The role of strategic human resource management to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in air transport: A qualitative research towards air cargo businesses

It is seen that airline passanger market has reached its saturation point and the market income has shown a falling tendency in recent years. These changes in the passenger market have made the cargo market more attractive for airline transporters. The changes that has been experienced in airline transportation has also caused a rivalry in the market to turn into a critical property. In this regard, being able to survive and taking advantage in the rivalry will be possible for airline companies by keeping qualified human resources they have on the one hand, and by developing human resource strategies that are in tune with rivalry strategies and by practicing them sustainably on the other hand. Studies done in this field have suggested that as in other companies, harmony between rivalry strategies and human resource sstrategies in companies active in airline cargo has played an efficient role in getting a competitive advantage and sustaining this advantage in terms of airline companies. This study was carried out to what extent the strategic management roles have been played in relation to human resources practices by the companies that are active in cargo transportation in Turkish civil aviation sector in order to get a sustainable competitive advantage. With the semi-structured face-to-face interview form prepared, opinions and thoughts about the strategic management roles of the human resources in the airline cargo transportation carried out were taken. This extensive study comprises the evaluations of the companies active in airline cargo transportation in Turkey, of the strategic management roles regarding human resources practices in company with qualitative data in order to get sustainable competitive advantage.