Archive for the ‘charter broker’ Category:
Information Powers Social Flight
From classical economic theory, when the buyer has the same information as the seller, markets are supposed to become more efficient. Then, the online travel agent (OTA) arrived to aggregate all the airline information so customers could get a “the best deal” with all the information presented to them. But that is not really what happened. Instead, customers got lost.
Information Hazard
The OTA industry quickly ignited a race to the bottom on airfare prices with little regard for a “service model”. This led to the unbundling of services (responsible for endless hidden fees on everything from extra baggage to a printed boarding pass), consolidation in the industry, and even bankruptcy of some airlines.
I fought the law and the law won…
Now, endless law suits are being filed over who “owns the customer” as defined by some arbitrary “click” or “like” or “shopping basket”. Other lawsuits challenge the ownership of the information attached to a customer, before and after the flight, etc. You get the idea; this has nothing to do with helping the customer, nothing to do with flying airplanes, and most certainly does not make the market more efficient.
Something different in happening
In fact, the air travel market is more segmented, protected, siloed and regulated than ever – AND, prices are in the tank. Private operators obviously do not want to be a part of this market, however large, simply because they will be drawn into a viscous circle forced to do more of the things that they don’t want to do for less money. Most operators are not looking forward to it.
The Free and The Easy
On the other hand, the Internet has made information free and easy to transport – in formation is the source of knowledge and innovation in any market. There must be a strategy in that can be put in play so private operators can benefit from technology without becoming a slave to technology.
If we told the truth to ourselves…
There is little reason why the private carriers need to compete with each other – the real competition is the dysfunctional mainstream air travel market. There is little competitive advantage to not sharing empty seats and empty legs among each other when we can pull the lucrative premium class away from the commercial airlines.
No Downside to Cooperation
There is no downside to increasing the size, scope, and applicability of the private air service sector. There is little downside to the traditional customers of private services when the airplanes are better utilized, operators are well staffed, and airplane owners are receiving sufficient cash flows and buying more aircraft. There is no downside to steady cashflow.
The Social Flights Platform
Social Flights is building a platform that allows operators to collect their inventory and appear as a single resource to the private travel market. The private air service market should redefine and dominate the “service model” so that the lucrative premium class commercial market can use Private travel as the referenced standard.
And technology is just beginning
Many new technologies are beginning to impact the travel market in many profound ways. The private air services providers have an opportunity to work together and leap frog the commercial airlines to dominate the conversation related to the true value of air travel.
Information Powers Social Flight
From classical economic theory, when the buyer has the same information as the seller, markets are more efficient. Then, the online travel agent (OTA) arrived to aggregate all the airline information so customers could get a “the best deal”. But that is not really what happened, customers got lost.
Information Hazard
The OTA industry quickly ignited a race to the bottom on airfare prices with little regard for a “service model”. This led to the unbundling of services (responsible for endless hidden fees on everything from extra baggage to a printed boarding pass), consolidation in the industry, and even bankruptcy of some airlines.
I fought the law and the law won…
Now, endless law suits are being filed over who “owns the customer” as defined by some arbitrary “click” or “like” or “shopping basket”. Other lawsuits challenge the ownership of the information attached to a customer, before and after the flight, etc. You get the idea; this has nothing to do with helping the customer, nothing to do with flying airplanes, and most certainly does not make the market more efficient.
Something different in happening
In fact, the air travel market is more segmented, protected, siloed and regulated than ever – AND, prices are in the tank. Private operators obviously do not want to be a part of this market, however large, simply because they will be drawn into a viscous circle forced to do more of the things that they don’t want to do for less money. Most operators are not looking forward to it.
The Free and The Easy
On the other hand, the Internet has made information free and easy to transport – in formation is the source of knowledge and innovation in any market. There must be a strategy in that can be put in play so private operators can benefit from technology without becoming a slave to technology.
If we told the truth to ourselves…
There is little reason why the private carriers need to compete with each other – the real competition is the dysfunctional mainstream air travel market. There is little competitive advantage to not sharing empty seats and empty legs among each other when we can pull the lucrative premium class away from the commercial airlines.
No Downside to Cooperation
There is no downside to increasing the size, scope, and applicability of the private air service sector. There is little downside to the traditional customers of private services when the airplanes are better utilized, operators are well staffed, and airplane owners are receiving sufficient cash flows and buying more aircraft. There is no downside to steady cashflow.
The Social Flights Platform
Social Flights is building a platform that allows operators to collect their inventory and appear as a single resource to the private travel market. The private air service market should redefine and dominate the “service model” so that the lucrative premium class commercial market can use Private travel as the referenced standard.
And technology is just beginning
Many new technologies are beginning to impact the travel market in many profound ways. The private air services providers have an opportunity to work together and leap frog the commercial airlines to dominate the conversation related to the true value of air travel.
Share a Private Jet to The Preakness Stakes
The most important series of equestrian events is right around the corner and Social Flights is busy filling seats on private aircraft from several locations in the US.
Private Jet traffic can get pretty busy and prices are at a premium. Commercial airlines cannot get you in and out in the same day and booking a hotel can be a nightmare.
When you share a private jet into this event with people who you know from the same town, you enjoy a first class experience with people with whom you can share a lifelong memory. Let Social Flights be your source of air transportation service for The Preakness Stakes.
via Preakness Stakes – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57 kg); fillies 121 lb (55 kg). It is the second leg of the US Triple Crown, with the Kentucky Derby preceding it and the Belmont Stakes following it. The horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown.
The Preakness Stakes has been termed “The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans” because a blanket of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta, the state flower of Maryland) is traditionally placed around the winner’s neck. The attendance at the Preakness Stakes ranks second in North America and usually surpasses the attendance of all other stakes races including the Belmont Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup and the Kentucky Oaks. The attendance of the Preakness Stakes typically only trails the Kentucky Derby, for more information see American Thoroughbred Racing top Attended Events.
Visit social flights to get an instant quote under “Create a Flight” option. Then we’ll notify you as others join your itinerary. The best time to start is now. Invite your family, friends, and colleagues for an exceptional experience at an most exceptional event.
Social Flights Flying Under The Radar
McKinsey just published a very important article called “The Trouble With Travel Distribution” which describes a condition where the travel market has become fractured, siloed, and dysfunctional.
The soul searching has begun.
After a decade of racing to the bottom of the travel market, everyone is raising their heads above the clouds and asking; “what happened to the customer?”
McKinsey suggest that industry incumbents move away from a model focused almost exclusively on reducing channel costs and toward one that seeks to maximize returns by best serving customer needs.
1. Focus on customers, not channels
2. Win in the era of ‘big data’
3. Unlock the power of partnerships
4. Master the entire customer experience
McKinsey constantly warns of “new competitors” swooping in to take their piece of the 100 Billion dollar market. They cite the Google acquisition of ITA travel software. New technologies such as the iPad and iTravel, and even huge data stores such as Amazon all having a shot at disrupting the current travel markets.
On the other hand, McKinsey talks about price uniformity across sectors. They call for cooperation among partnerships instead of competition of withholding information. They talk about end-to-end customer experience and the huge impact of social media:
And the incumbents must understand that the customer experience not only begins before the time of sale—and even before the time of search—but also extends well after purchase and travel.
What they don’t talk about is the emergence of an entirely new class of travel products and services flying in under the radar. This new class of services fills in the voids where little is known to exist; a classic disruption.
Enter The Private Sector
Private aviation, private travel agents, private hotels, and private entrepreneurs all have the data and resources that they need to carve out a niche where nobody else can reach. For example (corresponding to 1-4 McKinsey recommendations above):
- Social Flights is the first air service to focus on needs of the traveler, the group, and the community when deploying an airplane to market.
- Social Flights introduced the concept of replacing infrastructure with data to sort people and planes.
- Social Flights is the first to publish about price uniformity between commercial airlines and private air service.
- Social Flights is the first to deploy a Value Game; which is a system that integrates all travel stakeholders so they can cooperate instead of compete.
The Customer Integration
In Fact, nearly all of the McKinsey recommendation can be rolled up into a new class of business methods for the travel industry. Social Flights and all of our amazing partners, operator, travelers, and communities are on the deck … and under the radar, for now.
Private Aviation Is Leaving Money on The Tarmac
From Analytics Magazine
Airline accountants and statisticians perform two extremely important functions. The first is called “Yield Management” and the second is called “Fleet Management”.
Yield management is how airlines put the right customer in the right seat at the right price. Fleet management assigns the right airplane to the right time table at the rights price. This is the important integration for all airlines.
The Easy Way Outbound
Most charter brokers do not bother with yield management or fleet management. They hammer hard on sales; they scope out the wealthiest passengers and find them the jet that delivers (to the broker) a profit they can sell up to the passenger for fast turnaround. They neither expand the market to more people nor help existing clients share a plane among each other.
With proper yield management, a private ticket could “value out’ the same as a premium class commercial fare. The North American premium class market accounts for 6.6% of all airline traffic and 22.7% of all commercial airline revenue (IATA 2010) of 147 Billion dollars. Premium travel is a 30 Billion Dollar Industry. General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMMA) shows total billing of general aviation aircraft of $7.3 billion.
How to Double Your Market
Applications of yield management can easily double the number of passengers that would take a seat on a private aircraft. Meanwhile application of fleet management can nearly double the amount of available revenue seats; after all, 40% of private flights are empty.
Today’s private aviation industry has both a fragmented supply and a fragmented demand. Operators do not communicate with each other, they do not share legs, They do not share inventory, they do not allow customers to talk to each other or share a jet between them. Even the taxi industry lets people share a cab. As long as the industry is fragmented, investors, hospitality partners, and most importantly, passengers, will look elsewhere for their investment in time and money.
New Features At Social Flights
Social Flights offers instant quote feature that allows passengers to immediately cost out the price and flight time for a private aircraft between any two airports in the US. Social Flights then helps passengers communicate with each other so that they know the true cost before they are accosted by a broker. Social Flights publishes a wide range of aircraft and airports where they may fly.
Social Flights builds alliances and partnerships with owners, operator, passengers, hospitality, and support services so that everyone can see what everyone else is doing and price accordingly. Social flights posts empty legs, lists events in various cities, and refers service providers that can help out passengers on the ground
Watch us Grow
Keep in mind that each of these features represent initial applications of both yield management and fleet management. This is a huge innovation for private aviation. As the dataset increases and becomes integrated, we will begin performing essential calculations that the airlines use to manage their fleets.
Bring your information and inventory to us and let us combine it into new markets and customers – there is a lot more going on at Social Flights than many people realize.
Is There An Alternative To Commercial Airlines?
In Japan and Europe, high speed rail often competes with air travel for short distance routes. While it may take 3-4 hours door-to-door to travel 300 miles in an aircraft, the high-speed train can cover the same door-to-door distance in more comfort, the same time, and for less money. An automobile may need 6 hours to complete the same journey at a similar cost of ownership.
What many peoples fail to realize is the possibility that a community can operate their own airline. This alternative is being pioneered by Social Flights. The regionalization of air service is a new concept that allows communities to own and operate one or more aircraft maintaining control over the schedules and locations where the aircraft flies.
In the United States, a rift continues to grow between available air service and reasonable alternatives to air service. This creates a substantial burden on families; but it also creates a compound burden on the economy upon which those families depend for their livelihood. If corporate travel is constrained, the economy as a whole is constrained.
From this article in the NY Times:
Consider the new realities of air travel. Competition is decreasing, fares are rising and airlines are adjusting routes (and charging extra fees) in ruthless calculations to extract the greatest possible revenue per mile flown.
Many airlines will continue shrinking overall capacity and trimming domestic routes in 2012, and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, will merely exacerbate the situation. In 2012, American will “ground some planes and resize our network,” the company’s chief executive, Thomas W. Horton, recently told employees.
In addition, John P. Heimlich, the chief economist of the trade group Airlines for America, said, “Capacity reduction is one of the steps the industry is taking to preserve profitability.”
Several articles are now popping up comparing the alternatives that are available. An overnight Amtrak in a cozy sleeper car can cost the same for some routes as the aircraft - unfortunately, Amtrak is not universally connected to very many routes. High speed rail is still on the drawing boards but still many years away with fewer stops and likely connecting major hubs anyway. The other alternative is to simply drive; with the ground travel and delays incurred t hub airports, a commercial flight less than 750 miles can have an door-to-door average speed of around 70 miles per hour.
Michael Boyd, the president of the consulting company Boyd Group International, sums up the phenomenon succinctly. “The cost of flying airplanes across the sky has eclipsed the ability to support it at many communities,” he said in a recent forecast. In 2012, he predicts, airlines will accelerate the mothballing of smaller 50-seat jets, the workhorses for connecting service between many midsize airports, and even some big ones.
Social Flights can provide the knowledge, expertise, personnel, certification, and equipment to maintain and operate an aircraft fleet, as well as the social media backbone that allows people to self-organize around the aircraft asset.
As such, the community can create direct flights bypassing hubs, they can schedule flights for their corporations and shuttle their executives to new business markets for a price that is hugely favorable to any existing alternative; which is often nothing.