Plane Conversations

“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

An airplane moves people and connects them with other people and things.

The internet connects people and moves things.

Airplane operators know that using aircraft can be an expensive proposition. Use of the internet is free. If you combined something expensive with something free what happens?

Do Private Jet Operators Understand The Implications?

There has been a saying in the private jet business: If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it. People who use private jets generally haven’t hunted for the best prices because it’s a status thing. These two statements used to be foundational truths in the private aviation business. But things are changing.

There are a finite number of wealthy people and/or corporations who desire to own or use a private jet regardless of the cost. Most charter operators have chased all the wealthy people for a sale so operators end up chasing the same customer over and over. Even the wealthy are feeling the economic pitch and shareholders are questioning the cost of and need for private aircraft.  Now charter operators are being pressured to justify and lower their cost. Cost has become transparent thanks to the internet.  Yet most operators do not fully understand the implications of transparency and social technology on old business models and methods.

What Are The Implications?

Business travelers and affluent individuals are becoming disenchanted with commercial flights, crowded airports, flight delays, and inconvenient schedules. These travelers are looking for alternatives to save time and reduce the hassles of commercial air travel. So they go to the internet to examine private aviation alternatives. What do they find and see?  At most, Web.1.0!

When you do a search for “private jets” or “private aviation” what comes up on the first page are listings of jet brokers (those that don’t operate or own any jets). You also see lots of references to “cost per hour, fractional jets and a host of other terms that are foreign to buyers”.

So let’s say someone decides to click on any of the links. They end up on a static web page with pretty pictures of expensive jets and self- proclaimed accolades of how great this company is then an 800 number to call for a quote.

So if someone looking for an alternative to commercial air travel hasn’t already lost interest in their search then the next step is to actually make a call. Then someone answers the call and begins asking questions to the caller of which the caller has no idea what they are talking about. Not wanting to sound stupid the caller fakes their way through the dialog expecting to get a quote at the end of the call. Instead the broker/operator says “can I have your email or number so I can get back to you?”

If the buyer agrees it then takes the broker/operator at least half a dozen phone calls, faxes, or emails, before you can get a charter estimate which may or may not be correct. Then the operator/broker emails you the quote of which has so many disclaimers and its format doesn’t make any sense to the buyer. All this, and you have not boarded the plane yet.   Besides that all he buyer wanted to know is what is my seat cost and what I get for it.

By now operators are reading this saying “You don’t understand our business model, we don’t sell seats we sell jets”.  To which I would say “I know but every jet has a certain number of seats and the total cost is represented by a cost per seat, full or not.”

Broken Business Models

According to a Forrester’s recent report, there are about 53.8 Million socially engaged eBusiness travelers in the United States alone. A new market opportunity for private aviation. It’s all about the passenger – they have the money.

Certainly not all 53.8 million business travelers would consider private aviation as an alternative travel option. But let’s say 1% would which means 53,000 potentially new customers.

The private aviation industry couldn’t imagine having 53 thousand new customers because their mindsets are frozen in old business models and expensive archaic operating processes.  Today’s charter revenues barely cover the aircraft management and operational costs, and almost never reach levels necessary to cover an aircraft’s cost of ownership. At the same time in the charter world an aircraft flies empty 40% to 60% of the time.  What a waste!

It is time for a revolution in innovative private aviation business models if the industry wants to capture the significant growth opportunity fueled by demand from disgruntled business travelers looking for viable alternatives.

Old mindsets are saying “You don’t understand how we operate”. My response is “You don’t understand how to change the way you operate”.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson “Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you‘re saying.”

Stay tuned for “What Would Jet 3.0 Look Like?”

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There’s an old song from the World War II generation that says, “Wishing will make it so…”.  Buddy DeSylva’s lyrics speak of hope, optimism, and belief.  Yet wishing can’t give you more hours in a day, or more productivity while travelling, or access to places difficult to reach.

Flying can make it so.

That being said, we need to tell our stories, ways that aviation assists us daily in carrying on our various activities and work.  This is partially because we gain strength and synergy when we see that there are others much like us who know and understand the real benefit of flying.  This doesn’t have to be a $20million dollar corporate jet.  It can be as simple as a Diamond DA-40.  It’s the story of the DA-40 that I want to pass on to you today.

Last week our company’s CEO, VP of Sales, and I took a DA-40 to visit a customer in Jonesboro, AR.  We then had a pop-up visit with a lead in Little Rock, AR.  We then lunched in Tunica, MS on our way home (no gambling, just food) and returned home in time for a local Chamber event in our hangar.

The plane, by business aircraft  norms, was really modest.  In fact, a LearJet pilot teased me as I preflighted my plane parked next to his.  The only refreshments were in the small cooler I packed with green tea, water, and peanut butter crackers on my way to the airport that morning.   The only in-flight entertainment was an iPad.   And the air conditioning?  On this 97+ degree day, it was inoperative.  So we climbed until we felt comfortable at 60 or so degrees at 7,000 feet.

And yet, even in this basic small aircraft we were able to condense over 14 hours of drive time into 6.2 flight hours.  Had we driven we would have certainly been out overnight in order to drive and have time for our meetings.  And while it was a long day, it was an easy day.  So we made our rounds, saw our clients, and returned before dark.

Yes, aircraft are fun.  Some aircraft are luxurious.  Some aircraft are expensive and some are not.  But for the businesses that operate them, they are tools.  Their value in time savings and multiplied productivity is astonishing.

Flying can make it so.

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This is déjà vu all over again.  By now I would have thought our Congress would have come up with a long term funding authorization for a very critical part of our nation’s infrastructure.  All of us under the big umbrella of aviation (airlines and GA) don’t agree all of the time but for once we all agree to the necessity of funding the FAA and the development of airports and Next Gen air traffic control systems.  We have even accepted the idea that fuel taxes will go up to help fund these initiatives.

ATW online reports that our Congress just passed the 20^th short term extension for funding the FAA.  That’s right, 20 extensions.  If I ran my business finances like that I would have been fired a long time ago.  Somehow our nation’s lawmakers can’t agree to get anything done about this yet no one seems to hold them accountable.

Quoting from the article “FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, Airports Council International-North America and airport directors around the US have been saying for some time that uncertainty over FAA funding, particularly the Airport Improvement Program that helps finance expansion programs, is causing disruptions to airport construction projects (ATW’s Airports Today, Oct. 5, 2010). “For over three-and-a-half years we’ve been operating on extensions,” Babbitt noted during a recent speech. “It’s been very difficult to run an agency on extensions … We need to restore long-term stability to funding.”

In addition to the disruption of airport construction projects and the stall in developing Next Gen, the FAA has basically shut down the certification of new Airlines and Charter operators. So how do we create any new jobs in our industry if startups can’t start? Those of us already flying are also having trouble getting anything done with an agency that doesn’t know where their next dollar is coming from.

The Democratic controlled Senate and the Republican controlled House can’t seem to figure this out. But this goes back to before the Republicans got control of the house. So it seems that doing nothing about an important issue is the way it goes these days in Washington DC.

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This is my son, Robby. (He’s number three of four, and yes, I am extremely blessed.) He’s five, and he’s going to start kindergarten this year.

This picture was taken in the back of my dad’s Beech Baron 55. From time to time, I’ve also let him sit at the controls of a KC-135, C-17, King Air (C-12), T-38, F-16, and many others.

Robby looks at airplanes with awe and wonder.  When one flies over, he looks up and stares at it. Then he will look at me seriously and tell me it’s Southwest–even if it’s a Cessna Skyhawk–because he is trying to act like his big brother Blake (who can identify Southwest).

When Robby is flying in an airplane, he looks down at the world below–everything is so small, yet the world is so much bigger–and he is amazed.

I love to share the wonder of aviation, the joy of flying, with Robby, with each of my children.  In turn, they love to hear stories of the superhuman feats that I’ve accomplished in airplanes: Setting a world record by dropping seventy two thousand pounds of NASA solid rocket booster out the back of a C-17 or pulling 6g’s or going straight up in an F-16 at Mach 1.3.  (That’s really fast in case you were counting.) Or doing a spin in a T-6A Texan II. Or flying in formation with six other transports–that’s over two million pounds of cargo carrying airplanes–and doing a tactical descent at 20,000 feet per minute. (Okay, it was slightly less than 20,000 fpm, because that descent rate is the max limit.)  Or the story about how I greased it on the runway at the end of a twenty six hour day–from Sydney to Honolulu to Detroit–a landing so soft that the baby in the back didn’t even wake after fighting a twenty knot crosswind all the way down the ILS.

You and I know that these are the kinds of things that pilots of all kinds do every day. That doesn’t matter. To Robby, to the unfamiliar, flying is magic.

Robby doesn’t understand the “flight or fight” or “no plane no gain” slogans. He doesn’t understand the bottom line or return on investment or profitability.  (Incidentally, I like flying and aviation and those videos put me to sleep.)

He does understand superheroes.  That’s why Cessna’s poster series was genius.  

We need stories, not stats. We want to be inspired, not lectured.  You won’t convince anyone with balance sheets or P&L statements.  

But if we can tell a story…

Like that baby in the back that slept through the best landing ever. It was a medevac mission.  Mom and Dad may not remember what kind of plane it was or know how much it cost. But they know how it changed their lives when they saw the pediatric heart specialist the next day.

And that executive who was worried about the bottom line when he hopped in the Learjet early that day is probably thinking more about eating dinner with his wife and kids than his discouragement over not getting the big deal.

Or that factory in Alabama and the forty people who get to work tonight, earn a paycheck, because the supplier flew the part in on the company Bonanza.  

The lives we touch–the countless multitudes of people who haven’t flown on and don’t fly and will never fly in a business jet or an experimental aircraft or even an SR22–when we touch their lives, that’s what makes us superheroes.

If we can tell those stories about the people whose lives aviation changes…then aviation will change lives.

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This post first appeared on 4.26.11 in CS&A Insurance blog – Clear on Top

How do we determine is something is dangerous?  Is there a universally known definition or just a matter of opinion?  Webster defines the term as follows:

dan·ger·ous – adj – able or likely to inflict injury or harm

If we stop and think about the literal definition of dangerous, we realize that it applies to most things in our life.  We start off each day with dangerous acts…shaving, taking a shower, cooking breakfast, driving to work…all of which have the ability to inflict injury or harm.   How many of us have cut ourselves when shaving?  How about burned yourself while cooking?  And what about having an accident in a car?   The generally accepted odds are that 1 in 4 people will be involved in a serious car accident in their lifetime.  Let’s take that a step further, based on the average number of automobile trips made by Americans in their lifetime the odds of being killed in an accident are 1 in 140.  Driving is the most dangerous activity undertaken by most Americans on a daily basis and very little thought is given to the dangers encountered because it is just a routine part of life.

Why does the general public view flying as being dangerous?  Any time we cheat the laws of gravity we are entering into a “dangerous” scenario by definition; but is it really dangerous, or is it just different?  According to the National Safety Council, the odds of being killed in a plane crash are about 1 in 250,000.  In comparing these statistics you are 1,786 times more likely to die in a car than in a plane…in other words you are more likely to die on the way to the airport than in flight to your destination.

So what is it that is driving this dangerous view of flying?  In short, lack of education and the media.  This is a funny combination in my mind because the media is supposed to educate, but often times they are just as uneducated as the masses to which they are pontificating.  How does a blind man know what color the sky is?  He trusts the person describing it to him, even if that person is colorblind.  In absence of knowledge we tend to believe whatever sounds the most accurate.  So without further ado I give you some media quotes concerning recent flying scenarios making headlines.

“The Monday night close call, left Obama’s jet 2.94 miles away from slamming into the 200-ton C-17 plane…” – New York Post

This is what is known in the aviation world as a “go around”.  It happens on a daily basis and exists for just such an occasion.  When the required separation cannot be maintained or does not exist, the controllers direct the pilots to break off the approach and send them around to try it again.  Let’s put this in perspective just to give you an idea how far 2.94 miles is…try 15,500 feet.  This is a greater distance than all those aircraft that pass over your house on approach to landing if you live within 30 miles of a major airport.   If their landing lights are on when they fly over your house at night, they are probably below 10,000 feet and only 1.89 miles away from slamming into your house.

“The pilots landed their planes safely but without help from the airport tower.”  – ABC News

“Planes forced to land without help from tower at Reagan Natl” – America’s Newsroom     

News flash…the tower does not and cannot help a pilot land an airplane.  The tower can only give direction and recommendation just like the traffic cop at an intersection.  Pilots land without help from the tower thousands of times every day…it’s how we were trained from Day 1.

Let’s face it, flying is still a widely misunderstood activity and as long as there are reporters there will be inaccurate news reports.  As pilots, we are a relative minority and the understanding of flight is still a wondrous mystery to most.  The how’s, why’s, and what if’s are the stuff of Hollywood legend.  Entire movies have been made around the fear of flying and the perceived dangers that they instill are numerous.  Aviation activities still draw front page news, from the airshow to the accident and the engine failure to the ATC actions.  Is flying dangerous?  Yes.  Is it more so than other daily activities?  No.  It is up to us as pilots, air traffic controllers, and all other aviation support personnel to do all we can to operate as safely as possible and calm the fears of the general public.

Be professional, train appropriately, and be personable.  Just because we can fly does not mean we are above anyone else.

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During training at the American Airlines Learning Center in Dallas, new agents were given a specific protocol for checking passengers and their bags in at the ticket counter.  We were to greet the customer by name as it was printed on the ticket.  Ask them what their final destination was – just to make sure the ticket was right - and ask them how many bags they would be checking.  This was long before that silly question of “have your bags been out of your possession since you packed them,” like anyone would actually admit to that.

I once had a woman tell me that her final destination was her mother’s house.  While I agreed that a visit to her mother was surely a wonderful thing, I could not check her bags to her mother’s house.  She gave me her final airport, I checked her bags through and all was right with the world.

This woman’s trip raises a question in my mind.  I know the city-pair on her ticket; however, that citypair didn’t really  match her real travel intentions.  She might have departed from Columbus, Mississippi, but might actually have lived Macon, Mississippi.  She might have traveled to Charleston, West Virginia, but might actually have needed to go to Parkersburg, West Virginia.  Because of limited choices in scheduled airline service, she ended up with a drive on both ends of her trip.  Now, until we have personal jet packs, we’re not going to be able to leave our homes and fly to exactly where we want to go.  Can you imagine the air traffic nightmares that personal plane a la George Jetson would bring?  Yikes! 

Still, we know that general aviation can reduce our drives simply by virtue of the fact that there are more general aviation airports.  Put new and better technology with new and better aircraft and you have a few people with similar intentions sharing flights.  Vancouver has over 60,000 fans on two Facebook pages and a population of over a half million people in the city, not taking suburbs into account.  Surely a few of those people could agree on a time to go from the Abbortsford airport to the Blatchford Field in a Cessna Mustang.  Wouldn’t you think?

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Maybe the bigger question to ask is: Will social technology change the way people do business?

Over the past two months I, along with the rest of the world, watched the events unfold in Tunisia and Egypt which resulted in the toppling of decades old repressive regimes. Then the outbreak for freedom spread to other countries in the Middle East  and Libya , and is even trying to gain a toe hold in China. Governments can shut down the internet for a time, but eventually people will figure a way around the firewall. I thought about the part social media played in these events and the discussions in mainstream media about what social media has done in these countries to fuel the protests.

Social media and the technology behind it are not inherently good or bad and do not have any power on their own to do anything. The technology is just another means of communicating. What Social Media has done is enable the world to connect and communicate in ways, and at a speed and distance, never before seen in human history. And right now it is in it’s infancy.

As a student of social media and how it might be used in business and private aviation to change the ways we do business for the positive, I have been met with skepticism as I talk and write about it.

Questions and Comments include:

• Nobody on Facebook will book a charter flight or buy an aircraft
• The affluent (our current clients) don’t use Social Media
• Social Media is some kind of fad and won’t last
• Those who use Facebook only communicate silly chatter about what they had for breakfast and where they went the night before
• I don’t want anything to do with this social media stuff, it is a waste of time
• How do you monetize this stuff and what is your ROI?

Back to Egypt and Tunisia:

History will show that the power of the people to communicate with each other was the undoing of repression. The worry now is that another repressive regime will fill the void as so often has happened in Africa. Somehow this time, I don’t believe the people will allow that to happen. Now that the people have won, who in Egypt or Tunisia will be able to lead the country and not allow the people to communicate online? Another demonstration can happen in an instant. Once freed, people will not go back willingly to being repressed.

So if the power of this communication on steroids called Social Media can topple governments, does its use also have the potential to open up markets and change the way people buy goods and services? I think the answer is that it’s already happening. And it will pick up speed just as the development of the technology has picked up speed.

People, given the tools to communicate unfiltered across borders, cultures and any other boundaries, will drive solutions to market problems that have been begging to be solved.

The air transportation system in this country has major efficiency problems that cannot be solved by the government or the airlines overnight. Our government can’t even agree on a funding solution to update the 1960’s generation air traffic control system, much less solve a market problem.

So if the government can’t solve the problem of inefficient air travel who can? How about we the people, through communication which creates new knowledge and creates innovation and brings new solutions.

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Anyone in the aviation industry is familiar with the success of Southwest Airlines.   We have heard the stories of both employee and customer satisfaction that seem to represent an anomaly among the large air carriers.  Many reasons are given for their success including the use of one type of plane, emphasis on simplicity of service, or use of less congested airports.  Several bestselling books have focused on the leadership of Herb Keller and the Southwest team.  In her well-researched book, The Southwest Airline’s Way, Jody Gittell demonstrates that while all these are indeed factors, there is another underlying and more foundational reason for SWA’s accomplishments –its ability to foster and sustain relationships.  She writes:

“Southwest’s most distinctive organizational competency is its ability to build and sustain relationships characterized by shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect.” 1

In short, it is about the human network.

Other companies, large and small, are now learning this valuable and often overlooked lesson.  Relationships are how we do business.  Relationships that are (forgive the often-used buzzword) authentic, can truly make a real difference in how we attract, sustain, and build business.

Sales used to be stereotyped by the iconic image of the used-car salesman.  Fair or not, the image often conjured by mentioning this is one of a greasy, manipulative, and patently untrustworthy individual who views customers simply as walking dollar-signs.  There is a low-level of trust between the salesperson and the customer and many people avoid this type of exchange if at all possible.  In a recent Gallup poll the sales professions ranked in the lower 10 percent of professions that foster trust in the public eye.2  Why?

Because more and more, we are choosing to do business with those we know and trust, particularly with high-involvement products such as cars and yes, aviation related purchases.  Research has shown that while we may indeed seek the absolute lowest price for a box of cereal, most people are willing to pay more for an expensive item or service when they sense that the person or company has a relational connection to their product or service.  Certainly price is a factor, there is another set of factors at work in our businesses –the relational.

Think about Apple computers.  The base-model Apple Computers are clearly more expensive than a comparably equipped PC.  Why do these computers regularly have strong sales, even in a down economy?  It is the connection Apple has created in our culture.  In his book What Americans Really Want… Really Frank Luntz discusses this culture Apple has been able to create:

“Mac people want you to know they are Mac people.  You’ll see the Apple logo on cars or on the backpacks of college kids.   Thousands of people attend MacWorld….People who own Macs want you to know that they are part of that community of people…People are prepared to pay an Apple premium because their products satisfy all our other needs (fewer hassles, longer lasting,  fewer worries and less stress.)”3

It’s the connection with the human network and a clear message about how this meets more than the real need (computing).  Their products also meet the felt needs of our modern society, connection and relational trust.

There is a lot we can learn from this in the aviation community whether we sell multi-million dollar aircraft, charter, or flight lessons.  We need to examine our place in the human network and our ability to demonstrate our ability to foster trust and real relationships among the people we work with and the people we serve.

Historically (Southwest being a notable exception) we have not been great at this in the aviation industry.  The true value of the products we offer can only be built where we take the time to build relationships of trust.  In a recent article on sales and trust Todd Duncan puts it simply when he says, “Sales are made when trust exists.”4

While our goal will certainly be to make our companies strong by working hard to make sales, may we not neglect the lessons of trust and the human factors that enable us to establish it.  When we take the time to build an authentic human network, we may well discover an increase in affinity for, and interest in, the great products we have to offer to the aviation marketplace.

1.  Gittell, Jody Hoffer The Southwest Airlines Way (McGraw Hill, New York, NY, 2003) page 12

2.  Duncan, Todd “The Velocity of Trust” Success Magazine, January 2011, page 20

3.  Luntz, Frank What Americans Really Want…Really (Hyperion, New York, NY, 2009) pages 19-21

4.  Ibid, Duncan

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