Plane Conversations

If we can’t hear our customers, it’s not because they don’t exist.  Social Flights understands that we live only because our travelers, operators, hospitality partners, and community entrepreneurs want us to exist.

Where silence was once golden, it is now dangerous.

Airlines have been learning the value of community with several recent social media campaigns -  but that is not the same as harnessing the power of the community.

Airlines still fail to understand that there will be consequences when they just pull service out of a community leaving tens of thousands of people functionally stranded; “because continued service would not be in the best interest of our valued shareholders”.    

The Power of Community

In response, communities have put high speed rail (HSR) back on the political ping pong table.  So the airlines complain that HSR will destroy aviation citing so many examples in other countries; “..and that would not be in the best interest of our valued shareholders”.    

The community response to overstressed hubs is government regulation that doubles fines for failure to meet minimum standards of service.  Again, the airlines complaint, “it’s not our fault, the other guys did it…increased regulations would not be in the best interest of our valued shareholders”.    

The community response to new service charges, lack of service, and overall traveler discontent is outlined in one of our recent blog posts “Forgiving is Not Forgetting” suggesting that up to 20% of all public social media communications are apologies “…because un-silenced customer would not be in the best interest of our valued shareholders”.    

Under New Management

The power of social media is the ability for communities to organize in their own best interest.  Now more than ever, Wall Street priorities are being driven by social priorities – not the other way around.  The implications for airlines are vast; perhaps completely redefining who the true shareholder actually is.

The Customer Tells Us What to Do

Standing on the front lines growing this phenomenon that we call “Social Flights”, it is completely obvious that we exist as a response to the new power of diverse communities to be self-deterministic.  Communities tell us what they want – they are joining around a strategy of self-ownership, self-destiny, and self-management.

Travelers, operators, hospitality partners, and community entrepreneurs are organizing around a new economic paradigm called “regionalization of travel services” – this means that small towns want to connect directly with each other and avoid the hubs altogether – as well as the airlines and their valued shareholders.

Nothing else changes except the community – nothing else has to.

Social Flights offers an array of services from private jet “code sharing” to public charter air service, to leasing/operating air service exclusively for a community under their direction.  When people start discovering the amount of time wasted and calculating the value of that loss, the benefit private air service becomes more and more attractive.

Keep talking, we’re listening

Social Flights is preparing for release an important document which spells out the relationship that Social Flights seeks to create with private jet operators across the United States.

The document is a written specifically to operators of private aircraft fleets.  Our objective is to demonstrate how Social Flights can increase their fleet utilization, aircraft yields, and overall business success.

The first part of this paper begins with a discussion about empty legs and finishes with a discussion of all the ways that empty seats on empty legs can be converted to cash flow.

The second part of this document discusses the challenges of technology in aviation.  While airlines use big data to maximize their profits, the on-line travel agencies use big data to minimize airline profits.  The resulting game of cat and mouse creates pricing silos that distort markets.

Social Flights can convert your seats to cash flow one way or another, but cash flow nonetheless.  Social Flights restores consistency among the pricing silos so that travelers can compare true door-to-door value of a private flight vs. a commercial flight.  Social flights creates true transparency to increase the efficiency of the market.

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Travel is the most expensive advertising vertical in the world.  Airplanes act as market amplifiers for products, services, and events.  A great deal of marketing value can sit in those empty seats and there is no way for operators to convert that value to cash.  Social media is an amazing marketing tool that can amplify a message across a broad landscape where content is king and reputation is currency.

NextGen air traffic management will increase the number of airplanes that can occupy the airspace, but it does little for ground traffic or traveler comfort – yet this same technology will open smaller airports and private routes to private operators.  Social Flights will act like “code sharing” agreements that the airlines have adopted for years.

Finally; the door-to-door value of the Social Flights experience must include integration with ground transportation, hospitality, events, tourism boards, corporations, communities, and ultimately, economic development policy.  This is where the commercial airlines utterly fail in their profit calculations.

Social Flights air services will provide a platform of shared legs, shared inventory, and coordinate consistent route structures from a pool of operators and aircraft using the same yield management and fleet management principles of a large commercial airline. Social Flights brings these stakeholders to the table, converts their data to a shared value format, and provides a seamless  travel experience that is always unique, always fast, always luxurious, and always safe.

In return, we ask that operators provide Social Flights with data feed to their inventory.  This may require an operator to add a business process to their day-to-day activity, but it is our intention to be able to deliver far more value than what the operator invests.  In short, you will be able to calculate the ROI on your association with Social Flights.

Let’s fly together!

Google Search for the term "Jet Charter"

Google Think Insights is an amazing resource for looking at who is searching on certain terms, and from where.  This post shows two search categories and related terms from which we can draw several general ideas about private air travel.  These data demonstrates that an increasing amount of people are searching on terms such as private jet, jet charter, VIP travel, etc.

Another curious trend is the term “Jet Charter Cost” is also increasing significantly as people seek to find the value threshold for private air travel vs commercial air travel.

Recession or transition?

These data all refer to a date range between the dates of january 2008 and December 2011 corresponding to the greatest economic downturn in the US since the Depression.  There are likely many forces acting on the market including the pullout of commercial aviation from minor market, few travel alternatives,  increased usage of internet search technology, increased business travel needs, and upper class growth rates.

The increase in terms related to cost may suggest that even the most wealthy are becoming cost conscious, more people want to fly private, more businesses need to fly private in order to access their market, and more VIP travel is required.

It is not surprising that the term “business aviation” has a similar location density to the term “Jet Charter”.  This reinforces the suggestion that corporations increasingly need to send their executives on travel outings.

Social Flights is in the business of social organization too:

It is likely that wherever executives go, so too will managers and lower level employees.  Social Flights has long suggested that there is an opportunity to increase private charter shuttle service between key locations.  Likewise, there are opportunities for companies to share private aircraft scheduled to fly between regions.

Next we looked at the term “VIP Travel” and identified the following locations where the terms were searched.  We found a similar increase in VIP Travel related terms as we did for terms related to jet charter costs, except related to supporting services such as reservation, booking, schedules, and services.

This suggests that the door-to-door experience is underserved and that an air transportation service that is able to connect the dots would hold a true value advantage over one that just drops the passenger off at a hub airport.

Search terms are important because they indicate the intentions of a market.

While little is ever conclusive, the rate at which something changes can say more than the thing being observed alone.  At Social Flights, the demands of a dynamic market are clear.

1. Companies must have business travel options.

2. A door-to-door value proposition is essential.

3. People are searching online more than ever

4. The commercial airline industry leaves a market underserved.

Economic recessions have been shown to be more about technological transition and adjustment rather than any single underlying factor.  We believe that this transition will be no different.

Picture credit: Wealth Informatics

The race to the bottom that everyone has been watching in the airline price wars may have finally ended. All the frills have been extracted, all the expectations have been dashed, and the glamour of the jet-age has all the luster of a drive-in movie.  The bottom has been achieved.

The entire value chain, from airport taxes to hotel rooms and parking fees have happily stepped into the low-cost void, ready and willing to pick up the slack in airline prices.  The taxi from my house to Seattle Tacoma airport costs more than the airfare to San Francisco.  Three days of parking at the airport costs more than the taxi.  Off lot parking is not much better. God forbid that hunger arrives at it’s destination before you do.

Now watch the prices start slowly creeping upward as airlines come back leaner and meaner subsidized by the pensions of their workers in the post-bankruptcy glory of the deregulation act of 1978.   If American business has been accused of shortsightedness, the 25 year plan of the airline industry is pure brilliance – assuming it was a plan.

From USAToday:  

A new American Express Business Insights study finds that spending on first- and business-class airline tickets increased by 9.1% and 5.4%, respectively, in the third quarter. But on the ground, travelers spent more of their dollars — an additional 10.5% — on economy lodging vs. only 2.2% more on luxury hotel accommodations in that time.

There are likely several reasons for the shift in spending patterns.  Travelers are valuing the products on a “true value” basis.  The value of business class treatment and comfort exceeds the value of luxury accommodations.  Interesting.

The spending trend applies to traveling for business or leisure, the study indicates. ”It really speaks to the fact that (consumers are) so concerned about the airline experience that they’re willing to make the trade-off,” says Maryam Wehe, senior vice president of hospitality at Applied Predictive Technologies. 

How much would a business passenger justify to shorten the air travel portion by 50% while also eliminating two overnight stays?  At Social Flights, we can often provide a door-to-door travel experience that is 60% – 80% shorter in total time yet costs the exact same amount in dollar terms.  Guess what – that’s what Social Flights can do for you.  Social flights provides on-demand, direct, and comfortable private jet travel in a ride sharing form so that you get more travel for less money.

When I was a kid, S&H Green stamps were all the rage. Our kitchen drawer would barely close with the stamps and booklets and catalogs all centered around the stamping craze.  Stamps would be awarded at each stage of the value chain from the gas stations to the grocery store to the department store – every stop along the incentive route rewarded the traveler with stamps.  The business model was interesting, merchants bought the stamps from S&H and then gave them away at a rate commensurate with the amount of money they spent at the store.  The customer used them to buy prizes and discounts. S&H competed with everyone and no one.

The modern day version leaves little to the imagination – airports are a business.  They need to attract aircraft operators to fly scheduled routes.  Therefore, they need to also attract travelers to purchase those routes.  Some travelers have choices such as driving, taking a train, or using an alternate airport.  So airports need to beat two competitors – operators and passengers – with very few tangible arrows in their quill.

via Airports court fliers with rewards programs – USATODAY.com.

“Airports recognize that there is competition not only among airlines but also between airports,” says Debby McElroy, executive vice president of policy and external affairs for Airports Council International-North America. “Loyalty programs can help an airport stand out among its competitors.” The programs are typically free and offer fliers airline miles, prizes or discounts for parking, shopping, dining, or simply flying to and from the airport.

What if the airport could purchase travel stamps from a collective fund and distribute them in the community where people could earn them for using certain services?  The stamps could then be redeemed at the flight destination, or to waive airline fees, over time parking, penalty fees, or to make changes to an itinerary….basically, the stamps would buy away all of the little hassles, inconveniences, and volatility of the airline / travel experience.

Like it or not, the real competition for the airport is not the train the car, or a neighboring airport – it is the pain and harassment of flying.  It is very easy for people to make the decision to “not travel” – that is the true competition. If airports can make the experience pleasant and inviting, the traveler will come back over and over again.

Social Flights adopts the concept of superior customer service and seamless integration with ground support and hospitality services.  Our partners like us for bringing them happy and relaxed passengers.  We love our partners for the care and attention they give to our passengers.  Our operators prefer us because we are filling their planes and serving their best interest.  Passengers love us for a superior value in on-demand private jet and scheduled public jet charter.  In essence, there is an economy among our teams – we trade an invisible coupon that allows everyone to do what they are best at so that we can all get where we want to go.

All of us at Social Flights extend our deepest holiday wishes to all the people who have supported us during this our Launch year.  A lot has happened since February 2011.  We thought we should report to you what has been accomplished and some new developments underway:

Over 13,000 people have joined Social Flights Traveler’s Network receiving unlimited access to the following services:    

• Over 90 Private Charter Operators have joined the Social Flights platform.
• Over 500 aircraft are available in the Social Flights Virtual Fleet.
• Social Flights website can now deliver an instant auto quote under our “Create a Flight” option.
• Social Flights Allows you to embed our quoting feature in your website
• Social Flights Developed a full suite of Community Airline services for small cities that are losing – or never had – airline service.
• Social Flights allows members to create alerts to desired locations or invitations to join a flight formation.
• Social Flights assures privacy with our internal networking features which are never released to the public domain.

Beginning next year:

• Social Flights will expand scheduled public jet charter service through the community airline program to smaller markets and even “stranded” communities.
• Social Flights will expand one-way flight program from 100 per day to over 1000 per day
• Social Flights is building out the affinity travel and social jet charter service to include colleges, Sports, concerts, conventions, events, tourism, and family travel.
• Our Elite Travel Services division will initiate international social jet charter service between the US and China as well as Latin America.

To our Partners:

Our partner network is growing to include hotels, Concierge services, tour operators, marketing firms, Facebook page owners, event managers, and economic development agencies.

Our partner network will continue to grow to serve the traffic that we now steadily deliver hassle-free to your communities.

These are the highlights off the accomplishments this year and some insider information on what to expect next year. 

If you are a traveler please invite your friends and colleagues to share a jet.  If you are a community or event organizer, please keep in mind that we are here to serve you and your community travel needs.  If you are a certified aircraft operator, let us help you increase utilization of your inventory.  If you are a hospitality or experience service provider, please let us help you build travel packages around the freedom of flight.