been given in different pages in the book. This book was written by Jackie Freiberg and Kevin Freiberg. My question is while giving the reference in the report will it be ok If I write (Freiberg, Freiberg, 1966) Is it necessary to write the page numbers? or even the title of book? Thanks

Sorry I missed this query previously. Yes your reference will be Ok. However ideally you should refer to the page number as best practice is to use page numbers when the document is longer than about 10 pages long. So that means the annual report references should also have page numbers (unless you are using data from the Income Statement or Balance Sheet where it would be obvious) Statements that use the written parts of the annual report are less obvious and page number should be included.