Plane Conversations

Corporate Aviation has become the whipping boy of modern American excess; a proxy statement for the priorities of Wall Street domination over the security of Main Street taxpayers.  The industry is being attacked from every angle from the bailout of big three automakers, environmental impact, homeland security, and the use of public air transportation assets.  Despite equally compelling data that the industry is good for the American economy, a huge PR problem remains.

If you can’t beat them, join them

The question is whether it is smarter to try and beat back the old reputation or to build a new one.  The advent of social media has brought forward a concept called “Social Capitalism” wherein it may be in the best interest of a capitalist enterprise to meet social priorities rather than Wall Street priorities.  Ultimately, Wall Street does not keep the wheels up – it’s the people who go to work every day.

Let me demonstrate with the following sobering example:

Steve Jobs, the president of Apple Inc., with a 5.1 billion dollar net worth, was able to get a “priority” liver transplant in Tennessee rather than in California because he took advantage of a social arbitrage opportunity.  Many organ transplant centers have different wait times for transplant patients; some as short as four months and some as long as three years.  There is no law against being on more than one waiting list but the patient must be able to arrive on call within five hours of notification of an available organ.  This condition greatly favors people with access to a corporate jets idling on the tarmac.

Out with the old and in with the new

In the old economic paradigm, a corporate jet service would advertise to sick wealthy people and help them game the system over the rest of the population.  In the social capitalism model, all corporate jet services would be available to all transplant candidates at a known price.  This game changer would result in a national database that closes the social arbitrage opportunity for transplants even for those who own their jets.

Controversy is king

I use this highly controversial life-and-death, rich-and-poor, for-better-or-worse example because it is on par with the degree to which the best and most ethical carriers take the seriousness of their mission.  It is also on par with the degree to which private aviation has the ability to shift entire markets, huge swaths of social organization and economic development with strategic placement of a social capital lift product.

Countless social service organizations are trying to send volunteers around the world to help displaced populations, provide medical care, and to fight social injustice.  It’s not about giving money, it’s about giving access.  The industry should simply publish aggregate routes structures, coordinate prices, and generally bring the industry into the light of day. Give regular people access to the benefits enjoyed by corporate executives and the industry will be rewarded magnificently.

An individual billionaire or a billion individuals

People connected by social media have the power of all PR firms combined.  They are stronger than the media and they are becoming stronger than many corporation and even governments.  Give people a reason to talk about private aviation and they will – don’t give them a reason to talk about private aviation – and they will talk about you anyway. Silence is not golden, it is suicide.  The difference between the cost of beating back the existing PR onslaught and the price of a social capitalism campaign may closer than anyone expects.

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