The key, I think, is in the statement you make here “effectively and efficiently communicated to the general market of business travelers” — the folks that know about CharterX are already “in the know”, aviation savvy and likely to already recognize the opportunities. We need to figure out how to educate the business traveler that systems like this exist already. We have to communicate to business travelers differently than we communicate to aviation insiders.

If I try to put myself in the shoes of a business traveler, I would crave being educated over being lectured. What I mean by that is even though I travel fairly often, I think I would get annoyed with being bombarded by empty leg announcements on my twitter or facebook streams. Especially since I would only be interested in very specific itineraries when I was planning a trip.
I think people are fairly used to navigating online to build itineraries — maybe instead of building something huge from the get-go, we just start with the basics and get the word out that there are more options than slogging through conventional air travel sites. Get the word out about CharterX or Avinode. Do you remember how you first learned about Orbitz.com or Expedia.com? Or more recently, Kayak? Maybe an outreach campaign similar to that could be helpful for folks already accumulating the data – like these online databases. I could help to build private aviation as a more mainstream option.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by JDeragon: RT @tweetmeme Legs Vs. Seats, How To Fill Both | Plane Conversations http://bit.ly/Y6ArK...

The trick is to either use the existing social media technology or design software that could utilize the current technology (something like Twitter deck), that could give both businesses and clients easy access to open legs and in necessary, preferred pricing to fill seats. Its time to actively hunt business rather than “waiting for the phone to ring.” We simply cannot wait for business to come to us. Business aviation still has a tremendous benefit regarding the “time value of money.” I think some of that has gotten lost in the general press rhetoric of the past 18 months.

One of the issues in the charter aviation world has been the extremely competative nature of each operator, especially in the last year or so. What if a collaborative effort could be made amongst 2 or more operators that would be of benefit to both? If such an idea stated in the above post proves profitable, might it also benefit others? You also have the power of the additonal uplift from your collective partnership and a further decrease in empty legs or the need to “farm out” flights on peak days. In this environment its a radical idea, but as mentioned in an earlier blog, working collectively has much benefit to all in the Business Aviation community.