Plane Conversations

A vertical market (often referred to simply as a “vertical”) is a group of similar businesses and customers that engage in trade based on specific and specialized needs.  Vertical marketing can be witnessed at trade shows. Obviously, the term “vertical” has important implications for the aviation industry and I could not help myself from playing with these words.

At Social Flights, we are constantly researching methods and systems that will cause “the value game” to spin freely.  In quick review, the value game involves the 4 pillars (again, verticals) of our business plan; the operators, the travelers, hospitality industry, and the entrepreneurial community must come together around the shared aircraft.

One of the key elements is finding the skill set for hundreds of entrepreneurs “community organizers” that we will deploy to geographic areas to help fill private airplane inventory in both directions (to fill primary and empty legs). The more that we study this very important community role, the more we realize that the skill set is most dependent on knowledge of vertical (there’s that word again) markets.

Verticals

For example;  We seek to find someone with a great deal of knowledge of the national wedding planner industry who can access the data from all wedding planners and combine it with the data from the Social Flights Network.  Our algorithms will determine matches and the community organizer will create the flights.  Similar Verticals include Life event, holiday, and funeral Industry.

Professional Event:  We also seek people with strong ties to a University where we could locate aircraft to suit predictable needs such as alumni weekend, spring break, intercollegiate tournaments, academic recruitment, and vip lecturers.  The person who can manage this type of relationship can earn a significant amount of revenue on a residual basis for managing and maintaining the relationship.  Similar verticals would include professional events, industry events, and retreats.

Corporate Travel Vertical: More and more companies are looking for ways to save costs on jet ownership while also avoiding the commercial aviation system.  When we look at the data, a significant proportion of travel is going to the same places; i.e., remote offices, branches, production facilities or meeting long term customers and sources.  A person who is familiar with the travel needs of corporations can make an extraordinary income with Social Flights.

So let this be a call to action for entrepreneurs and travelers alike.  Look at your network.  Do you command respect and influence in your vertical?  Are you looking for a way to earn residual income for your social, creative, and intellectual knowledge assets?  Are you good with numbers and can you spot the arbitrage opportunities in raw data?  Then maybe you should consider an affiliate relationship or franchise ownership with Social Flights.

After all, the opportunities are…well….vertical.

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.