Osterus Piloting as the ‘Maverick’ of Airlines Workforce Analysis

Making a mark on the travel and transportation industry without question remains one of the targets for numerous investors and venture capital firms. As everyone gears up for the upcoming Holiday season, many are predicting a huge comeback for tourism, which still needs to recuperate from the severe impact made by COVID.

Travel Industry — Recovery, Growth and Going Digital

Despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, corporate travel in 2022 might be back on the rise, with positive prospects for leisure travel, and Holiday travel. Overall, growth is definitely expected during the remainder of the year. Now, while investors and M&A professionals are going to keep investing in tourism, airlines have always been a bit dodgy for potential investments. Of course, specific top players in the airline industry are still coming out on top.

Some of the world’s biggest and best airlines have recognized the need to stay agile, fresh and innovative. Hopping aboard the digital boat so to speak is going to be a necessity during the forthcoming summer Holiday. Increased utilization of digital technology and AI already allows for speed and accuracy when it comes to travel scheduling, timetables and aircraft deployment.

The only really tricky market is Asia, with carriers in the region noting international passenger traffic just over 5% of pre Covid levels. Local Asian carriers, such as Cathay Pacific, are forced to deal with local political criticism. Not only that, but they are dealing with an exodus of pilots, who are tired of severe quarantine-heavy regimes. At present, countries like China are still under severe pressure due to lockdown restrictions.

So, the question still remains: as a VC or M&A, how does one know where to invest? Is it even worth it? It’s tricky, but one of the possible investment strategies can be looking at the workforce data.

What’s the State of the Biggest Airlines?

So, who are the top dogs in the airline industry? Well, many countries have managed to rise above the difficulties caused by COVID (have a look at the chart below). While the pandemic is still making things challenging for airlines, most companies are cautiously optimistic and fully prepared for the approaching tourist rush of summer 2022.

Top 11 airlines in the world, by market cap (source)

Depending on the region, it’s a mixed situation for air travel. For instance, Australia (a crucial market for leisure traffic to the UK and Europe) was closed off for a long time due to the pandemic, but is now opening up. Meanwhile, Dubai and the U.A.E. in general, is using a majority of its Boeing 777–300 ER fleet. Additionally, they have reactivated almost half of their 100 plus Airbus A380’s.

Mergers and Acquisitions

The industry of air travel is on its way to recovery, but what’s the situation like on the merger and acquisitions stage? As always, it’s ripe with activity and turbulence, to say the least.

The JetBlue & Spirit Situation

Just as a quick reminder of how things are in the United States; the hottest topic in airline news in that particular region right now is JetBlue Airways launching a hostile takeover bid of Spirit Airlines. JetBlue initially offered $33 a share, a deal that Spirit’s board declined in favor of an earlier plan to merge with Frontier Airlines. Spirit CEO Ted Christie stated JetBlue was “putting misinformation into the market.” So, things are heating up there.

Lufthansa and Delta Racing for ITA

Another hot scoop is ITA. Several reports are flying in that ITA Airways will enter into an agreement with German behemoth Lufthansa. However, it appears that American carrier Delta Air Lines is also eyeing to be a partner of ITA Airways. It has to be stated that Lufthansa’s offer is not official, although numerous sources have cited that the German group has plans to acquire a large share of ITA’s capital (no less than 15–20% with the possibility of reaching 40%). There’s no official word as of yet, albeit favors may very well lean toward Lufthansa, seeing as ITA’s president mentioned various benefits of a European partnership over any other (via Italian newspaper).

Osterus Takes to the Skies with Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa

Before we go any further let’s make a quick recap. While airlines certainly contribute to the profit of a wider travel industry, it also has diverse layers within. Regardless of fluctuations in travel and tourism, airline companies continue to hire regardless of the global pandemic and the looming economic crisis. The airline industry is actually a safe haven for diverse career paths, such as pilots, flight attendants, ground crew and so on.

Diving into the workforce behind these two powerful airlines — Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa — we can easily focus on an assortment of interesting data and truly valuable insights.

Delta Airlines vs Lufthansa Workforce Comparison

The first piece of data that caught our attention was the background of the workforce. It seems that Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines employees worked in the military longer than in any other job position (ranging from 12 years to 15 years — even more than they have worked in transportation services).

Let’s move on to the next chapter, still utilizing the Osterus employment view with data from both airlines. Exploring the workforce of Delta Airlines we notice that 32% of Delta Air Lines employees who are in transportation services previously worked for the US Air Force.

As for Lufthansa, 30% of their workforce has arrived from Germanwings Gmbh, and another smaller percentage from Lufthansa subsidiaries such as Lufthansa Technick, Lufthansa Cargo, etc. While this is nothing unusual since Lufthansa wholly owns Germanwings, it’s still interesting to be able to see the company’s history with only a few clicks.

Company history aside, there are other insights we can accumulate by having a quick peek at Previous Employments Retention Distribution. In short, this piece of data indicates how long employees have retained positions in previous companies. As it stands, if we look at a time span of 1–3 years, on average Lufthansa registers 25.6% and Delta Air Lines has 40.5% in Previous Employments Retention Distribution — that’s a significant difference.

The Power of a Higher Education

It appears that there’s also valuable info if we examine higher education. That’s right, taking a glimpse at employee education at both Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa, you’ll notice a few illuminating differences. The largest number of employees has a master’s degree, and that’s the case in both companies. However, if you use Osterus to examine things a bit more closely, you can see that Lufthansa invests a bit more into people with additional training and certifications (CeTs — as shown on the Osterus pie chart below). In other words, the German airline company is looking to invest more into employees that have already gone through self-education courses, extra training and so on.

Ensure Regular, Detailed Airline Workforce Insights

Curious to see how more data can be extracted and how it can lead to a precise understanding of the airline market? Look no further. As you can see we have approached Lufthansa and Delta Air Line from an entirely unique perspective, thanks to workforce analytics provided by Osterus.

If you’re interested in knowing more about how our software works, and how we can expand your investment portfolio with extra knowledge, fresh insight into other industries and markets, let us know.