Reference no: EM133026471

You are the 'Human Resources Team' of 'West Coast Airlines', a low cost budget airlines that started its operations in US in 2015 as a domestic flight service provider. The airlines started small with its services initially restricted to only one route travel (one destination and one arrival only). Slowly it gained pace and now has close to 40 domestic US flights per week connecting many states. When it started its operations, the company had a total of 35 employees constituting pilots, IT technicians, customer service reps, ground staff and cabin crew members. Now, in 2021, it has come a long way from its meagre humble start. West coast now plans to expand its operations, both horizontally and vertically. It plans to increase its domain from domestic in house US services to international services with providing its first international flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, China. At vertical level, it aims to enter the hospitality sector by means of providing low cost budgeted accommodation options (no frills hotels).

Given the remarkable success of 'West Coast', there are multiple funding options available to them with venture capitalists ready to invest billions of dollars in the company's growth plan after analyzing the company's future growth strategy. Though the sentiment is positive, the venture capitalists still wish to see a detailed road map of the company's future growth plan. The plans, though positive and promising have also been hit by the unexpected and unanticipated COVID 19 epidemic.

1. Can you help to Identify the human capital requirement for vertical expansion (both overall and department wise)