Archive for the ‘airplane’ Category:
Fly From Milwaukee To Branson MO For Under 100 Dollars
Beginning in June 2012, Branson Air in cooperation with CFM aviation and Social Flights, is offering a limited time 79 dollar special on air service between Milwaukee Wisconsin and Branson Missouri. This price will not last long since the route is filling fast. �The next threshold special is 99 dollars…and there is no wonder why tickets are selling fast.
This announcement comes on the heels of air service between Nashville and Branson as well as Austin and Branson. �All continuing flights connect all cities. �This is a big deal for people who travel between secondary markets.
If you are asking yourself what you would do when you get to your final destination, �just check out these posts:
�101 Things to do in Milwaukee
Or, think of it this way: �
Do a Google search on “Milwaukee Facebook” and you’ll received 183 Million returns. �Next, perform a search on terms: “Branson MO Facebook” and you’ll receive 3.7 Million returns. Finally, do a search on the terms “Branson MO Milwaukee WI Facebook” and you’ll received 1.1 Million returns.
Next, search for airfare from Milwaukee to Branson you’ll find the following result:
NOW, look at the flight from Branson to Milwaukee !!
Hmmm … why does it cost 200 dollars more and take 4 more hours (stationary) to fly from Branson to Milwaukee than from Milwaukee to Branson???
A recipe for opportunity
While this is far from a scientific research study, there is little doubt that many people in Branson know somebody in Milwaukee and vice versa. �There are many people in Milwaukee that can find a reason to hop a quick plane out to Branson with all of their friends. �Look at the disadvantage that the smaller community has – small communities are �SUBSIDIZING the larger community!! �The distance is the same so the price should be the same.
By extension – look at all of the communities on the map above that social flight can connect for 1/2 the price and half the transit time of the airlines
Most importantly, there are many things that were never economically possible between these two cities, �but now are. �That is what opportunity is made of.
People who follow Social Flights know that our business model is hugely disruptive to the airlines. �They know that Social Flights opens new frontiers of opportunity. �They know that Social Flights liberates stranded communities from Airline Chess Masters. �With air service between Branson and Austin for under 100 dollars – this is only the beginning.
So the choice is simple;
There are hundreds of things to do with millions of friends, colleagues, relatives, and business relationships for 200 dollars on a flight that lasts less than two hours. Or, spend close to 500 dollars on a 8 hour boondoggle losing two days of work and spending an two extra nights in a hotel with people you don’t know. �The choice is obvious.
Who knew that having fun could be such serious business?
Air service between Branson and Austin ONLY 79 dollars
Branson Air, in cooperation with CFM aviation and Social Flights, is offering a special on air service between Austin Texas and Branson Missouri. If you book through Social Flights, you’ll receive an additional 20 dollars discount for a limited time when you mention this post.
If you are wondering what to do when you get to your final destination, just check out these two posts:
102 Things to do in Branson 101 Things to do in Austin
Or, think of it this way:
I did a google search on “Austin Tx Facebook” and received 134 Million returns. Then, I did a search on “Branson MO Facebook” and received 3.7 Million returns. Finally, I did a search on the term “Branson MO Austin TX Facebook” and received 1.1 Million returns.
Next I did a search on airfare Branson to Austin and found the following result:
A recipe for opportunity
While this is far from a scientific research study, there is little doubt that many people in Branson know somebody in Austin and vice versa. There are many people in Austin that can find a reason to hop a quick plane out to Branson with all of their friends.
Most importantly, there are many things that were never economically possible between these two cities, but now are. That is what opportunity is made of.
People who follow Social Flights know that our business model is hugely disruptive to the airlines. They know that Social Flights opens new frontiers of opportunity. They know that Social Flights liberates stranded communities from Airline Chess Masters. With air service between Branson and Austin for under 100 dollars – this is only the beginning.
So the choice is simple;
There are hundreds of things to do with millions of friends, colleagues, relatives, and business relationships for 160 dollars on a flight that lasts less than two hours. Or, spend close to 500 dollars on a 15 hour flight losing two days of work and spending an two extra nights in a hotel with people you don’t know. The choice is obvious.
Who knew that having fun could be such serious business?
Social Flights Offers Marketing Services to Operators
Social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) are no longer just the shiny new soapbox for advertisers, they have become powerful tools for organizing communities.
We all know that social media campaigns have become the PR machine of the modern airline, but they still fail to understand the difference between community awareness and harnessing the power of community engagement.
Who has time to Twitter?
Many private operators are too focused on the day-to-day business of keeping their fleet in top readiness to start the long haul learning curve of social media marketing and SEO.
As a result, those same few brokers and agents (you know who they are) appear on the top of the search engine listing even in your city search! While paid search placement may buy some brand awareness for the brokers, only active blogging, worthy cross linking and strategic partnerships produce the powerful engagements that bring you customers who bring you customers who bring you customers, and so on.
Building these relationships can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive.
Social Flights has trained and experienced account managers that can efficiently carry out the most productive social media presence for private operators and their respective traveler community, economic development agencies, and hospitality partners.
Social Flights offers:
- Syndication of Social Flights blog articles
- Unique blog contents specific to your operation and community.
- Cross linkages with other operators, tourism boards, hospitality, and corporate business centers
- Strategic Twitter campaigns, Facebook pages, G+, press release support, and cross posting with sister cities
- Package formation with festivals, recreation, conventions, and events; locally and across North America
- Cooperative marketing with sister city operators.
Social Flights draws on our unique experience in ride sharing systems and yield management for private aircraft inventory. Social Flights uses up-to-the-minute social media techniques to organize communities around available private aircraft capacity, public charter opportunities, and empty leg fulfillment.
Social Flights draws from our national databases of event organizers, universities, corporate clusters, and diverse industries allowing us to help you identify, influence, and match supply and demand for private air service priced on a per-seat basis. This allows travelers to form a true comparison of the “time-value” of private air service versus commercial air service.
Finally, we also provide you with ways to spot opportunities that commercial airlines simply cannot serve at any price.
Please consider adding Social Flights Services to your marketing mix. Give us a call for a free strategy session and let’s see where we can integrate your air service operation with the entire national travel services industry.
Another Way to View Empty Legs
Every industry from agriculture to retail to energy production experiences unsellable merchandise. Losses may be due to spoilage or theft or the inability to sell product within a certain expiration date – this is the case for empty legs.
Excess inventory is usually steeply discounted or written off as a loss. Costs that cannot be recovered are passed on to the customer. If the customer “penalty” is too high, the demand shrinks and unsellable merchandise increases – This forces a contraction in the industry where demand can drive prices up further.
Suppose we know that the existing market for private travel can sustain $1.20 per seat mile price point such that an 8-seat airplane costs $10,000.00 to travel 1000 miles plus an empty return flight. Now suppose that the price per seat mile could be reduced to $.60 by sharing the plane with 16 people (8 in each direction)? Would cutting the price in half effectively double the number of people who could afford private travel?
Half empty or half full…or Both
We could certainly draw a line on a graph that would represent how market size would shift if we floated the value between $1.20 and $.60 per seat mile? We can achieve this through any combination of inbound and outbound passengers between 8 and 16.
Social Flights is building a platform that can pool empty leg inventory by consolidating data provided by hundreds of operators. The same platform can be used by communities to pool likely passengers attending events, sporting games, corporation travelers, and conference attendees. The same platform will be used to match the supply to the demand on a national level. With a large enough system, it should no longer matter if it is an empty leg or a primary leg – all legs are primary.
The ability to salvage empty seat inventory while lowering costs for all seats will increase the size of the market for private jet services. The aircraft can fly more revenue miles per month in a larger market instead of remaining stationary waiting for a smaller market of passengers. The airplane can deliver a higher net revenue per mile when both legs are full and priced correctly than when priced at cost-plus.
With Social Flights, operators can increase their volumes by lowering primary prices and adding return leg revenue. Owners will favor a operator that can deliver the highest utilization of their aircraft. Operators can now challenge brokers with a competitive alternate market for private service. Travelers can now challenge the commercial airlines for service and time value. At the end of the day, those who share information will have a competitive advantage over those who hoard information.
Social Flights As Economic Enabler
The Federal Aviation Administration is more than just a dour old government bureaucracy. The FAA also collects and publishes very important information.
This chart tells a very important story. It says that the economy depends on aviation as much (if not more) than aviation depends on the economy. So when Social Flights talks about private jets, it’s a whole lot more than wealthy people keeping their shoes on. Private aviation is in fact an important conduit for economic growth. The way that we organize aviation assets such as aircraft, operators, airports, and support services can have a profound impact on a region.
For all economic development professionals:
These statistics should be stark. If your community has air service, then the products and services that your community can trade will be 69 times higher in value than ground transportation such as trucking routes. Yet many economic development reports treat these two modes roughly equal.
Furthermore, the market is huge; 1/2 Trillion dollars worth of products are flying over your head and 1/4 Trillion dollars worth of direct expenditure is looking down at you through an impenetrable window – EVERY YEAR. And, that’s just the tangible value. Ideas, knowledge, wisdom, trust, influence, and experience are all extremely expensive to create on your own or by trial and error. Yet this value is readily stored and transported in the cabins of aircraft. This intangible value far out-weighs anything that can be carried in a truck.
What is truly surprising is that it only requires 2 million people to keep 2 trillion dollars worth of value aloft. As such, every job that an economic development office creates in aviation, can potentially return 500,000 – 1,000,000 dollars in value to a community. If a community is going to “buy jobs” with their taxes, they should buy aviation jobs.
Likewise, it would NOT be wise to lose control of this valuable resource to the whims of the airlines or outside corporate charter – their bottom line is not the same as yours.
Social Flights now brings a complete aviation solution to your community. Our CASP (Community Air Service Program) can provide a community with modern aircraft, operational knowledge, and certification authority to operate your own public charter airline. The connection is clear – airplanes equal money. Give us a call, let us design your community air service program to integrate with your hotels, restaurants, tourism board, artistic community, and industries.
After all, that is what community is all about.
Why Google Is Chasing Travel
At Social Flights, we have said many times that nothing economic truly can happen until people get together to build something. Economics is the science of incentives and no incentive is stronger in the human species than family and community. It does not take much of a chasm of reason to see why Google is so interested in travel and travel related properties.
Travel is the keystone for change; change of ideas, change of relationship, change of intentions, and change of markets. A banker is not interested in money – they are interested in the rate of change of money; it’s called “interest rate”. People are not interested in the same old story, they want the story to change – this is what keeps their “interest”
Again, we find Google at the center of the social “Interest Rate” in travel. Don’t think for a minute that Facebook “timeline” is not also a move to capture how people change and react and adapt to the conditions around them. This almost makes it pointless for people to try to react to these changes because such a reaction is, in fact, registered by the platform driving the reaction. Is this a problem?
From http://www.tnooz.com/2011/12/12/news/google-quietly-introduces-social-travel-service-schemer/
What makes you want to go to a place to begin with? When you have chosen a place – what makes you want to explore further? The inspiration phase of leisure trip planning research has been by far the hardest for tech-based services to master.
Google has announced (and started sending out Beta invites to) a new service, known as Schemer, which attempts to compete in this gap. Effectively it is local destination ideas based on tips from your (Google+) friends, celebrities (oh yes!) and professional destination content producers (ie. travel writers).
If destination research moves to starting at Google Schemer rather than Google Search, then Google will be able to pitch flights, hotels and other travel services, without having to necessarily work within the confines of their existing web properties.
Everyone else who makes it their business to build P2P platforms such as tour guides and recommendation platforms will be cut out of the loop. If Google can now branch away from their core search and into the social connectivity business, they can compete with their own customers. Is this a problem?
What Google does not do, and cannot do, is actually operate a jet aircraft. They cannot clean a hotel room or manufacture a rental car. They cannot cook a holiday dinner or wax a snowboard. Real people need to do this. Why is Google chasing Travel? Google is chasing people. At the end of the day, people drive Google. Is that a problem?
Why Google Is Chasing Travel
At Social Flights, we have said many times that nothing economic truly can happen until people get together to build something. Economics is the science of incentives and no incentive is stronger in the human species than family and community. It does not take much of a chasm of reason to see why Google is so interested in travel and travel related properties.
Travel is the keystone for change; change of ideas, change of relationship, change of intentions, and change of markets. A banker is not interested in money – they are interested in the rate of change of money; it’s called “interest rate”. People are not interested in the same old story, they want the story to change – this is what keeps their “interest”
Again, we find Google at the center of the social “Interest Rate” in travel. Don’t think for a minute that Facebook “timeline” is not also a move to capture how people change and react and adapt to the conditions around them. This almost makes it pointless for people to try to react to these changes because such a reaction is, in fact, registered by the platform driving the reaction. Is this a problem?
From http://www.tnooz.com/2011/12/12/news/google-quietly-introduces-social-travel-service-schemer/
What makes you want to go to a place to begin with? When you have chosen a place – what makes you want to explore further? The inspiration phase of leisure trip planning research has been by far the hardest for tech-based services to master.
Google has announced (and started sending out Beta invites to) a new service, known as Schemer, which attempts to compete in this gap. Effectively it is local destination ideas based on tips from your (Google+) friends, celebrities (oh yes!) and professional destination content producers (ie. travel writers).
If destination research moves to starting at Google Schemer rather than Google Search, then Google will be able to pitch flights, hotels and other travel services, without having to necessarily work within the confines of their existing web properties.
Everyone else who makes it their business to build P2P platforms such as tour guides and recommendation platforms will be cut out of the loop. If Google can now branch away from their core search and into the social connectivity business, they can compete with their own customers. Is this a problem?
What Google does not do, and cannot do, is actually operate a jet aircraft. They cannot clean a hotel room or manufacture a rental car. They cannot cook a holiday dinner or wax a snowboard. Real people need to do this. Why is Google chasing Travel? Google is chasing people. At the end of the day, people drive Google. Is that a problem?
The Personal Light Jet
National Public Radio recently aired 2 very interesting segments on the airline industry. The first segment cited companies leaving small cities because of poor air transportation service. The second segment cited an interesting statistic; all of the airlines that existed before the deregulation act of 1978 have gone bankrupt.
But wait, wasn’t airline deregulation supposed to be good for the airlines? Wasn’t it supposed to spawn innovation and drive economies of scale? Wasn’t it supposed to increase choices for the airline passenger?
Well, at least one of these impacts is true; deregulation spawned innovation – although probably not the way it was predicted in 1978. Today, new technologies are appearing everywhere from new forms of social organization to faster and smarter aircraft systems. This article features a very interesting aircraft sector called the personal sport jet. While I do not know enough about their actual business model, it would appear that they are aiming where the airlines and major manufacturers simply cannot reach.
With an operating cost of $400 per hour instead of $1200-$2000 per hour in this class, the excel sportjet can deliver a 2 hour jet flight performance in a “regionalization” market. Social media trends show us that people are connected in shorter distances and far more diverse locations than the hub and spoke system can accomodate.
This aircraft is small, lightweight, and fast. It uses a single jet engine and flies at a lower altitude reducing pressurization forces and associated cost. The Sport Jet II carries 4 people and employs extensive use of composites in addition to simplified pilot qualification requirements.
Clayton Christensen’s book “The Innovator’s Dilemma” cites numerous now classic examples of how industries are threatened by simple upstarts that deliver what the customer wants at a price they can afford without the complexity and “over-performance” burden that mainstream players evolve into.
While the aviation business is very complicated, it is truly a pleasure to witness new products and innovations that come to market under the radar of the big players. We hope that they grow to have an impact on the industry. After all, that is what Social Flights is all about.
Bravo Sport Jet II, Bravo.