Differences and similarities between management and strategic management are
discussed in this article and a framework for the aviation strategic management process is
proposed. The steps of the aviation strategic management process include 1) scanning the
aviation environment, 2) analyzing the aviation organization, 3) formulating the corporate
strategy, 4) formulating the business strategy, and 5) implementing the corporate and
business strategies through the formulation of functional strategies. The article argues
that knowledge of strategic management principles along the abovementioned process
can help aviation organizations, just like organizations in other industries, achieve high
strategic and financial performance and develop a clear understanding of industry
competitive dynamics. Aviation Strategic Management as a course of study can
significantly enrich the educational experience of students in aviation programs and mold
them into competent aviation professionals as it provides an effective way to synthesize
technical information and apply this information on everyday industry issues. We
propose that strategic management can and should be an inextricable piece in aviation
curricula, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels and can be used as an excellent
theoretical foundation for aviation capstone courses
