From our first article with Plane Conversations, we have advocated for general aviation, pointing out how aircraft charter can be a logical solution to travel difficulties and why corporate flight departments and private aircraft ownership are far more than the corporate excess Main Stream Media supposes.  However, we realize that while we have said that air mass transit is not always your best solution, there are particular instances when it does  makes the most economic sense.  In those cases, travelers have to suck it up and deal with the hassles and inconveniences of scheduled air service.

One of those hassles is airport security.  As I have said before, while I am not a fan of the process, I recognize the need for it and I understand that it is a necessary evil.  In July, a woman was arrested for disorderly conduct at the Nashville International Airport when she refused to allow her teen-aged daughter to go through the body scanner.  This meant that the girl had to be screened using a standard pat-down, a procedure far more thorough than it looks on Law and Order.  The mother wasn’t happy with that, either.  She proceeded to complain loudly, repeatedly and abusively enough that the airport police finally put her under arrest.  She has now achieved some kind of bizarre martyr status in the Main Stream Media.

This absolutely blows my mind.

Her attitude reflects  a common sentiment, though.  The traveling public insists on government protection for fliers. Snicklefitz Traveler cries, “Keep me safe!  Keep me safe!  But do it by screening that other guy, ‘cause I’m not a threat.”  “Keep me safe, but handle it in the way that I want, even though I don’t really know how the whole process works.” “Keep me safe, but don’t inconvenience me.” “Seat me next to people like these….”

Security measures are not created out of a vacuum.  They are in response to a specific threat or incident.  Thanks to Richard Reid, we have our shoes screened.  Thanks to Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab, we have our bodies scanned and our groins checked.  Organizations all over the world use both women and children as soldiers and terrorists.  Security screening is a thankless job and the TSA an easy target for criticism; but, the fact is, the TSA has to get it right every time – or as close to every time as humanly possible –  because the cost of being wrong could be catastrophic.  The terrorist has to get it right only once to achieve that same catastrophic effect.

Flying is a privilege, not a right.  To take advantage of the privilege, we must agree to abide by the rules of the airlines, airports and related agencies.  If you disagree with the measures in place, you don’t have to fly.  People crossed the oceans in ships.  They settled Utah using hand carts.  There are other ways you can get to your destination.

By the way, the attractive, harmless people in the photos are Alyssa Bustamante, a 15-year-old who strangled, stabbed and cut the throat of her nine-year-old neighbor and Anders Breivik who murdered 77 people in Norway.

If Timothy McVeigh taught us nothing else, he should have taught us that evil may look innocuous and that not all of those who would do us harm are from outside our borders.

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During training at the American Airlines Learning Center in Dallas, new agents were given a specific protocol for checking passengers and their bags in at the ticket counter.  We were to greet the customer by name as it was printed on the ticket.  Ask them what their final destination was – just to make sure the ticket was right - and ask them how many bags they would be checking.  This was long before that silly question of “have your bags been out of your possession since you packed them,” like anyone would actually admit to that.

I once had a woman tell me that her final destination was her mother’s house.  While I agreed that a visit to her mother was surely a wonderful thing, I could not check her bags to her mother’s house.  She gave me her final airport, I checked her bags through and all was right with the world.

This woman’s trip raises a question in my mind.  I know the city-pair on her ticket; however, that citypair didn’t really  match her real travel intentions.  She might have departed from Columbus, Mississippi, but might actually have lived Macon, Mississippi.  She might have traveled to Charleston, West Virginia, but might actually have needed to go to Parkersburg, West Virginia.  Because of limited choices in scheduled airline service, she ended up with a drive on both ends of her trip.  Now, until we have personal jet packs, we’re not going to be able to leave our homes and fly to exactly where we want to go.  Can you imagine the air traffic nightmares that personal plane a la George Jetson would bring?  Yikes! 

Still, we know that general aviation can reduce our drives simply by virtue of the fact that there are more general aviation airports.  Put new and better technology with new and better aircraft and you have a few people with similar intentions sharing flights.  Vancouver has over 60,000 fans on two Facebook pages and a population of over a half million people in the city, not taking suburbs into account.  Surely a few of those people could agree on a time to go from the Abbortsford airport to the Blatchford Field in a Cessna Mustang.  Wouldn’t you think?

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Maybe this most recent economic crisis wasn’t Armageddon, but I think I saw a Guernsey or two fall somewhere over central Mississippi.

The technology and practices of our industrial world are changing at a mind-boggling pace.  Since we started blogging just over a year ago, the advancements have been staggering, allowing us to begin developing a “wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if” idea into a “isn’t-it-be-incredible-that” reality.  However, if we had kept believing that we already knew it all, we would still be sitting on the porch, whittling, rocking in our chairs and wishing for a brighter reality. 

This Big Idea is a gamble, to be sure; Big Ideas always are.  But, to take our industry into its next great phase, we must accept that, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” We must reject bad managerial habits that keep us trapped in a paradigm which ceased to be profitable years ago.  Aircraft operators are frustrated by rising fuel prices, rising training costs, rising salary and benefits costs.  Equipment is getting older.  Remaining competitive means newer equipment, higher standards and better practices.  Meanwhile, many charter brokers insist on lower pricing, sometimes to the point of incorrectly educating the end-user on the actual cost of operating aircraft to the highest standards.  Sadly, even some operators have been willing to operate below cost just to produce the cash flow.  Reputable operators know what it costs to run a quality operation.  Reputable brokers also know this and are willing to support the operators’ reasonable pricing structures to their own clients.  But I digress.  My point is this: charter operators are frustrated with rates which are not keeping pace with rising costs.  Even with this frustration, we hamstring ourselves by acting conservatively out of fear of making mistakes and by avoiding anything new until it’s better understood.  Neither habit is bad altogether, but the over-application of either of them can be deadly. 

As I discussed the Big Idea with a few operators this week, I was discouraged at the response of many of them.  If the Idea is flawed, I would expect rejection and would hope that someone would point out the fatal flaw; but, that’s not why it was rejected.  Their rejection of the Idea stemmed from “I’ve never thought of that” and “We’ve never done it that way before,” not from the Idea’s merits or demerits.  It’s one thing for an industry to suffer or fail due to catastrophic and unforeseen market changes, but that isn’t the case here.  The market has been changing for at least the last 10 years.  As operators and brokers began aggressively selling one-way trips, introducing our product to a wider audience, the market has been changing.  As the global economy was reeling, our market changed further with more aggressive pricing, air taxi services, and ride sharing.  I often here people lamenting the loss of the “good old days.”  Let’s face it: the good old days weren’t all that great either.  We still struggled.  We still worked on narrow margins.  I don’t think we worked any less hard, but maybe we worked a little less creatively.

While we’ve gotten more creative, it’s time for us to make a big creative leap now.  Sharing flights is a creative way to broaden our market.  Using social technology to share those flights is a creative way to work smarter.  It’s the next Big Idea.

So, yes, 150 years ago, everybody knew man couldn’t fly.  70 years ago, everybody knew that supersonic flight was deadly.  And 15 minutes ago, you knew that shared flights would never work.   Once we accept that we don’t know our market as well as we think we do, we allow ourselves to adapt our industry to the new marketplace.  When we use social innovations like Social Flights to tap into that new marketplace, we broaden our reach.

If we can learn all of that today, embrace the Big Idea of flying socially, imagine what we’ll know tomorrow.

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My son came home from school one day with a classroom story I found disturbing.  It was at the beginning of the school year and the teacher asked each student to introduce themselves and to tell what their career goals were.  One student stated that he wanted to be a famous rap artist.  The teacher’s advice to the student was to pick another career, he’d never make it in that one.

I’m sure that there were plenty of people who gave the same advice to Marshall Mathers and Curtis Jackson; but, apparently neither Eminem nor 50 Cent took notice of the naysayers. 

Several months ago, I read a blog entitled Misfit Entrepreneurs that really stuck with me.  In the blog, Dan Pallotta wonders how Bruce Springsteen could communicate his aspirations to his father, “How does he tell his father, ‘I’m going to be Bruce Springsteen?’ “  How does any true visionary communicate their vision to the rest of us?  How can they explain their dream to expand or alter a current reality?  How can they define what we can’t even imagine?

At the moment, my son wants to be a stand-up comedian.  He’s pretty hilarious; so, this may be a good fit for him.  I remind him that the path is difficult and that the price, in terms of work, will be high.  However, if Jerry Seinfeld can do it, I don’t see why my son wouldn’t be able to – provided he’s willing to do the work.  Those are the real keys, aren’t they?  We must be able to envision the goal and we must be willing to do the work.

In the charter side of Business and General Aviation, we often talk about the problems in our industry.  Operators all over the country have shut down.  Those of us still flying struggle with ever-thinner margins.  Customers want more stringent standards; but, they often want to pay less for them.  The market is unwilling to pay price increases that keep pace with cost increases.  How can we continue to operate under these circumstances?  We operate smarter.

But, we can’t operate smarter until we change the way we view ourselves and our product.  We have to envision ourselves as Bruce Springsteen before we can actually translate the vision to reality.  We have to stop seeing our industry only for what it is and, instead, see it for what it can be.  What if we can increase fleet utilization without substantially increasing costs?  What if we can increase our margins simply be changing our customer base?  What if we could increase our customer base by tenfold?

What if I told you that we can?  What if I told you that the vision was becoming reality right on the horizon?  Would you be willing to envision it?  Would you be willing to work on it with us? 

We can do it.  After all, Bruce Springsteen exists.

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Airlines rake in $4.3B in fees; Delta tops list 

My dad sent me this story to me this week, no doubt, because of the amount of time I spent complaining about having to collect fees and the abuse I took doing it. 

During my time at the ticket counter, passengers were allowed three free pieces of baggage.  They could carry one and check two, carry two and check one or check all three.  No bag could weigh over 70 pounds.  Passengers were charged $45 for each additional, oversized or overweight bag.  Changing a non-refundable ticket cost you anywhere from $25 to $150 at various times – that policy changed often.  Pets carried in the cabin were $45.  There were a bazillion other fees, but I’ve blocked those from my memory and I don’t want to delve too deeply, negating the effects of all that electroconvulsive therapy.

I watch these stories and commericals discussing baggage fees with conflicted opinion.  On the one hand, standing behind the counter having to collect fees of any type can be a tense situation, particularly when the passenger is unhappy at The Man, but takes it out on the unfortunate target who happens to be standing there – you.  On the other hand, every passenger knows that they must pay for every bag on certain carriers.  So, no more: 1. “they didn’t charge me in Honolulu,” 2. “it’s just a little bag, can’t I carry it,”  or 3. “nobody told me that.”  Because 1. waiving a fee once does not give you a free pass forever, 2. it still has mass and counts as a piece of luggage, and 3. it’s all spelled out in the conditions of carriage included in your ticket.  Still, it seems a little deceptive to unbundle all of those fees.  It’s like a hamburger joint charging you extra for the container.  Technically, you don’t need it, but it sure makes eating the burger a lot less messy.  Baggage fees now have the feel of a toll – you don’t pay the toll if you don’t use the road; but, do the airlines really want to reinforce highway and bus comparisons?

Now, here’s a good question (and if you know the answer, please share it with me) do airlines pay taxes on these fees?  Not when I worked there and according to Carl Unger at SmarterTravel.com, they still don’t.  So, that’s $4.3B in untaxed income.  (Try getting away with that, Small Business Owner.)  Unbundling the fees saved carriers in the United States some $322M in taxes.  Now realistically, the carriers wouldn’t have paid those taxes, the consumer would have.  Even so, I think the carriers have found a clever way to help out their bottom lines without the bad publicity of raising ticket prices.  They effectively did raise the prices, they just called it something else.

I know that operating aircraft isn’t cheap and, even with what I do  know, I don’t know the half of it.  I just wish that carriers had some kind of truth in advertising policy.  If you’re going to charge me $500, then tell me that.  Don’t tell me that you’re going to give me a great deal at $300, then charge me another $200 in baggage, handling and food fees.  Even if the totals are the same, in the first case, I feel like I’ve been dealt with in an up-front and honest way.  In the second case, I feel like I’ve been bamboozled.

And, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being bamboozled.

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At the October conference in Atlanta, the NBAA presented Wright Brothers Master Pilot awards to Russ Meyer, Clay Lacy, Arnold Palmer, Gene Cernan, and Neil Armstrong.  Bob Hoover was also scheduled to receive his award, but was unable to attend due to health issues.  I’m so glad my son wasn’t at the ceremony with me because I can guarantee you that His eyes would have rolled and “oh, Mom!” would have come out of his mouth several times.   Oh, yeah.  I was in the second grouping of seats trying desperately to look like a professional rather than like a teen-aged girl at a Beatles concert.  I pulled it off, but it was close.

This was a group of pilots were are truly Groupie Worthy!  The NBAA has this to say about these men:

“Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has long been involved in the business aviation community. In August, he began appearing in advertisements as a spokesman for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

Astronaut Gene Cernan is likewise a long-standing business aviation advocate, whose name is synonymous with the Bombardier Safety Standdown, an annual effort to promote safety awareness and best practices that is jointly sponsored by Bombardier, Inc., NBAA, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Bob Hoover is a legendary Air Force test pilot and air show performer, who many consider the ultimate “pilot’s pilot.” Among his many contributions to aviation safety, he has promoted the “Hoover Nozzle,” to ensure that jet fuel is not inadvertently pumped into piston airplanes.

Clay Lacy, a pilot and the president of charter service Clay Lacy Aviation, is also a director and videographer, having conducted more than 2,500 air-to-air photography flights, including sequences in movies like “Top Gun” and “The Right Stuff,” which have inspired thousands of people to fly.

Russ Meyer, Chairman Emeritus of the Cessna Aircraft Company, led the company from 1975 until 2003. Under his leadership, Cessna received two Collier Trophies, in part for the safety record of Cessna’s airplanes. In addition, Meyer has won the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy and NBAA’s Meritorious Service to Aviation Award, the Association’s highest honor.

Arnold Palmer, an American icon and esteemed businessman, has spent a lifetime promoting business aviation. He currently serves as a spokesman for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, and has addressed NBAA’s Annual Meeting & Convention on several occasions, each time highlighting the benefits the industry brings to the nation’s economy and transportation system. After receiving his Master Pilot Certificate at Wednesday’s event, Palmer will be honored with NBAA’s 2010 Meritorious Service to Aviation Award.”

I have this to say about them:

Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon and a man who remains a personal hero of mine.  As a child, I spent hours in our front yard, playing with my little plastic rocket, imagining the radio transmissions between Mr. Armstrong and Houston.  One of my colleagues is a friend of  his and says that Mr. Armstrong is a dignified gentleman, brilliant, a great teacher with a wonderful sense of humor – just a fine man. 

Gene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon.  The. Last. Man. To. Walk. On. The. Moon.  I don’t have enough sangfroid to pretend that walking on the moon is not just the coolest thing ever.

Bob Hoover is right up there with General Chuck Yeager in my book and, let’s face it, since my son bears the General’s name, Mr. Hoover is in the stratosphere.  He was one of those test-pilots who knew that each flight might be his last, but he did it anyway.  Adrenaline junky or hero?  I’m going with hero.

Clay Lacy combined his loves of aviation and photography; and, combined them in such a way that he was able to truly communicate his passions to viewers.  He took his fascination and adoration of aviation and gave it to others.  In addition, he runs a top-notch charter operation based primarily at Van Nuys, California.

Russ Meyer was largely responsible for the renaissance of aircraft manufacturing in the United States.  Thousands and thousands of Americans currently working in aviation – from Cessna employees right on down to line service personnel – owe their careers in part or in whole to Mr. Meyer.

Arnold Palmer is more than a legendary golfer – he is an avid proponent of general aviation.  While working in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Mr. Palmer on a few occasions.  You know that public persona he has of being a considerate, personable man?  In my experience, that persona goes all the way to the bone – just an incredibly nice man.  On the day that the airport was renamed to be the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, the high school band played;  Mr. Palmer’s co-pilot Pete went screaming down the run way in a low pass in his Citation X; and the town celebrated a local hero who took the honor with great humility.  Working on the field, we often wondered what he said in his radio calls to the tower – “my airport, N1AP on final?”  Seriously, how do you address the tower at an airport named after you?

All of these gentlemen have dedicated their lives to following their passions and we have all benefited from it.  Thanks to the NBAA for honoring these gentlemen this year.  What a thrill it was for this aviation groupie to be in the room with five living legends.

Left to right: FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilots Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, Clay Lacy, Russ Meyer and Arnold Palmer.

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My aunt recently flew from Seattle to St. Louis on American Airlines.  We’ll skip the horror part of this story including parking, baggage, security and enplaning.  We’ll go straight to an on-board event and an exceptional man.

On this frigid morning, bleary-eyed, harassed passengers filed onto the MD-80 aircraft with the goal of getting to their seats, stowing their carry-ons and maybe catching a little cat-nap on the way to Dallas.  Most passengers were wrapped in their own little worlds, paying minimal attention to fellow flyers.  Most passengers were, but one man in first class saw more.

Passengers were boarded and seated.  Luggage was stowed and the door was closed in preparation for push back when the Lead Flight Attendant walked from first class to coach to speak with the Purser.  From row 25, my aunt listened to an astounded Lead F/A tell the Purser that there was a gentleman in first class who wanted to swap seats with a fatigue-clad, career soldier sitting in a center coach seat.  The Purser informed the soldier who then followed her to the front of the aircraft.  She returned to the main cabin with a gentleman who was greeted with applause from those within earshot of the flight attendants’ conversation.  The passenger, who appeared to be uncomfortable with the recognition, was thanked by those seated across the aisle from his own new seat.  His response?  “It was the least I could do.”

Before push-back, the PA system crackled to life with the Lead Flight Attendant relating the story to everyone who had been puzzled by the applause.  She added that the first class passenger now in a coach class, middle seat was, himself, a Purple Heart recipient.

Clearly, this man wanted to give the gift of his seat without fanfare, taking no honor for himself.  However, I believe that his gift needs to be celebrated and repeated.  I believe that his gift challenges us all to be aware, be grateful and be willing to express that gratitude to our soldiers, our police officers, our fire fighters and others who willingly put their own lives on the line to protect ours.

Sir, I don’t know who you are, where you are, or what your story is; however, having heard this one gesture, I am grateful to you for reminding me of the importance of gratitude.  Thank you.

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Several months ago, Ryan Keough with Cutter Aviation asked me if I would like to participate as a panelist in a webinar on social media strategies that NATA was planning.  I wondered if he knew whom he had called.  He put me in touch with Shannon Chambers, who was putting the whole event together.  After speaking with Shannon, I agree to participate since, while I might not know everything, I’m happy to share what I do know.   After weeks and months of worrying what I should say, the webinar finally arrived.

Twice, I was introduced as an expert, but I really believe I’m more of the Poster Child for You-Can-Do-It-Too.  My degree is not in marketing.  Anytime my job has required me to construct marketing campaigns, I’ve based them on approaches that work for me as a consumer.  I want straight-forward information from people I can both trust and relate to.  But it’s a big world and general aviation covers nearly all of it; so, how do I find those people?  The internet is a good tool made much more useful by Social Media, as we discussed in a previous post. 

Acknowledging that Social Media is a great tool for connecting with customers is all well and good, but, for a company with a limited marketing budget that may not be up on the latest internet tools, getting started can be a daunting task.  Well, at least it was a daunting task for me.  But, I’m going to share something with you…..lean closer so I can whisper it to you…….shhhh, it’s not rocket science.  Okay, don’t tell anyone I told you that; but, it’s the truth.  Social Media is not rocket science – it’s a lot of effort – but a degree from MIT is not required, neither is a secret de-coder ring.

I recently attended a seminar to discuss Social Media use and, frankly, was disappointed.  In my opinion, the subject was discussed as though everyone in the room already understood the basics, which post-seminar discussion proved not to be the case.  I spoke with several frustrated attendees who needed more direction than “just open a Twitter account and follow the directions.”  For them, I sent my own notes gathered during the process of developing our own Social Media campaign.  Now, I don’t assert that I am the Queen of Social Media (note: if you want to call me that, I do already have a tiara in my desk drawer); however, I have learned something during our journey and I am more than happy to share what I’ve learned.   Technology and applications are evolving so quickly that any instructional document I might attach would be out of date before I hit “publish;” so, if you’d like to talk with me about establishing your own blog or social media campaign, email me or call.  I’ll be happy to share. 

In the meantime, we’ll keep blogging, Tweeting, changing our statuses and interacting with you while we all continue our way on the learning curve.

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