Implementation of a change process within Smaland Airport

Abstract: Abstract Change process in the company nowadays is one of the main factors, for sustainable growth and development in the market. Moreover, a change process should be dynamic – the company should take into consideration many factors; not only the ones happening inside the organization, like education of the employees and their motivation, but also the processes outside the organization – change in the environment, new requirements from the state, and competition. In this thesis a company that faced a change process, due to a changing environment, is analyzed. Smaland Airport is a small airport located in southern Sweden, five kilometers outside Växjö city. Because of its geographical location it plays an important role not only in the city but in the whole region. The airport was used by 170 000 passengers in the 2005, and the situation is improving. But that is not even close to the 270 000 passengers in year 2000. [56., 14]. What happened? On the 11th of September, 2002, a lot of people all over the world saw on their TV screens the events in New York that changed the world forever. One of the industries that faced the most radical changes was the airline industry, along with the airports. If airlines could choose other routes, lower prices, or fly to different airports, then airports had a small, if any, possibility to change, so they had to adapt to the new situation and use the changes as an opportunity. Smaland Airport, previously known as Växjö Airport, felt these changes almost immediately. In 4 years they lost almost 50% of their customers. [56., 14]. Big airlines (like SAS) withdrew several flights immediately after 9/11. The future of the airport was very unclear. Everyone in the airport understood – if we are not going to change our strategy on how to earn money (airport taxes), then our future will be like the other airports in our region, which were already closed down (the airport is a state-owned company, which is financed by the state in case of financial losses). Jan Fors, the managing director of the airport, decided to change Växjö Airport into a well-known brand, which would offer clients more services. The name of the airport was changed to Smaland Airport (Småland – region in southern Sweden), therefore emphasizing the airport’s role in the whole region. Now negotiations have begun with Ryanair about further cooperation, which, unfortunately have been stopped because of the unclear situation regarding the Swedish government’s decision about extra environmental taxes for each ticket (approx. 100 Swedish crown or 11 Euros). The airport has also opened direct charter flights to several European destinations, and has signed an agreement with SAS for about 5 flights per day to Stockholm, which is an impressive number for a small city like Växjö. The airport is also attracting new companies, like car rental companies, tourist agencies, and advertising agencies. A lot of changes have also happened inside the company – the number of employees has been reduced, but extra employees have been hired for the marketing department. Some employees had problems understanding the necessity of change. They also had trouble with having more freedom to put their ideas into action while keeping in mind that it should bring profit for the whole company. This thesis will mainly analyze the internal changes at the Smaland Airport, and will concentrate on finding the problems which are stopping the development of the company. Of course, external factors also will be taken into consideration. This thesis has been written using the qualitative approach, comparing the existing situation with theory and then drawing the appropriate conclusions. Finally, the current situation is compared to that of the year 2002. To get a whole picture about the change process in Smaland Airport, interviews were used as the main source of information; the reader can get acquainted with the whole text of them in the appendix. Interviews were made with the people working in the airport (like the managing director and managers), people working for the airport (security, cafeteria), as well as the owners of the airport (city council). Therefore the author has tried to obtain the information about the issue and people’s perception about change from as many points as view as possible. In addition to the interviews, information is also obtained from the airport’s internal materials (intranet, presentations, statistics as well as yearly overviews), as well as materials about the airport (internet, information in the newspapers). In this thesis there are 103 pages, 15 figures and 2 attachments.