Plane Conversations

“Group Buying” was an idea that first surfaced during the “dot com” boom and ultimately failed to build any momentum.  The idea is again gaining popularity in the era of social media where scalability can be introduced as aggregation cost diminish on applications such as Facebook and Twitter.

Ditch the gatekeeper, axe the marketers, lose the spam.

My first reaction is to find the most unsavory business transactions today and eliminate all the unnecessary middle men and their costs, gateways, noise pollution, and inefficiencies.

Why can’t there be one cell phone store where I can buy anything for any mobile device? Why do I have to pay to use my credit card and pay to not use my credit card? Why am I still treated like a terrorist precisely when I am doing everything that I can to avoid terrorists?

There are some glimmers on the horizon.

Applications such as SocialBuy, Groupon, and Living Social, use their social media platforms that offer vouchers for steep discounts on a variety of goods, once a minimum threshold of consumers is reached.  People have an economic incentive to promote products in their social network (on Facebook and Twitter) in order to reach those thresholds more rapidly and consistently.

Product Networks?

Suppose the group buying experience could aggregate packages of products.  Strategic products would then be aggregated as  ”A Network of Products” that together increase net value.  Yes, you heard me…a ‘combination of products’ with Twitter followers.  A zip car, a movie ticket, Segway rental, and a dinner coupon could be aggregated into an entertainment / shopping package.

This is not so strange.

Apple’s enduring success is very much a model of commercial social aggregation. Nobody can compete with an iPhone without also offering iTunes, iMovie, iPad, and all the social trappings of the iStore.  Perhaps Google, with its social commercial network can compete resulting in a duopoly.  Group buying can empower the smaller players and bust monopolies in an infinite array of combinations.

Why not air travel?

The door-to-door travel time and social cost to fly between two small cities, say, 500 miles apart using commercial airlines is greater than just driving. There is no other alternative, sans high-speed rail, and the economic result is that the two cities remain small with very little new commerce or diffusion of new ideas that air travel benefits a region.  People just don’t travel much between, say, Omaha NE and Cheyenne, WY.

Yet, small city pairs within 500 miles have strong extended family roots, migration patterns, and social network density.  It would be relatively easy to offer Group Buying on a 20-25 seat private airplane for less than the cost of driving; and in 1/10 the time!

The travel package could include ground transportation, shopping coupons, and maybe even a A zip car, a movie ticket, Segway rental, and a dinner coupon could be aggregated into an entertainment / shopping package.

Every small city economic development agency in the country should be in this business of building social networks and matching them with product networks between other small city pairs…

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On December 3rd, Embraer announced the certification of the Phenom 300 by ANAC (Brazil’s version of our FAA). That means only days before our FAA certifies the aircraft as well, since the two agencies work together closely in the process of new aircraft certifications.

Embraer’s website has published the performance numbers for the aircraft and not only are they are impressive, but also have exceeded expectations in all areas.

Here are the basics:

• Maximum cruise speed: 453 knots (521 mph)
• Maximum range with 6 occupants: 1,971 nautical miles (2,265 statute miles)
• Takeoff distance at maximum weight on a standard (59° F) day at sea level: 3,138 feet
• Landing distance at maximum landing weight sea level: 2,621 feet
• Service ceiling: 45,000 feet - and it gets there in 26 minutes!

Over the past three decades as new aircraft have come into the market, those of us in the business have looked at the numbers and compared them against the aircraft we know.

Every aircraft seems to have some compromise in performance.  One aircraft will have good speed and range but needs a longer runway. Another aircraft may be able to takeoff and land on shorter runways but will be slower in speed or have less range. Some aircraft have limited range when you fill every seat. You can’t have it all in one package….or can you?

It appears that Embraer has built a no-compromises aircraft that gives great speed and range with the ability to fly out of almost any public airport in the United States, including those challenging high-altitude airports in the Rocky Mountains, like Telluride, Colorado. In fact, you can take off in a Phenom 300 from Telluride airport at 9,078 feet elevation and go non-stop to any other city in the United States.   

Our business (CFM) has operated the Lear 35 series aircraft for over 15 years, and they are the workhorses of our fleet. Prior to that, the Lear 24/25 series aircraft was the workhorse. When they were produced throughout the 1970s and into the early 1990s, these aircraft were the no-compromise aircraft of their day.  For the most part, you could fill up the tanks with fuel and the cabin with passengers and go. They did like a little more runway than the Cessna Citation series aircraft, but the Lears were faster.

For years, we have wondered when someone was going to make an aircraft that would eventually take the Learjet’s place. I believe Embraer has done it with the Phenom 300. This aircraft provides true jet speed and operating altitudes, excellent range for transcontinental trips, great fuel economy and low maintenance costs of new-generation design all in one package.  The aircraft has a 35,000 hour life limit, which is close to an eternity in the corporate and charter use environment where aircraft average 400-500 hours per year. You can tell the Phenom 300 was built by a company that builds durable and reliable regional airliners.

So, congratulations (or felicitações) to Embraer for bringing another great aircraft  into the market at a time when a lot of manufacturers are wondering how to survive this economy. I have a feeling we will see Phenom 100s and Phenom 300s in a lot of charter fleets over the next few years.

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