Plane Conversations

I recently had the opportunity to be part of an interview with Fleet Aviation executives Doug Brennan (CEO) and Ellen Sluder (Director of Marketing) about how, in a murky aviation market, they are successfully growing their aircraft charter business.

The business model behind this White Plains, New York, based company is simply offering complete travel solutions to the customer that is price competitive, safe, comfortable, convenient and environmentally friendly.  It’s what all of the aviation industry wish to do.  These guys have a solid history of success since 2005 and are offering a better solution to the business traveler.

So who is Fleet Aviation?  And what is their secret?  Well, it’s not really a secret at all.  Fleet Aviation provides on-demand charter service in small aircraft anywhere within 500 miles of the Greater New York City and Boston areas.   At Plane Conversations, from time to time we like to compare the different experience of riding on a corporate or private jet, with the experience of travelling on the airlines.  It’s our business, and we love to share with the market what a wonderful experience flying private is.  Well, the small aircraft offers the same experience.  Being a student pilot and flying in a two-seat Cessna 152 with less than desirable elbow room, I can fully appreciate the comfort level of flying in a four or six seat aircraft; whether it has one engine or two.  And these aircraft are not only comfortable and modern, but they are also fun, safe, and can get into any of the 5000 small airports in the US.  Only 500 are available to the airlines.  So it’s easy to figure out the time and cost advantage of chartering a single-engine aircraft. 

But what is the experience like?  Ellen Sluder says, “The experience of flying Fleet starts well before you arrive at the airport for your trip. You can either reserve online or call our concierge service. Once you have confirmed, you get a personalized itinerary that includes the name and phone number of your pilot. Should there be any concerns or questions, you can always call us or the pilot directly.  When it is time for the trip, you can drive right out onto the tarmac and your car will be valet parked and washed for your return. You step out of your car, hand your pilot your bags, climb right into the plane and can be taxiing in 5 minutes. Skip the crowds, lines and connections associated with major airlines. And, because you are flying private, we are completely on your schedule – if you arrive a few minutes late, we simply wait for you.”

Fleet Aviation keeps a clear business focus on regional travelers and aiming to attract a new market -those who might not have ever thought about aircraft charter.

Face to face is important for Fleet Aviation, but the social media trend has clearly started to penetrate the aviation industry.  “I fully believe that Social Media should be about getting feedback and creating a discussion.  ”Engaging” in the truest sense of the word”,Ellen says. ”Ultimately, I’d love to get to the point where I’m generating hundreds of hits and interactions – driving people to our website and getting actionable feedback.  But for now, the focus is really twofold: to provide fodder for folks who are doing due-diligence on Fleet Aviation, and use it as a tool for education.  We want to challenge the conventional thinking on regional travel. I read upwards of 30 blogs a day, and sift through to find topics I think would resonate and be relevant to regional travelers and then put the private aviation spin on it. Sometimes it’s about highlighting destinations that are best reached through private flying, sometimes it’s commentary on the current system”. 

To visit the great folks at Fleet Aviation, go to:  www.flyfleet.com

“With Fleet, it’s smooth, simple and straightforward, from booking to landing.”

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(Author’s note: The following is meant to engage new ideas rather than promote any specific scheme or ideology)

Given the events of the last few months weeks, it’s time to for the aviation industry to get serious with Social Media. This article demonstrates how an alternate currency can be used to severely reduce or eliminate terrorist risk in commercial aviation. Think I’m kidding, read on.

Obviously an airline will not let you board an airplane if you don’t have the financial currency sufficient to buy ticket. Why should an airline let you board an airplane if you do not have social currency sufficient to fulfill your social obligations while in the air?

People with extreme social currency deficiencies are routinely stripped of their rights by a jury of peers and isolated from society for a period of time (where they would not board an airplane anyway). While there are many systems in place to manage the various degrees of social currency deficiency, none appear to be able to identify a terrorist without also violating the rights of non-terrorists.

Human Writes

However, many people are willing to share information about themselves to associates with whom an economic benefit is shared or exchanged. This happens a billion times per week on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter – why not among fellow passengers? After all everyone is already connected by six degrees.

What would a terrorist’s Facebook profile say about them? Do they have a lot of referrals on Linkedin? Do they post great work on Flikr? Is their community orchestra featured on My Space? Are their posts popular on twitter?

Should a social currency credit score become imperative to social transactions as the financial credit score is for financial transactions?

Banks and Insurance companies already rely on a highly invasive “Credit Score” to establish financial risk profile as a means of protecting themselves and their other clients. Why wouldn’t an airline use a social credit score to establish a social risk profile as a means of protecting themselves and the lives of their other clients?

Ruse and lose

Sure, the bad guys can adapt to social media as they have adapted to all other measures. The problem is that the greater the size and scope of their social media ruse, the more difficult it is to maintain the ruse. A threshold score could be set to nearly eliminate this possibility. Those folks can then simply opt into the full body scan.

The Paradigm Shift

As the saying goes, the attacker needs to be successful only once, while the defender needs to be successful every time. The concept of a Social media credit score flips this paradigm on it’s head. The attacker’s social credit score needs to be successful every time. The defender needs to be successful only once.

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As the economy has slowed down,Americans have reduced spending in many areas of their lives.  But one thing that has remained high on the list of priorities is to have at least one vacation each year.

So, for the aviation enthusiast, I have found some great aviation related destinations to visit.  Even if you’re not into all things that fly, these are just “plane” cool places to visit.  Here are my top pick destinations for flights of fancy: 

Hotel Costa Verde’s Boeing 727 Fuselage Suite
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

This suite is a salvaged airframe of a 1965 Boeing 727.  It was transported in pieces from a San Jose aircraft graveyard, to the jungles of Manuel Antonio.  With a breath of fresh life, this aircraft has now been resurrected into a meticulously detailed, two bedroom suite, perched on a 50 foot pedestal to take in the stunning views of the Costa Verde II area in Costa Rica.  But it is nothing like a regular 727 inside the fuselage.  It features teak paneling from the cockpit to the tail, two bedrooms, each with their own bathroom and flat screen TVs.  I think I would most enjoy sipping wine on the wing terrace, while taking in the ocean views and watching the monkeys, toucans and sloths in the lush surrounding treetops. http://www.costaverde.com/727.html

The Museum of Flight

Seattle, Washington

The Museum of Flight showcases a collection of more than 150 historic air and spacecraft and related artifacts in unique and inspiring exhibits. Walk in the footsteps of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon on their presidential 707 jet, see the world’s fastest jetliner - the Concorde, as well as other exhibits such as The Museum of Flight Tower at Boeing Field, Space: Exploring the New Frontier, The Montgolfier Brothers’ Balloon, and World War II Fighters.

Open now and running until May 2010 is the popular exhibit In Search of Amelia Earhart.  The Museum of Flight says it has  brought together resources from around the country for this new exhibit about the remarkable life and times of famous American pilot, Amelia Earhart. It features many of her original personal artifacts, as well as photos and newsreel footage”.

http://www.museumofflight.org/

Fighter Jet Experience at Thunder City

Cape Town, South Africa

If you’ve ever dreamed of experiencing the thrill of a lifetime in a fighter jet (that is, head out to sea at a speed of close to 650 miles per hour just 50 feet above the water: your  limits and sortie profile are determined purely by your ability to handle them, then go vertical), then Thunder City is a destination you must visit. Ok, so it’’s in Cape Town, South Africa!  But this is your one vacation a year, right?  Why not zoom over the point where the Indian and Atlantic points meet?  Fly up the coastline of some of the world’s most stunning beaches.Climb high over Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain.  And do it all in the most exciting and graceful combat jets.  Thunder City’s jets include the world’s only flying English Electric Lightnings, Bae Buccaneers, and Hawker Hunter jets.  Choose from a variety of jet flight profiles; ultra high, supersonic, aerobatic, surface-hugging, formation or a combination of these.  Then spend the rest of your vacation recovering from adrenalin overload by enjoying the diverse and unforgettable offerings of Cape Town.  http://www.thundercity.co.za/

If you’re only going on one vacation this year, why not make it a completely unique experience that you can take with you for life!

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We have done a considerable amount of thinking lately about the role mainstream (or traditional) media and advertising plays in our industry of private aircraft travel.  What are they (the media) saying about us? What are we saying about us?  What is the value of advertising in traditional media?  How do we track the effectiveness and measure return on investment for the advertising dollars we spend?

That last question posed is something that has been bugging me for a long time.  After years of running a business and trying to spend dollars wisely to promote our business, I can tell you that, to date, not one single advertising salesperson has really answered that question for me.

Before I was recently introduced to the world of social media and the tools that it brings with it, I had never seen a media form that we could use to bring customers to us and really know how good we are doing at attracting them by its use.  We have always thought ourselves pretty adept at getting our message out through the traditional press – news print and television news, but we have been at the mercy of the mainstream media’s perceived level of interest in our story of the day.  They controlled when they talked about us, what they said about us and whether they decided to say anything about us at all.  And what about readership, shelf life and viewer ratings?  In the old world order, you had to catch it on the evening news or read the Friday business section to see what the media had to said about general aviation.

Not anymore.  Unleash the power of the blog, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other platforms that seem to be growing out of nowhere daily and we now have the opportunity to speak for ourselves.  We must communicate well because, if we don’t, then who can we blame for messing it up?  Furthermore, if we don’t listen to the feedback from the market, and make the communication a two-way street, we might wake up and find ourselves grounded due to lack of interest.

We are in an exciting and dynamic business that can change the way people spend their most valuable commodity – time. People want what he have to offer, but at a better price!  Technological innovation will drive down costs.  Innovation on how we deliver our service will drive down costs. Innovation on how the market finds us and buys from us will drive down price. Less wasteful spending on advertising results in a lower cost model.

Are we in business aviation up to the challenge of changing our way of doing business by communicating to the market with the new media available? The mainstream media forms never did serve us well, and besides, they are in a fight for their own survival.

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