Analyse how important science technology, innovation and Research & Development is to 'Cathaypacific' airlines.

such as Singapore and china airlines. The technologies increase the capacity at Cathay pacific and thus improve their profitability; if more capacity is being utilised unit costs should be lower. For example, in September 2004 the airline carried 83,687 tonnes of cargo and up from 77,395 tonnes in August, as the year-end peak for the freight business found its stride. The cargo load factor edged up to 69.6 percent from 64.7 percent a month ago.Research and development is the generation and application of scientific knowledge to crate a product or develop a new production process which can increase Cathay Pacific’s product efficiency.  Research and Development can develop in this case, the service to have a unique selling point. Allowing Cathay Pacific to differentiate itself from the competition with other airlines, and earn higher profit margins. R & D could aim to develop better- quality products which meet their customer’s needs more successfully. Also develop more efficient ways of producing to reduce the costs per unit.  Evidently R & D is important to Cathay Pacific & proves to be beneficial : “We spend a huge amount of money on research and development of new products," said Mr Cuyckens. "But it pays off. About 70% of our business comes from new products, like the two-tier tray we produced for economy class on British Airways.' Cathay Pacific have innovated with their new ‘regional Business Class* seat. Sleek lines, an organic hammer-shaped design and a graceful curve in the backrest create a modern space that embraces you in restful luxury’ Successful innovation should allow Cathay Pacific to keep ahead of other rival airlines and to keep finding better ways of doing things. This is often the key to long term success in a market. However investors of the company may want short term rewards and aren’t prepared to wait for the benefits which R & D might bring to Cathay Pacific in the longer term. The money has to be spent at the earliest stage of the product life cycle, but the product often takes a long time to develop. Once developed the market then often takes time to grow. The return from the money spent on R and D can often be a long time coming. This is particularly true with airline industries, such as Cathay Pacific. This is because technical developments take a long time and the products are often highly complex requiring several developments to take place before the full product can be developed.Also, spending on research and development can be a risky investment because so few ideas actually succeed in the market place; as a result the managers of the company may be weary of investing heavily in R & D. Sophie Hong