Plane Conversations

Social flights continues to grow as our users finding new ways to integrate private jet service into their experience travel itinerary.  As with most early adopters, there is a larger vision driving their actions – it’s not to be “first on the block” to experience private travel.  They are the “first OFF the block” in a new form of luxury; The Time Value Experience.

Luxury does not mean the same thing for everyone and this poses a challenge for brands and product designers.  The top tier brands are learning that 45-55 year old who make up a large portion of their markets have a different set of standards when it comes to travel.

Instead of wanting to be pampered with exquisite and precision service, the new generation of luxury travel is seeking value, authenticity, and uniqueness.  They want local experiences, not a duplicate of their home in a new place.

“Value Based Driven”

via Young, affluent travelers disavow luxury defined by older generation – Travel Weekly.

Ellen Bettridge, vice president of American Express Retail Travel Network, told agents and hoteliers attending the 2011 International Luxury Travel Market conference in Cannes, France, last month. “They just know more. Everything’s at their fingertips.”

Knowing your customer’s preferences and accommodating those preferences are two different things in hi-end travel.  Creating “value” is not easy, it takes a lot of work, planning, and technical knowledge as well as follow-up and community management.  Unique experiences, by definition,  don’t come with instructions for the service provider. Competition, by definition, attacks the uniqueness of your service.  Alternatives to your service are as easy for competitors to market as for you.

One of the best ways to achieve uniqueness is to use your brand to integrate with other experience services – a local competitor may not be a competitor after all.   Think about Disneyland;  Mickie Mouse does not compete with Pirates of the Caribbean, rather, they are integrated into the whole grand experience.

If your guests will come for one 2 days, they are more likely to stay for 4 than return for another 2. Then, they are more likely to return if they haven’t “done the whole park”.  If they become comfortable with a place, they will return over and over forming new family traditions that they can identify with and share with their friends…..

Chris Sanderson, co-founder of the Future Laboratory, a London-based brand-marketing firm, asserted, “It’s not about ‘fly and flop.’ It’s about ‘find and seek.’” What makes serving this group tricky is that agents can’t fall back on tried-and-true brands, at least when it comes to accommodations. 

Social Flight is capable and available to serve any community by providing operations in public charter and private charter with modern turbine aircraft.  We have a growing clientele of vacation and resort communities banding together and taking control of the tourist experience instead of depending on outside airlines, charter operators, or tour organizers to do it for them.  Make the “Time Value Experience” your Brand image and make Social Flights your airline.

There is a war brewing within the online travel agency space over Google’s recent move with Google Flights and Google Hotels.

Google began positioning its new flight-finding feature at the top of general search results for airline booking information earlier this month. And its new competitors in the $110 billion online travel industry aren’t happy about the search giant crashing the party, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

Chasing The Market To The Bottom

Travel is hot for 2012 and beyond.  An increasing number of people say they’ll do more leisure traveling in the coming year, and even more say they’ll fly if they can find good deals in 2012. Good deals are going to be hard to find. The airlines attempted to raise prices 22 times in 2011 (and nine of those attempts were successful).

Business travel spend is expected to have grown 6.9% in 2011 compared to 2010, hitting $250.2 billion.  The forecast for 2012 is 4.3% growth in business travel spend for 2012 (or $260.9 billion).

While revenue growth in the travel sector looks promising the user experience continues to decline. Flying today is like traveling by bus with few frills and even fewer fun times.  Consider some of the recent headlines:

1. Airline Technology Leading to Customer Alienation
2. Airlines Score Lowest In Customer Satisfaction
3. 92% of Executive Unhappy With Business Travel Experiences
4. Airline Delays, Cancellations and Complaints Rise

I could go on with an endless list but by now the picture should be obvious. Current market dynamics within air travel services is propelling a race to the bottom and Google knows this.  In other words air travel suppliers have boxed themselves into competing on price and thus air travel services have become a commodity. The meaning of the term commodity is used to describe a service for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.

Google knows that search has the greatest influence over consumer choices for travel services. 93% of people who seek information on travel services use search. Consumers seek ratings and reviews, news articles, word of mouth and blog post which in the end influences their decisions. When there is little differential in a market then price becomes the initial decision factor followed by “social influences”, i.e. quality of the experience.

As a result, the present online travel bazaar is very competitive and the margins are shrinking . The  tight competition led the market to compete on price rather than experience. Google recognizes this and simply stepped in and made the shopping experience better. Google doesn’t care about the price of air service they care about providing the price to consumers seamlessly.

As fortunes are made by leveraging technology to become ever more efficient, there is yet far greater wealth to be had by unleashing the discovery of new experiences and creation of new opportunities. That is exactly why we created Social Flights. We are changing the direction of the race to the top.

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There is a war brewing within the on-line travel agency space over Google’s recent move with Google Flights and Google Hotels.

Google began positioning its new flight-finding feature at the top of general search results for airline booking information earlier this month. And its new competitors in the $110 billion online travel industry aren’t happy about the search giant crashing the party, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

Chasing The Market To The Bottom

Travel is hot for 2012 and beyond.  An increasing number of people say they’ll do more leisure traveling in the coming year, and even more say they’ll fly if they can find good deals in 2012. Good deals are going to be hard to find. The airlines attempted to raise prices 22 times in 2011 (and nine of those attempts were successful).

Business travel spend is expected to have grown 6.9% in 2011 compared to 2010, hitting $250.2 billion.  The forecast for 2012 is 4.3% growth in business travel spend for 2012 (or $260.9 billion).

While revenue growth in the travel sector looks promising the user experience continues to decline. Flying today is like traveling by bus with few frills and even fewer fun times.  Consider some of the recent headlines:

1. Airline Technology Leading to Customer Alienation
2. Airlines Score Lowest In Customer Satisfaction
3. 92% of Executive Unhappy With Business Travel Experiences

I could go on with an endless list but by now the picture should be obvious. Current market dynamics within air travel services is propelling a race to the bottom and Google knows this.  In other words air travel suppliers have boxed themselves into competing on price and thus air travel services have become a commodity. The meaning of the term commodity is used to describe a service for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.

Google knows that search has the greatest influence over consumer choices for travel services. 93% of people who seek information on travel services use search. Consumers seek ratings and reviews, news articles, word of mouth and blog post which in the end influences their decisions. When there is little differential in a market then price becomes the initial decision factor followed by “social influences”, i.e. quality of the experience.

As a result, the present online travel bazaar is very competitive and the margins are shrinking . The  tight competition led the market to compete on price rather than experience. Google recognizes this and simply stepped in and made the shopping experience better. Google doesn’t care about the price of air service they care about providing the price to consumers seamlessly.

As fortunes are made by leveraging technology to become ever more efficient, there is yet far greater wealth to be had by unleashing the discovery of new experiences and creation of new opportunities. That is exactly why we created Social Flights.

“Do you have 1000 hours of experience of 1 hour’s experience repeated 1000 times?”

I believe I first heard this question from the Godfather of General Aviation, Richard Collins.  It’s a great question that gets at the heart of our flying habits and willingness to stretch ourselves in our flying.

Some pilots fly under, and only under, very tight circumstances.  They look for CAVU (Clear Air Visibility Unlimited) days with less than 5 knots of wind (never a crosswind), only in the morning, only at their home field and never stray from their local area.  It’s great that they are flying, but they are going to have basically one hour of flight repeated 1000 times.  What a shame because flying offers you and I so much more!

It is far better, and more fun and rewarding, to gain 1000 hours of flight experience.  Go somewhere.  Make a trip an adventure.  Challenge yourself.  Fly to a Class C airport and have dinner.  Master the crosswind landing.  Learn to fly safely in something other than a CAVU sky.  If you need an instructor to help you gain comfort and confidence in some of these situations, then book one today.

Certainly, there will be flights that are similar.  My point (and I think Dick Collins’ point also) is that a variety of experiences and situations help us to become a well-rounded and proficient pilot.   I think in the end, this approach will also keep your flying fun!

So, fly often and always be looking for a new challenge!

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An economy is defined by, or limited by, time and productivity. Value is created in an economy when an improved use of the resource of time creates gain in productivity.

The purpose of travel by aircraft is to gain time over other means of travel, time that can be used to create new value.

Inside the experience of travel the journey itself can either add to or subtract from productivity. If I can be productive while traveling I gain value during the travel in addition to the gains on both ends of the journey.

Every day, those of us in business aviation, witness the gains in productivity both in time saved and in the positive experience of travel by private and business aircraft.

Business travelers who have experienced this form of travel know what I am talking about.

Business travelers who use the airlines will testify to the negative impact on productivity from the time drain and wear and tear of airline travel.

The airlines, and the system they have created around the hub and spoke, have done a lot to try and ease the journey by creating nice terminals with food, shopping, and wifi connections to the Internet.  However, am I more productive sitting at the Airport Starbucks on my laptop for three hours waiting on the connecting flight, or being at my destination three hours earlier?

What about the time en-route?

If I can conduct a meeting in the air with clients, vendors or fellow workers what’s it worth?

When is the last time you had a business meeting while traveling on an airline in coach class or even in business class?

Business aviation wins hands down both in time saved in the journey and productivity experienced during the journey.

So why doesn’t everyone travel using a business aircraft?

Price and perceived value!

Business aviation is expensive when compared to the perceived value.

If our industry created a true cost-productivity calculator application that took into consideration not only the value of the time savings, but just importantly the productivity gains experienced during the journey, would it change the perception of the value of business aviation?

The technology is here today to do this.  

I would challenge our friends in the tech sector to come up with an application that calculates the “true costs” of the various modes of air travel.

What would an application like that be worth to those of us in Business Aviation?

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09/22/10

Tim’s concert in Sydney was a smash hit with an overflow crowd.  After that incredible experience, he was able to make another flight around the beautiful Australian countryside.  With expert help from Regal Air and Peter Edwards, we planned a journey West via the Blue Mountains where there was some fantastic flying and scenery along the canyons.  We weren’t more than 20 minutes away from Sydney, but there was effectively no population at all.

Turning back to the east, we climbed up over the hills and made straight for the coastline in the hopes of catching a glimpse of whales again and to set up our arrival for the Harbor Scenic One flight around Sydney Harbor.  As we flew along the coast at 500 feet, one of Tim’s daughters spotted a whale.  Although, this one did not stay surfaced as long as the ones up north had, it didn’t matter.  The most important thing to her was that she saw a whale and that made her trip. 

Crossing the controlled airspace boundary to the north, I radioed in to get what, in Australia, is known as an “Airways Clearance” to fly the Harbor Scenic One.  That is just a clearance much like what we get in the United States to fly into controlled airspace.  The Australian version has very specific visual check points and a strict altitude of 1500 feet.  We orbited twice over a check point before receiving our proper transponder code and clearance.   I  hope that the video I shot of the route turns out well – the flight was beautiful.  This tour took us directly into Sydney Harbor approaching the famed Opera House and Sydney Bridge.  We made two, 360 degree turns to the left before departing to the northwest.  Once clear of the airspace, we dropped back down for some more coastal flying.

We navigated visually to the Brooklyn Bridge (they have one here too), which is the starting point for the visual arrivals into Bankstown.  We proceeded to Prospect Reservoir for the final check-in with the tower.

Tim had a 15 knot cross-wind on final and he greased the landing.  After a few photo ops, we were back in the car and headed back to the hotel with some happy passengers, as well as two happy pilots who are still amazed to be flying in Oz.

Cheers!

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9-14-10

We arrived in Brisbane as very tired humans and enjoyed a restful night at our hotel.  The following morning, after a hearty breakfast at the hotel, Steve Maltby (owner of Sunland Aviation) and I began the arduous task of working with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in trying to complete my temporary license to fly in Australia.  In the US, we may sometimes complain about our own FAA.  From my experience, the FAA is far and away much easier to work with than CASA is here.

I began the application process in July, but arrived here with it still imcomplete.  The big hang up for CASA was that my US license  was endorsed “English Proficient.”   That requirement was supposedly put in place to make us pilots in the United States compliant with international standards, since English is the international language for aviation operations.  Guess what—the endorsement doesn’t mean beans to CASA without an official English language test.  And from what I hear, the US will soon be administering such tests to all of us as well.

I spent most of my day on the phone, on hold, searching for someone to officially administer an English language test.  Steve came through like a superman!   While working on his own issues of paying bills, collections, and managing a 30-member team, he found someone to administer my test…Peter Franks. 

In the United States, Peter would be considered to be a Designated Examiner.  He invited us to his home and began to administer an official CASA English test in which I had to listen to numerous air traffic conversations with controllers speaking English but with a variety of country-specific dialects….sort of like someone from the south trying to communicate with someone in Brooklyn.  I had to copy clearances and explain what I heard to Peter.  I passed and now have an Australian English proficiency level of “Expert.”   Good thing I was in South Australia!  This process took ten frustrating hours to complete and it could not have been done if not for Steve getting through to a CASA team chief and getting them to realize that they had dropped the ball on this in a big way.

We emailed all the results (rather, Steve did) first thing the next morning in hopes that my license would soon follow.

9-15-10

The day began with good news! CASA promised to expedite my two-month-old paperwork and indeed they did—the license came in by 12 noon.  This day winds were holding up to 40 knots ( that’s pretty brisk for you non pilots); so, we remained on the ground and did some serious chart and flight planning study.  The Australian international flight plan forms are a bit different from the ones I’m used to; but, seem to work very well.  One big difference I learned is that your filed plan does not get you an entire route clearance as it does in the US.  Can’t wait for my first flight tomorrow!

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In the New York times bestselling book, Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) chronicles the rise of Zappos .com from obscurity to profitability and finally to its now infamous  1.2 billion dollar acquisition by Amazon.com .  He outlines Zappos’ legendary focus on customer service and corporate culture.   As I read Hsieh’s book, I couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities and implications for those of us who love flying and aviation related businesses.

In the introduction, Hsieh, takes us into his thoughts as he prepares to announce to Zappos’ employees that Amazon was acquiring the company.  While the media was focused on the sheer size of the deal, Hsieh’s thoughts were elsewhere:

 “To all of us in the room, we knew it wasn’t just about the money.  Together, we had built a business that combined profits, passion, and purpose.  And we knew that it wasn’t just about building a business.  It was about building a lifestyle that was about delivering happiness to everyone, including ourselves.”¹

There are several things noteworthy in this quote.  One is the sense of team that you feel.  Hsieh speaks in terms of “us”  and “together”.  Clearly the focus is on something more than the bottom line.  Words such as “passion”, “purpose”, “lifestyle” and “happiness” all speak to the company’s core values and goals.  Hsieh notes later that, “We decided that we wanted to build our brand to be about the very best customer service and the very best customer experience.” ²  What Zappos discovered was that by creating a culture centered on these values and expectations,  profitability developed.  

 Zappo’s Rabid Dedication to the Customer & Employee

As I read, I would often seek out my wife to read her passages (some guys read poetry to their wives…so much for romance!)  I would begin with saying, “Can you believe that a company would do this?”   Here are a few examples: 

• Customer service that includes free, unannounced upgrades in shipping.  You place an order for shoes that should take 4 days to arrive and without warning –for free—they’re on your doorstep the next day.
• A reward system for employees for pursuing personal development.  A lending library of the best personal growth books was created in the lobby to do just this.
• Free shipping on all orders…and if the shoes don’t fit you can send them back for free!
• If they don’t have the shoe in stock, they will research three competitor’s websites and will direct the customer to the competitor.
• In 2008, Zappo’s was faced with making a round of layoffs.  Instead of the standard 2-week severance, they offered to pay each employee through the end of the year (which at the time was about 2 months).  They paid an additional amount for those who had been with the company 3 or more years.  They reimbursed laid-off employees for 6 months of COBRA payments.

This made me want to buy shoes, just to have the Zappos experience.  Which is exactly the point- the experience.

 The Zappos Experience- Happiness

In 2009 Zappos inserted a simple statement into their vision that reflects the underlying core value that is at the heart of their company.  It says, “Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world.”³

Hsieh and Zappos are not talking about some “fuzzy” notion of happiness, which many people equate with silly giddiness.  Instead, Hsieh studied the concept of what makes people happy and investigated ways to integrate his findings into his company.  In his book, he offers several frameworks to consider, such as our need for perceived control in our lives (having a say in our future and in our work), perceived progress (we can see that we are going somewhere—don’t we all hate “dead-end” jobs?), connectedness (being in relationships that are truly fulfilling) and meaning/vision (being a part of something larger than ourselves that we believe in). 

This type of corporate emphasis helped develop a company culture that focused on amazing customer service, which aimed ultimately at customer happiness.   While Zappos was certainly concerned with profitability and bottom line, they managed to never lose sight of the crucial importance of what they were delivering, but how.  I think this begins to intersect and have application for the aviation industry. 

What if a flight school moved into the realm of radical customer service?

As an industry it simply doesn’t appear that we’re asking the customer experience question.  And yet, in some ways, flying is all about experience.  It’s built into the act of flying.  But what isn’t built in is how we attract and retain customers by giving them an experience of service.  

For instance, let’s consider flight training.  How do we attract and engage the customer before they officially become a customer?  What could we do to serve them before we’re asking for their money?  

• How about having a pleasant lobby area and facilities that are well kept?  (Seriously, the urinal that overflows regularly should be fixed. Gross.)
• How about having snacks available for free?
• Coupons (have any Flight Schools tried Groupon.com) for flights?
• Free airplane rides.  Publicize well, donate a couple of hours on a Saturday to give rides to the community.
• Flight training material professionally produced and ready to be given to the new student.
• Aircraft that are clean, up-to-date, and well-maintained.  (If your preflight involves duct-tape, think again.)

 As a customer, what kind of experience might we give our customers if we:

• Randomly chose a student to receive a free hour of instruction?  They come in from the flight line only to discover they owe nothing. 
• Instead of having them buy more and more books and videos, develop a lending library
• If you have access to a twin or jet and space permits, let your student go for a ride
• Quarterly celebrations for new solos and new licenses.  Could be as simple as a cookout at the airport in honor of these new pilots. 
• Encouraged lifelong learning by giving seminars and offering guest speakers to the larger aviation community

What about instructors?

• Incentives for recruiting (Bonus for giving 5 or more discovery flights…extra for each one who begins training) 
• Bonus for each student who successfully receives their license
• Reward for longevity (create a stable base of instructors)
• Instructor dinners and socializing
• Opportunities for adding new ratings at reduced cost and free recurrency training.

These are just ideas, some of which might be difficult to employ.  How refreshing it would be to potential pilots and employees to discover a flight school with a culture that was geared to providing the best possible service and create what Hsieh calls a “WOW” factor. 

Whether we’re talking about flight schools or maintenance departments or FBO’s, I believe there is something to be learned from Zappos.  Imagine, tomorrow, what it would be like to be “WOWED” by your company in its relationship with you.  Imagine what it would be like to WOW your customers and the transformed relationship with them.   Imagine the impact of those combined experiences, the word of mouth that would ensue, and the absolute fun of being in the flying business.  

It begins with a commitment to developing or changing the culture and embracing a foundational shift towards clearly defined values and competencies that will shape the entire organization.  It is about delivering an experience that is first class and recognizing that our happiness is found not only in profits (which is certainly needed) but in living with passion and purpose. 

If Hsieh and Zappos can do it with shoes,  I believe we can certainly do it with airplanes. 

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, Tony Hsieh, Business Plus, New York: NY, 2010

 1. Page 11

2. Page 121

3. Page 177

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Recently I read an article about a Phenom 100 delivery from Brazil to Orleans, France.  Unfortunately for the new owner the delivery flight took over two weeks to complete.  It seems that he tried a “do-it-yourself” delivery and suffered the consequence of lack of experience. This and other missteps during deliveries may be avoided with prior planning.

One of more common mistakes I see during deliveries is the failure of  Non-US citizens to obtain a visa prior to entry into the US.  The United States requires visitors from certain countries to obtain a visa for entry.  Usually most arrivals by air enter into the US through the Visa Waiver Program, but such is not the case with private air.  Be sure and check the State Department website for requirements that may affect your entry status.

When JetQuik brings a new Embraer Executive Jet into the US, we plan with a bonded customs broker to ensure a smooth importation process.  For foreign aircraft entering the US for the first time, importation is not necessary and the arrival is treated just like any other customs border crossing.  Usually JetQuik imports aircraft through Ft. Lauderdale.   We use SheltAir as our FBO of preference because it is co-located with US Customs on the field.

Phenom deliveries to the US don’t have to be a daunting process.  The Embraer Executive Jets office can help guide you through the process or recommend a competent delivery organization to relieve the stress of accepting your new Phenom aircraft.

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If you do then something is wrong with the airline system or your employees.

I will vote for a broken airline system.

Thinking about a recent NY Times article by Lisa Galst entitled “Rewarded for Flying Coach” makes me smile as I write this.

What is the world coming to when you have to pay your employees extra for the misery of riding in the back of the aircraft in the cheap seats as opposed to booking the more comfy seats up front? Sounds like hazardous duty pay to me.

I have never heard any of our clients having to incentivize their employees to take a flight on a private aircraft. In fact it is sometimes the other way around. Last week when talking to one of our good clients he was telling me that he uses the flights he books to see his clients as a morale booster for his employees. Those who travel with him are excited about the experience and when they get back to the office everyone else hears about how cool it was.

With all that is happening in the airline industry:

• reduced capacity resulting in high load factors which equals crowded airplanes
• oversold flights and increases in denied boarding
• cancellations due to the new tarmac rules
• a la carte fees for everything the ticket no longer buys you

Is it any surprise that people just don’t want to do this anymore?

And the federal government has the idea that they can step in and solve the problem with legislation to make it against the law to provide bad service.

Private aviation and business aviation are sitting on a gold mine of opportunity.

What if these companies took the money they are spending to incentivize their employees to fly coach and used it to fly more in private aircraft?  They would get happier employees and gain a lot of productivity by not sending them through a hub that is cheaper to save a buck. Besides, with business aviation there is no such thing as routing through a hub. Its all point to point.

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