Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Daytona Beach Campus

College of Business Administration

Course Syllabus

BA 609
Airline Operations and Management

Lecturer: Dr. Ahmed Abdelghany

Office: COB 235
Voice Mail/Phone: (386) 226-6670
E-mail: ahmed.abdelghany@erau.edu

Office Hours:
TTH 8:30-11:00 and 2:00-4:30
Or by appointment

1
Course Description in Catalog:
An integrated study of airline operations and functions. Domestic and international
regulations of air-carriers and the industry’s changing structure due to alliances and
globalization are addressed. Airline economics, airline marketing and pricing, computer
reservation systems., revenue management systems, fleet planning, scheduling, aircraft
maintenance, finance, labor relations, organizational structures, strategic planning, and air
transport and the environment are studied.

Prerequisites: Satisfactory completion of Business Foundation Courses, and/or

permission of the Graduate Program Chair.

Goals:

This is an elective course in the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree

program. The goals of the course can be summarized as follows:

 Develop an understanding of the role of management within a commercial airline and

define their interaction with the main players in the air transportation industry.
 Understand the typical organization structure of the airline management group.
 Identify the different levels of decisions of airline management (strategic, planning,
and operation) and highlight their interaction.
 Define the main tasks performed by the airline management. In particular, the
business process of each task is explained together with the methods and techniques
used to address these tasks.
 Describe the main recent changes in the commercial airline industry and reasons
behind these changes
 Enhance written, presentation, and communication skills

Learning Outcomes:

The expected learning outcomes of the students attending the class can be summarized as
follows:

 Gain better understanding of the commercial airline industry

 Identify the main functions, tasks, and challenges of airline management
 Learn the main methods and techniques used by the airline management together
with the limitations of these techniques
 Be able to define a research problem (need), review related literature and provide
a method or technique to solve the problem
 Enhance the ability to navigate and search in the airline literature
 Identify the main skills needed for airline management

Required Course Materials:

2
Modeling Applications in the Airline Industry, Abdelghany and Abdelghany, Ashgate, 978-0-
7546-7874-8
Also, see lecture notes and presentations on blackboard

Student Evaluation:

- Exam 1 (50%) (Date to be determined)

- Exam 2 (50%) (Date to be determines)

The exam will be open book scheduled for 3-4 hours during a given date usually on Saturday.

Your final grade will be based on the following evaluation items:

Evaluation Items & Weights

2 Exams 100%

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STATEMENT

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Business is committed to fostering a
culture of intellectual honor and ethics and considers academic dishonesty a very serious
offense. Such offenses include, but are not limited to: cheating (accepting unauthorized
assistance in preparing assignments), fraud (gaining unfair advantage through deceit,
trickery, or falsification of records), or plagiarism (taking the ideas, writing, words,
and/or work of another and representing them as one’s own without appropriate
acknowledgment). A student who cheats, commits any form of academic fraud, or
plagiarizes in a class, will receive sanctions ranging from a zero (0) for the work in
question to expulsion from the University.

1. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this class. All work submitted is
expected to be original except where credited (see plagiarism below). This includes
exams, homework, and projects. Work completed as part of a Team effort should be
the same for each member (in most cases a single submission will be sufficient).
Types of academic dishonesty:

1) Cheating – receiving or giving unauthorized assistance on an exam, paper or

project, or unauthorized use of materials to complete such; collaborating with
another person(s) without authorization on an exam paper or project; taking an

3
 exam for someone else or allowing someone else to do the same for you;
submitting work which is not your own.
2) Fraud – gaining an unfair advantage through deceit, trickery, or falsification of
records
3) Fabrication – listing sources that one did not use; presenting invented or fictitious
data/evidence in an assignment.
4) Resubmitting a paper from a past course – without substantial changes.
5) Paying someone, or receiving payment from someone else, to carry out any
assignment of the class.
6) Plagiarism – submitting work in which words, facts, or ideas from another source
are used without acknowledging that the material is borrowed whether from a
published or unpublished source.

Note: The use of cell phones, PDAs, personal computers and other related
electronic devices may not be used during exams and must be stowed out of view
either in a book bag or pocket. Only non-programmable calculators may be used
during exams.

2. Plagiarism Policy: In this course, students are expected to make significant use of
information available on the WWW or other online databases available in the Library.
Failure to cite sources you use from someone else's work, whether obtained from
Internet or non-Internet sources, is plagiarism. Stealing ideas without giving credit is
like stealing money or goods from someone and should be avoided at all costs.
Students engaging in plagiarism will receive an “F” grade in the course and will
be reported to the Department Chair for further action. When using online
resources in your projects, you must make sure that, at the minimum, the following
information is included:

1. The author of a particular work

2. The date of publication of a particular work
3. The title of the resource
4. The location of the resource on the Internet, if applicable (provide relevant
URL).
If any of the above is not available, use of that particular source should be
reconsidered.

Library

The Embry-Riddle Hunt Library has one of the most complete collections of aviation-related
material. Besides books, a sizable number of complete (full text) periodical articles, government
reports, industry statistics, and other useful information can be found in the library at
http://amelia.db.erau.edu/ec/. The library also provides Web links to aviation, aerospace, and
business resources.

The link to the library basic training is http://amelia.db.erau.edu/ec/ref/lbt/. The tutorial

provides a brief introduction to the library, its holdings, and the process of locating data.

4
 Library Reference Services
Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Eastern Time (voice mail after hours)
1-800-678-9428 / 386-226-7656 outside the US
eclib@erau.edu

Note:
This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the professor when deemed
necessary.