Coopetition Strategy: A Research on Traditional Airlines

Employed by two or more competitor companies particularly in highly competitive markets, the coopetition strategy is a business strategy where competition goes hand in hand with cooperation. Airline companies employ coopetition strategy to overcome such unfavorable conditions and to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. For that purpose, they make agreements with competitor airline companies within or apart from the strategic alliances. The purpose of this study is to identify the experiences of the airline companies practicing coopetition strategies. To that end, semi-structured interviews have been carried out with senior managers of five traditional airlines. The primary result of the study is that the coopetition strategy is indispensable for the sustainability of the airline business. Another remarkable result is that competition boards are required to lead up practices which will benefit airline companies.