Thomas C. Lawton is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at Imperial College, UK. He is also a management consultant and author of Cleared for Take-Off (Ashgate, 2002).

'In a period of unprecedented turmoil in the airline industry - deregulation, privatisation, terrorism threats and sky rocketing fuel prices - successful implementation of a winning strategy has never been more critical. Thomas Lawton’s collation of research papers creates a unique insight into the strategies deployed over the past 10 years by the phenomenally successful Low Cost Carriers and by the full service airlines fighting for survival - an indispensable reference of applied aviation strategy for professionals, regulators, advisors and students.' Ray Webster, President easyJet Airlines plc. '...an excellent companion to strategic management textbooks for students of the subject and a ready reference work for academics and practitioners.' Aerlines Magazine '...strongly recommend it to airline researchers, students, consultants and policymakers as a very good source of reference.' Journal of Air Transport Management

• Contents: Foreword, Naresh Goyal; Introduction; Part I Conception: The development of the airline industry from 1978 to 1998: a strategic global overview, Daniel Chan; Rethinking the aviation industry, Peter R. Costa, Doug S. Harned and Jerrold T. Lundquist; Mission statements of international airlines: a content analysis, Sharon Kemp and Larry Dwyer. Part II Creation: The case of Morris Air: a successful startup, Albert Charles Schultz and Erika Patricia Schultz; EasyJet: a case of entrepreneurial management?, David Rae; Embracing and exploiting industry turbulence: the strategic transformation of Aer Lingus, Denis G. Harrington, Thomas C. Lawton and Tazeeb Rajwani. Part III Context: Non-Market: European major airlines: strategic reactions to the 3rd package, Yu-Chun Chang and George Williams; The making of an African success story: the privatization of Kenya Airways, Yaw A. Debrah and Oliver K. Toroitich; Managing risks in the airline industry, Kichisaburo Nomura; Managing proactively in turbulent times: insights from the low-fare airline business, Thomas C. Lawton. Part IV Context: Market: Strategies in a dynamic marketplace: a case study in the airline industry, Peter Kangis and M. Dolores O'Reilly; Airlines within airlines: an analysis of US network responses to low cost carriers, Peter Morrell; Incompatibilities of the low-cost and network carrier business models within the same airline grouping, Luca Graf; The US airlines relative positioning based on attributes of service quality, Dogan Gursoy, Ming-Hsiang Chen and Hyun Jeong Kim; Positioning Southwest Airlines through employee branding, Sandra Jeanquart Miles and W. Glynn Mangold. Part V Content: The organizational choice between evolutionary and revolutionary capability regimes: theory and evidence from European air transport, Mark Lehrer; Why incumbents struggle to extract value from new strategic options: case of the European airline industry, Paul Vlaar, Paul De Vries and Mattijs Willenborg; Competition