Plane Conversations

Carol Pucci from Seattle Times recently wrote this article about her experience with airlines that code-share:

“With more airlines marketing each other’s flights as code shares, it’s getting harder to figure out who’s actually doing the flying. It also makes it a bit harder to find the best price.  Code shares are marketing alliances that allow airlines to sell seats under their own name for flights operated by a partner airline. The airlines share in the revenues and passengers can earn and use their frequent-flier miles on either carrier.”

The irony is that on-line travel agents started a price war that has eliminated the incentive for airlines to distinguish themselves on “service” or even distance. This relieved them of the responsibility to excel. The underlying assumption imposed on the passenger is that all airlines are equal and all flights are the same – until they are not.  For example: Air France and Delta are code share partners:

Carol further writes: “Air France was selling a Seattle/Zagreb (Croatia) round trip, with a connection through Paris, for $1,214 versus $1,408 on Delta for the same flights, a savings of $194″.  

The law of one price

The problem with code sharing is not that you fly on the other partner’s aircraft, the problem is that the price is does not correlate with the exact same product, rather, it varies by whom you buy the ticket – that, by any definition, is broker’s world.

Private air service carriers and charter operators currently suffer from an extreme form of broker’s world that not only prevents carriers from code sharing, they also keep prices unpublished so the customer has no idea what they are paying for.

Of Brokers and Fixers

Imagine if Air France and Delta and United all had to operate different planes and there was no way for travelers to compare compare prices. Instead, a group of brokers could manipulate supply and demand to maximize their own profits. So for example, if the airplanes fly 1/2 empty, then brokers could charge double the airfare.  Obviously, this is an extremely inefficient way to operate an air service industry.

Fly Social in more ways than one

Social Flights is a platform that accommodates code sharing among many partner air service operators while also standardizing the cost of flying on a per-mile / per-time basis.  Social Flights performs the same yield management operations for a diverse inventory of private jets as the commercial carriers perform for their shared fleets.

The Social Flights platform permits the private air service operators to sell charter lift on a per-seat, per-leg basis.  Instead of generating dead heads (empty legs) operators can code share such that every flight is a primary leg.  Operators who are closest to the passenger will inherently be lower cost since a “re-positioning” fee would not be needed. This alone may cut the price of private travel by 50% (half the cost without dead/reposition fee) while also increasing operator revenue by 50% (by doubling the size of the market).

You can call it a code-share or you can call it a ride-share, but Social Flights calls it a breakthrough in air service efficiency.

“Systems Thinking” is important in aviation.  No single event acts alone from complex air traffic control to complex mechanical aircraft and complex weather systems. Economics is a complex system and markets are complex systems, human behavior is displayed in complex social systems.  This is the way that Social Flights approaches business – we are a ride sharing “system” for private jets

It is not surprising then that Google identifies 5 stages of the consumer travel system.

The following is from Trent via Statistics and Research Studies for Travel, Tourism & Lodging:

More than 87% of travelers expect to take the same or more number of personal or business trips in 2011 versus years past. This outlook is positive, and with the rise of mobile, social and video behaviors, we are now seeing seeing travelers move through five key stages of travel. Here are some insights within each stage:

Dreaming: 68% of business travelers watch travel-related online videos. Among them, 68% are thinking about a trip.

Planning: The average traveler visits ~22 travel related sites during 9.5 research sessions prior to booking.  85% of leisure travelers consider the internet their main source of travel planning.

Booking: 37% of leisure travelers report that the internet prompted them to book, up from 28% two years ago.  53% of travelers plan to increase comparison shopping this year.

Experiencing: 70% of business travelers check into their flights/hotel with their mobile device. Almost 1 in 4 hotel queries come from a mobile phone.  Over 50% of travelers use mobile phone or device for travel-related information.

Sharing: About 1 in 3 business travelers have posted reviews online of places they’ve been.

At Social Flights we have argued that there is a great need for travel related information to be made available for private aircraft and charter jet inventory.  As such, we are developing tools such as our “Instant Quote” feature, and inventory listings to supplement travel information on line. Here’s why:

62% of personal travelers use search engines as the number one source for travel information. 

51% of business travelers use mobile devices to get travel information, more than double the rate of two years ago. 

46% of personal travelers are watching travel-related videos, versus 36% two years ago. 

The quantity and the quality of information that a travel company can provide is directly proportional to the relevance in the 5 stages of consumer travel activity.  The effort is paying off.

Social Flights will soon announce several deals with municipalities that are tired of being stranded by airlines

Social Flights will annouce a deal with a major vacation spot that is tired of getting gouged by brokers

Social Flights Instant Quote feature continues to disrupt the “secret handshake” of the charter jet industry

Social Flights will soon announce major deals at world class events where we shuttle people to the doorstep of the action

Social Flights is opening travel circles across the US for people to share their experiences and plan their adventures

At Social Flights, we are aviators, we are system thinkers, we are fully aware and intentional about the system that we are building.  We thank all those who are helping, from our pilots to our partners to our investors and to our followers.  Together we are developing a Social Flying System