Plane Conversations

4 in a 4 part Series:

In the previous posts in this series, we discussed the gaps in Price and Time between Private Aviation and Air Mass Transit travel.  This time we are going to look at the gap in customer experience.

It is easy to measure price in terms of actual dollars and in terms of the value of our time, which we can use as an offset of the price gap. The more difficult gap to measure is the difference in the experience of the two forms of travel. To date, I am not sure if anyone has been able to accurately quantify the difference in the traveler’s experience. The ability to measure the traveler’s experience on either a private aircraft or an airline and compare that to the alternate experience, would give us a more meaningful comparison between the two.  That comparison could then be quantified and translated into a monetary measurement, which would go towards offsetting the price gap.  I believe that offset would be a valuable tool in selling private aviation services.

Here is what we know for sure!

Those who have experienced private aviation as a form of travel often justify the high price by speaking of the better experience as opposed to traveling by air mass-transit.  Call it the Hassle Factor of the airlines: the anti-social behavior of the passengers we share space with in an airliner, the rude treatment we sometimes receive, the lack of control over where we go and how we have to get there, the uncomfortable feeling of being compressed into a space that is measured in inches of seat pitch, the food served (or mostly not served) on the planes, the baggage abuse (bags don’t have feelings but I don’t like my stuff being abused) and on and on……

You get the point.

Stack that against the experience of private aviation.

Not one single person I have spoken to in 28 years of being in this business has ever said to me, “I can hardly wait to go back to traveling on the airline since I can’t afford to travel in a private aircraft anymore.” Not one. Every aircraft owner, charter customer or private pilot / aircraft owner pilot cites the better experience of flying by private aircraft as the number one reason to close the price gap. They don’t know how to quantify it but they know what they know. How good would it be for our industry to develop a tool that measures the experience, quantifies it and then translates it into dollars?

As consumers, we purchase experience with our hard earned money every single day. We pay more for an iPhone than for a Blackberry because we like the experience. We ride in a luxury car rather than in a compact car because of the experience. Both serve the same purpose since we arrive at the same time regardless of the type car, but what a different experience to ride in a nice driving, luxury car as opposed to a compact.

If we can ever measure and quantify the experience and then communicate that measurement to the market we might be able to come a long way in bridging the price gap that has prevented the many from experiencing the joy of travel by a mode that the few have become accustomed and maybe even addicted to!

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