Plane Conversations

Frontier Airlines�recently announced it�s dropping nonstop service from Milwaukee to six cities, cutting the number of daily flights nearly in half. Effective in April, the airline will end direct flights to Grand Rapids, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Newark. Frontier�s daily departures will be reduced from 32 to 18.

While Social Flights is announcing new air service between Milwaukee, Branson, Nashville, and Austin – Frontier Airlines is announcing the reduction of services and staff from Milwaukee. �The following report from media FOX6now and Milwaukee Business Journal�highlight some of the local implications, impacts, broken promises and lost dreams.

According to a notice filed Monday with the�Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the layoffs are expected to occur in April. The notice states that 230 of the employees are flight crew members who will be reassigned to bases outside of Milwaukee.

230 of the 446 layoffs will be reassigned – as will their families, their children will move out of school, houses will be liquidated in a poor RE market, and communities will lose trust anchors.�The new cuts are on top of�Frontier�s decision last fall to eliminate routes to eight other destinations.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett released a statement Monday after these layoffs were announced, saying: �The loss of 500 jobs is a setback for the region.� My hope is that other airlines will step in and fill the void in this critically important market.�

Frontier is leaving Milwaukee for reasons that would also hold for every other airline; fuel prices, labor prices, large jets, corporate ROI thresholds, etc. �Meanwhile, Social Flights operates under public charter regulations organizing local private operators and supports them with modern aircraft allowing communities to access important hubs as well as sister cities (such as Grand Rapids).

The Community Remembers the promises:

�When that whole deal was made, when Republic bought Midwest and Frontier, there were all these promises made to Milwaukee that they were not only going to keep the service here, but that they were going to bring in hundreds and hundreds of jobs,� Rovito said.

Instead, nearly 800 positions have been cut since November, and the most recent wave of cuts will move more than 200 jobs out of Milwaukee, while completely getting rid of another 200. �Just on its face, it�s really bad news for Milwaukee travelers,� Rovito said.

Who holds the cards?

Communities go through great efforts to attract air service from promising yields to providing public infrastructure to enduring noise and traffic – the airlines take this completely for granted.

Fewer flights means it will be more difficult for travelers to get to their destinations, and also likely more expensive. �It was a convenient flight for me in this particular instance,� Scott Sowa, who was on a Frontier flight heading to Grand Rapids, said. �I would hate to lose that convenience.�

Apparently, communities are not what Frontier needs to remain profitable. �They no longer need Milwaukee because they found business elsewhere. �They are an airline – they can go elsewhere…. they are not a community.

Where communities are the contingency plan

In a statement, the company says: �The reduction in service is another step in our continued effort to ensure that�Frontier�is a competitive and sustainably profitable airline.�

In other words, ‘Their survival is contingent upon your loss – not your gain.’�FOX6 tried to get in touch with someone from Frontier Airlines Monday, but our calls were unreturned.

Debbie Miller is a social media and hospitality blogger who recently outlined some social media efforts of airlines.  Her analysis is important for two reasons;  first, it demonstrates how the industry can use social media to communicate with travelers and their network of friends and family.

Second, it demonstrates how communities respond to social media inputs; what works and what does not.

Luggage Tracking

Delta Airlines implemented a system for travelers to track their checked baggage. Via the airline carrier’s iPhone app, guests are able to monitor the whereabouts of their luggage at all times. [response unknown]

Influencer Events

In the fall, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan’s leading airline carrier, announced that its “Inspiration of Japan” service brand would be introduced to the Los Angeles-Narita (Tokyo) route beginning in January.  [ANA is threw a big party through social media resulting in 5.4 Million brand impressions]

Choose Your Seat Mate

Recently, Royal Dutch airline KLM announced a new program called “Meat and Seat,” allowing people to choose who they might sit next to on a flight by viewing other travelers’ social media profiles. [Reaction remains mixed]

15 Minute Flights

Last summer, a bridge over LA’s popular 405 Freeway was set to be demolished, leaving a significant portion of highly-trafficked highway to be closed for a weekend in July.  As a result, JetBlue Airlines decided to offer $4 flights from Long Beach to Burbank and vice versa on Saturday.  [surpassed all expectations and all flights sold out in 3 hours.]

Building a company on Social Media:

Meanwhile, Social Flights is building the company on Social Media – and we are learning many new things.  Today we have over 14,000 registered users, over 90 private operators representing 500 aircraft.  We have dozens of partners who want to service our travelers.

Social Flights has opened flights between Branson, Milwaukee, Austin, and Nashville.  We have flown Football, NASCAR, and Corporate passengers as well as VIPs, Celebrities, and politicians.  Apparently, our  social media design is working well.

Lessons learned

Ideally, we would like to have a person on the ground in each location to interpret data related to that location to proactively match supply and demand.   This person would be able to nudge a community toward the private air service option and educate them to the value proposition.

Now comparing our experience with the airline experience cited above, there are several similarities;

• Each seeks to distinguish themselves by introducing a scalable service
• They operate in a hyper-local domain.

In other words, they seek to improve the travel experience and they have someone on the ground meeting a local need.  Those are the activities that work best.

The use of social media in air service industry is still very new, but already we can see important trends for social media usage in air service industries

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.

Time to iron your favorite jersey, slap some war paint on and dust off that foam finger: March Madness is about to begin! Whether you’re an NCAA Basketball superfan or a casual bystander, everyone can get swept up in the magic and drama of the Big Dance.

The trouble with trying to see a game, is that nobody knows who will be eliminated and when.  So you can’t book airline tickets to a final four game 4 weeks in advance because you don’t know if your team will be there at the chosen venue.  Airlines can’t add seats to a route 4 weeks in advance either because they don’t know where the fans are flying from.  This invariably means a March Madness Rush for transportation, hotels, rental cars, vacation days, both going to and coming home from the game.

Fear Not!

Social Flights has over 90 partner operators with over 500 aircraft evenly distributed across the United States.  As soon as you know your team will be in the series, you and your friends can book a private jet to the game.  The airplane will take you to the game, wait while you watch, and bring you home the same day for a price that will surprise you.  No missed work days, and not fighting for a hotel room, and no rental cars.  You can party all the way out and all the way back.  Priceless.

Give us a call, let’s build your strategy.  You call the shots and let Social Flights deliver you to all the March Madness without all the madness

March madness schedule

Social Flights will soon release Part 2 of the Operators Whitepaper.  Part 1 identified the intrinsic value of private aviation to a travel market.  Part 2 will identify some of the technology challenges of integrating with the mainstream travel community.

In short, the next step for private aviation is to integrate with the mainstream market while offering seamless transition with other technologies and transportation modes. The following is a summary of Part 2.

The Technology Challenge

Technology is encroaching on every aspect of the travel industry from on-line travel agencies to Next Generation Air Traffic Management.  It is no longer sufficient to have a great looking website, the data that private operators collects and distributes must be compatible with all other services that support the customer long before and long after they cross your threshold.

Compatibility of Pricing

One example is in compatibility of pricing; private airplanes are priced by the flight-hours imposed on a private aircraft. However,  commercial airplanes are priced by the market availability of seats.  There is no way for the customer to compare these two travel options; as such, these markets are segmented by price incompatibility.  The trend is increasing through the unbundling of services like baggage fees and check in fees and convenience fees, hotel, and car rentals contracts, discount coupons, etc.

True Value / Time Value

A vastly neglected aspect of travel is called True Value. For example; the cost of traveling to a hub airport often exceeds the cost of the airline ticket.  The time waiting for TSA screening and connecting flights often exceeds the in-route flight time.  The total transit time often exceeds the time that the traveler needs to be at the location.  Weekend travel is impossible without extra hotel stays and missing one or two days of work.  Time is money.  Lost opportunity is money. Life is short.

Alternate Technologies

Alternate technologies such as mobile connectivity and social media drive different migration patters of people, business and entertainment. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google offer alternate ways for people to communicate in lieu of travel, but they also expose more people to more places that are less accessible by commercial aviation.

The Integration

Today, the travel market is segmented in information silos where companies hoard information in the name of competitive advantage.  However, when prices are comparable, the market can apply a time/value formula where alternate technologies enhance the value of travel.  Then, and only then can the entire door-to-door travel experience can be fully integrated in an efficient market where everyone playing the travel game shares information, combines services, and collaborate in the best interest of the customer.

It’s a game, let’s have fun

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.

A visualization of Human Edits to Wikipedia where each color represents a different page

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal January 30, 2012 online edition: The Coming Tech-led Boom, identifies three technologies that will have as profound an impact on the world as electrification, telephony, and the dawn of the automobile age.

Even as we all see these technologies approaching, much like our 20th century contemporaries, most people cannot even begin to grasp the implications.  One thing is certain, industries that are unable to adapt, will not survive in their current state.

Social Flights is Flying into the next century with eyes wide open

From Wall Street Journal:

In January 2012, we sit again on the cusp of three grand technological transformations with the potential to rival that of the past century. All find their epicenters in America: big data, smart manufacturing and the wireless revolution.

Big Data and Wireless Technology

Big Data is at the core of some of what have become the most disruptive innovations of our time. Processing power, data storage, and data transmission are almost free.  The handheld device has more computing power than the supercomputers the 1970s.  The internet is moving into the cloud and away from the so called desk-top. All data is converging to a single place where it can be accessed and combined in countless ways.  Every second of every day creates an astonishing amount of empirical data that creates an unimaginable diversity of information and new knowledge.

At thge top of the food chain is Social media creating data – data does not create social media.  Data is made by people; data does not make people. People create, data does not, etc.  Likewise for most services in the next century; people will determine where airplanes fly – airplanes will no longer determine where people will can go.

A hub airport does little more than sort people and planes.  At Social Flights we use data to sort people and planes.  What if we could replace infrastructure with data? All this would take is for communities to “perform a simple calculation” among themselves.  Nothing is stopping this from happening today.  

From Wall Street Journal

The implications of the radical collapse in the cost of wireless connectivity are as big as those following the dawn of telegraphy/telephony. Coupled with the cloud, the wireless world provides cheap connectivity, information and processing power to nearly everyone, everywhere. This introduces both rapid change [and great opportunity].

Many people don’t understand how this could happen but Social Flights sees the possibility everyday, for example:  A handheld device will become the hub, the scheduling agent, the point of purchase, and the boarding pass – all with a swipe across the “reality augmented” sky.  The data already exists that can determine how many people from any point on earth intend to travel to any other point on earth and when.  Putting these data sets together creates a remarkably different landscape for air travel … and commerce in general.

Social Flights in new.  Social Flights is visionary – anyone who joins us on this voyage will be joining a revolution much greater than simply a ride sharing service. The point should be crystal clear - Social media creates data, data does not create social media.

Understand this, and you will understand Social Flights.   

Sasquatch! Music Festival is a music festival held annually at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. It is presented by the House of Blues. There is an emphasis on indie rock bands and singer-songwriters, although there are also alternative rock, hip hop and comedy acts. The festival features four separate stages (Sasquatch! Main Stage, Bigfoot Stage, Rumpus Room, & Yeti Stage). (Wikipedia).  The 2012 event will be held on Memorial day weekend: May 25-May 29.  The line up will be announced February 2, 2012

The Gorge Amphitheatre is a 20,000+ seat concert venue, located above the Columbia River in George, Washington. It offers lawn-terrace seating and concert-friendly weather.

Administered by Live Nation, it is considered one of the premier and most scenic concert locations not just in North America, but the world. The venue has been a host to big name performers like The Who, David Bowie, Coldplay, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and Phish. The venue offers sweeping and majestic views of the Columbia River, as well as extreme eastern Kittitas County and extreme western Grant County. It is also known for its spectacular views of the Columbia gorge canyon.

The Gorge is well over 3 hours away from Seattle or Spokane by car and absolutely no non-stop commercial service anywhere closer.  In order to attend a concert at the Gorge from anywhere, outside of driving distance, would cost quadruple the airfare because you will need to rent a car for a week, you will need to stay at a hotel for two extra nights and you will lose one or two days of work traveling.  This place is seriously hard to get to.

Social Flights can deliver you and your friends within miles of The Gorge for your concert.  Our private jets can pick you and your group up wherever you live in North America, and then wisk you back to your home on any day you choose.  The flight itself will be beautiful as you pass over the Rockies or the Cascade Mountain Ranges.  Or, you’ll follow the Pacific Coastline then cross the  amazing colors through South Eastern Washington.  Add to the the spectacular sunset and lightshow and you are in for an unforgettable event.

General admission tickets are about $250.00 for the 4 day event.  However VIP accommodations can range from $1000.00 up to $5000.000 per pair with pristine views and luxury tent.  Let Social Flights help you celebrate the music event of a lifetime in one of the most beautiful venues in the world.

Economic Development is on everyone’s minds as people realize that their local economy can have a dramatic impact on the their position in the next largest markets.   Now, data is converging so rapidly with the travel experience that opportunities for unique locations to provide unique experiences are truly profound.

From Wikipedia:

Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area. Such actions can involve multiple areas including development of human capital, critical infrastructure, regional competitiveness, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, health, safety, literacy, and other initiatives. Economic development differs from economic growth.

Look at the photo above and the Wikipedia entry below it.  It is literally possible to visualize ALL economic indicators in a single flash of an IPhone.  Human capital cannot readily organize without education, transportation, clean environment, social inclusion, safety, and health services.  A community desirable to its citizens is a community desirable to its markets.

This goes without saying for cities that have grown to a size where major airports have become almost a scourge – many of these cities themselves began as a cross roads for land, water, or train transportation in their respective histories.  Efficient air transportation without the “crossroads”  may hold a distinct economic advantage for communities where the access to economic information is equalized by the Internet.  In other words, all things being equal, travelers will prefer a location that is relevant, pristine, uncrowded, and welcoming.

Social Flights is pioneering the concept of the Community Airline, specifically termed “Public Charter”.  The idea is simple; there is very little that a major airline can do for a small community that a small community cannot do for itself, better, faster, cheaper, and without sacrificing safety – all within the existing regulatory environment.  Social Flights can help communities to acquire, maintain, market, and operate modern aircraft which can be deployed on a schedule that suits the community priorities.

Look at the picture again – this is the mural upon which communities will define themselves in the digital age. Social Flights provides all the economic development benefits of an airline without the burdens of a hub airport

“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