Why Business Aviation Must Change the Conversation
Business aviation has taken a beating in the past two years. While we are now seeing some signs of recovery, we must remember that those signs do not constitute prosperity. We can blame industry difficulties on the government or on the economy, but the reality is that we need to quit following the old business models. In many areas, we are doing things today just as we have for the past 30 years.
If we look to the technology sector of our economy as a possible success story to emulate, we see a constant flow of innovation in the market. Computing technology gets not only faster and more productive by the day, but it also gets cheaper. Social Technology has taken on a life of its own with changes happening faster than even the social media gurus can keep up with.
Those of us in aviation know that we cannot change or innovate as fast as the technology sector of this economy. Or can we?
When it comes to the aircraft design and regulation compliance that make our industry safer, admittedly we cannot go any faster than the government allows. New aircraft designs are also limited by the allocation of capital and have long cycles from initial investment to development to payoff. The tech sector can crank out new smart phones every six months, but we can’t just crank out new jets that fast.
Aircraft design and safety compliance timing may be out of our control, but that should not stop us from innovating.
Innovation starts with conversations. Doc Searls coined the term “the market is conversations” in his 1999 book The Cluetrain Manifesto. With consumers self-aggregating and expressing intentions online, why can’t we engage in the conversations and meet those intentions?
We need to expand our market by engaging the larger audience of travelers in conversations about the value proposition of business aviation and even leisure travel by private aircraft. It starts online these days and ultimately moves to face-to-face contact.
We also need to challenge our market and our industry to start conversations on how to deliver business aviation at a reduced cost. The solutions must come from the entire supply chain, with everyone involved in business aviation as a part of the solution.
I have yet to hear anyone say they would like to go back to riding on the airlines after experiencing travel on a private aircraft. What I have heard, hundreds of times, is that they can’t afford what we offer; so, they grudgingly go back for more of the misery of air travel by mass transit.
What are we going to do about it?
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- Jul 9, 2010: Rigid Lifelines
“We also need to challenge our market and our industry to start conversations on how to deliver business aviation at a reduced cost.”
Is it reduced cost or increased value that should be the goal?
It is likely that a bigger airline will be able to achieve lower price points. However, BizAv can achieve infinitely greater in two areas: 1) Relationships with the customer (not just the passenger, but the entire company), and 2) an effect that I will call Multiplying the Leadership of the customer–it’s not seats or time that you are selling: you are seeing the need of (biz) leaders and meeting that need with an experience that converts their scarce resources into energy that empowers them to lead their teams better.
It’s a tough nut to crack. There is a premium attached to private jet travel for the luxury, convenience and exclusivity, the latter possibly being one of the biggest hurdles in offering a service which closer competes financially with commercial travel. To reduce the cost you need to do one of three things:
1 – Beat the owners and operators into reducing their price
2 – Drop the standards
3 – Sell seats
Those that use private jets generally fall into two categories – 1) those that do it because they can afford it, this includes major celebrities and individuals with total financial independence & 2) business travellers that truly appreciate the time and convenience benefits of travelling from smaller airfields on their own schedule.
So to reduce the cost for these two key groups there is only really one sensible option which is to sell seats (something that trends on this blog and something that a few companies are trying to do).
Those that fall in to category 1 are never really going to look at sharing their jet so we are looking at those in the second category. Now, I’m sure that there are many people that would consider buying the number of seats they require on a private jet and sharing the cost with others. However, there are many points raised by this and some unanswered questions.
To be in a position to sell seats the broker or operator has to put together a schedule or find a way of matching the demands of those wishing to buy seats on “small jets”. Is this really a question of forming “mini airlines”? I’ve changed the term from “private jet” to “small jet” as sharing a jet with strangers removes the private element.
Matching the demands of several travellers is a logistical nightmare. True, it wouldn’t take much to produce a website to do so but we don’t live in a world where people are not searching for that kind of service so the marketing cost would be very high to take this from “web idea” to “successful small jet business model”. It would be a case of creating the need rather than responding to it.
It’s still a great idea. Anyone involved with business aviation or anyone that has flown on a private flight will testify that there is nothing like it and that there are so many benefits.
So, who has the marketing budget to make it a success?
Watch this space.