Posts Tagged ‘private aviation’
How To Improve Air Transportation For Everyone
If improving the aviation system is disruptive, then call us revolutionaries.
We could say that Social Flights is disruptive to the commercial aviation system, except that we serve markets that the commercial aviation industry has rejected.
We could say that we compete with the airlines, except we provide services that would be impossible for the commercial aviation system to deliver efficiently.
We could say that we found a way to exploit an inefficient market, except that we actually make that market more efficient.
- Available Airports In US
Social Flights is not an airline.
In simplest terms, Social Flights is a data platform for private aviation. The Social Flights platform will “systemize” the operations of up to 15,000 private aircraft across up to 5000 North American Airports. The beneficiaries will be travelers, aircraft operators, and the communities they support. We’ll even help the airlines do what they do better.
Where is the pain?
- Airlines are pulling out of smaller markets effectively isolating millions of people
- Smaller communities are cut off from the global economy
- The “Real Cost” to travelers flying into and out of smaller communities is stifling.
- The Private Aviation industry is manipulated by brokers; 40% of private flights are empty.
- The Hub and Spoke system serves large airplanes, not people
- Travelers have few other travel options; driving is difficult and trains are sparse.
- Very low utilization of private jet assets vs. commercial jet assets
Where is the opportunity?
- Next Generation air traffic management/control will open thousands of airports to ATC
- A huge inventory of efficient short haul aircraft is available.
- Empty legs on existing private flights are available
- Favorable FAA and DOT regulatory environment in “Public Charter” classification
- Millions of people travel to their “Social Networks” not their hubs and spokes
- Communities are willing to participate in their own air-service destiny
What is the solution?
CASP: Community Air Service Program
Social Flights deploys turbine powered commuter aircraft to small communities to provide frequent direct service to the nearest major hub allowing access to the world.
Uniform Booking Platform
The Social Flights provides operators with a free online scheduling and automating quoting system that will save them thousands of dollars per actual flight.
Systemized inventory listing
Operators effectively list their inventory and the system matches the right aircraft with the right mission thereby improving yields.
Ride Sharing
National itinerary allows for the sale of private jet service on a “per seat” basis instead of a customer chartering a whole jet.
Corporate Travel Programs
Corporate and VIP owners can increase Yield and utilization of aircraft for greater profits without sacrificing benefits of ownership.
Community Organization
Social Flights helps communities to determine where they want to fly. We provide aircraft, training, operations, consulting, and regulatory authority to operate community charter operations. Then we integrate the system into our Nationwide platform.
How do we do it?
Social Flights provides a single platform that acts as a clearinghouse for community information about REAL ASSETS – not just demographics for sale to marketers.
The social flights data can be used to create opportunities with a new class of business methods and applications from scheduling air service, to organizing a group of friends for Spring Break.
Social Flights allows smaller communities to access hub airport quickly, directly, frequently and inexpensively so that they can have economic access to the world.
Social Flights allows corporations and VIP aircraft owners to maximize the return on their aircraft investment while retaining the flexibility of ownership.
Social Flights liberates millions of people from the weaknesses of the increasingly fragile and segmented commercial aviation system while retaining the strengths of the hub airport efficiency.
Social Flights improves aviation.
Social Flights Offers Air Travel Development Services
Source: World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) 2011
Communities, industries, and economic development agencies are looking for solutions to the travel gaps caused by airline consolidation, regulation, and lack of alternate modes of transportation. Millions of American citizens are literally stranded in travel access dead zones.
Besides developing revolutionary social technology for buyers and suppliers of alternative air services, Social Flights also provides professional services to organizations, institutions and governments wishing to improve air service to their constituencies. Our services portfolio is designed to serve national and international markets including Asia, Europe and South America as well as local and affinity group communities.
Social Flights Consulting Services
Our service portfolio is aimed at providing 21st century air service solutions created from innovative data-driven assessment, analysis and strategy. Our professional services team includes resources with credentials in private aviation, airline operations, aircraft manufacturing, statistical analysis, management consulting, strategic development, engineering, planning, yield management, route planning and aircraft acquisition.
Our services include:
- Air Service Determinations
- True Flier Intentions Base Determination & Definition
- Air Services Strategic and Tactical Planning
- Economic Impact & Opportunity Analyses
- Demand Opportunity Analyses
- Private Aviation Services management
- Social Media Marketing, SEO, Community Organization
The genesis of Social Flight Consulting Services came when we all sat in a room together and each looked around at the talent and experience that was looking back at us.
Our people have operated airlines, we have managed airport operations, built substantial FBO operations and facilities. Our people have held top engineering positions in aircraft manufacturers, we have worked for the Federal Government, we are world travelers, global businesspersons, and economic development professionals. The people associated with Social Flights are pilots, mechanics, authors, and teachers. We have world famous social media experts, top travel bloggers, and we come from hospitality industries, event planning, and entrepreneurial communities.
Let us share ourselves with you.
In upcoming blog posts, we will share the details of each of these services as well as case studies, documented accomplishments and personnel highlights.
Our hope is to bring the private air services industry closer in collaboration rather than further in competition. We strongly believe that private operators are far stronger when united than in competition. With airline failures and increase air travel demand, we need to work together with our communities. We are here to share what we have learned with travelers, communities, tourism / hospitality industries, and economic development agencies.
Social Flights NASCAR Package Nashville to Bristol Motor Speedway
Social Flights Offers a flight from Nashville to Bristol, TN for the Food City 500 NASCAR Race on March 18, 2012. Social Flights announces this public charter flights operated by Corporate Flight Management, Inc. from Nashville.
The Food City 500 is a 500 lap race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on the 0.533 miles (0.858 km) track at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. This is one of two NASCAR races held at Bristol, the other being the Irwin Tools Night Race, and is considered one of NASCAR‘s best races.
This non-stop flight will leave Smyrna, TN at 8:40 A.M. and arrive in Bristol at 11:00 A.M. The return flight will leave Bristol, TN at 6:00 P.M. and will arrive back in Nashville around 6:20 P.M. Social Flights is also including race tickets and ground transportation for the participants.
Clear Channel will be giving away four seats with tickets to the race and ground transportation to those registered for the prize drawing provided by Clear Channel. Interested parties can register for the free seats either at www.wsix.com or at www.1059therock.com. Social Flights has 15 seats available for the flight. One round-trip seat, ground transportation and a race ticket sells for $649.20 (all taxes and fees included) and can be purchased at www.socialflights.com/scheduled/001-002.
Social Flights will be offering many unique and convenient air service to various events across the US which no Commercial Airline could possibly serve. This makes Social Flights is truly a unique and important innovation in travel. Please feel free to contact us with an event on your calendar.
Social Flights Contact
Matt Slosky, Media Relations
Ph: 615-534-4590
matt.slosky@socialflights.com
About Social Flights:
Social Flights is the fastest growing privation aviation network online today. Social Flights is introducing a new paradigm to private aviation that enables the masses to access and buy seats on private aircraft at competitive prices. The Social Flights technology matches buyer intents to supplier availability and creates a new marketplace for air travelers. In just one year, the Social Flights network has grown to 13,866 social fliers and 98 private aircraft operators, encompassing over 600 aircraft available for charter opportunities to communities and individuals. www.socialflights.com.
About Corporate Flight Management:
CFM is one of the largest Part 135 private aviation companies in the USA operating 30+ aircraft in Smyrna, TN, Atlanta, GA and Danbury CT. CFM is one of the highest rated private aviation companies with an ARGUS Platinum rating for outstanding quality standards in safety and operational excellence. CFM sells, services, trains, operates and provides a variety of air services and has done so successfully for the last 30 years. Employing close to 200 people and servicing over 250 flights per month makes CFM an outstanding aviation company with a long list of dedicated customers and loyal employees. www.flycfm.com
Nashville Based Social Flights Announces Service to Branson, Austin, and Milwaukee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Social Flights has announced a partnership with Branson AirExpress for round-trip flights from Branson, MO to Nashville, TN, Austin, TX and Milwaukee, WI starting in May of this year.
Social Flights will assist Branson AirExpress in marketing the new scheduled routes to its current membership of 13,866 fliers and 98 Private-Aviation Operators encompassing over 600 jets. Jay Deragon, CEO of Social Flights said, “Branson AirExpress is a perfect example of the 21st century model of efficient and effective community-oriented air service initiated by, and on behalf of, the community”.
“Austin and Milwaukee were strong markets last year and the synergies that exist between Branson and Nashville are fantastic,” stated Branson Airport Executive Director, Jeff Bourk. “The partnership between these cities, Branson AirExpress, Corporate Flight Management and Social Flights allows us to offer low fares and continued convenience in getting to and from Branson, Missouri.”
Branson AirExpress will offer $99* introductory one-way fares from Branson to Austin, Milwaukee, and Nashville through March 14, 2012. For tickets, call toll free 1-888-FLY-BKG1 (1-888-359-2541), visit BransonAirExpress.com, or visit SocialFlights.com.
Social Flights Contact
Matt Slosky, Media Relations
Ph: 615-534-4590
matt.slosky@socialflights.com
Branson AirExpress is an indirect air carrier providing public charter air flights, and offering vacation packages in Branson to its customers. All flights are filed and approved by the Department of Transportation and operate under Part 380 CFR (Code of Federal Regulation). The company began providing scheduled Public Charter flights in 2009. The idea behind Branson AirExpress is there are several markets that will be good air markets to Branson, but are not yet ready for main-line commercial service. The Airport used Branson AirExpress to develop air-service markets for Airlines like AirTran prior to them taking over service in Chicago and Houston last year. The new partnership with CFM will now enable Branson AirExpress to serve as a conduit to public-charter operators like CFM to serve markets like Austin and Milwaukee using the Brand that has been developed over the last several years to help sell seats on their charter flights.
About Corporate Flight Management:
CFM is one of the largest Part 135 private aviation companies in the USA operating 30+ aircraft in Smyrna, TN, Atlanta, GA and Danbury CT. CFM is one of the highest rated private aviation companies with an ARGUS Platinum rating for outstanding quality standards in safety and operational excellence. CFM sells, services, trains, operates and provides a variety of air services and has done so successfully for the last 30 years. Employing close to 200 people and servicing over 250 flights per month makes CFM an outstanding aviation company with a long list of dedicated customers and loyal employees. www.flycfm.com
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* Advertised public charter fares are one-way; they include Federal Excise Tax of 7.5%, Federal Flight Segment Taxes of $3.80 per person per flight segment, and a convenience fee of $10. Sale fares must be booked 7 days or more prior to travel. These fares are capacity controlled and may not be available on all seats on all flights. The convenience fee of $10 per person, each way, will be charged when booked by calling 1-888-FLY-BKG1 or through BransonAirExpress.com. Tickets purchased at the airport are not subject to the $10 charge. Fares are subject to availability at the time of booking, and are subject to change. A $20.00 checked-baggage fee will apply for the first checked bag and $25.00 for a second checked bag per person. Each checked bag weighing over 50 pounds will be assessed a fee of $50 in addition to the checked bag fee. Dates of the advertised flights are subject to change in accordance with regulatory requirements. Cancellation is subject to administrative fee when permitted by regulatory requirements.
Challenges Of Technology For Private Aviation
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
Social Flights Flying Under The Radar
McKinsey just published a very important article called “The Trouble With Travel Distribution” which describes a condition where the travel market has become fractured, siloed, and dysfunctional.
The soul searching has begun.
After a decade of racing to the bottom of the travel market, everyone is raising their heads above the clouds and asking; “what happened to the customer?”
McKinsey suggest that industry incumbents move away from a model focused almost exclusively on reducing channel costs and toward one that seeks to maximize returns by best serving customer needs.
1. Focus on customers, not channels
2. Win in the era of ‘big data’
3. Unlock the power of partnerships
4. Master the entire customer experience
McKinsey constantly warns of “new competitors” swooping in to take their piece of the 100 Billion dollar market. They cite the Google acquisition of ITA travel software. New technologies such as the iPad and iTravel, and even huge data stores such as Amazon all having a shot at disrupting the current travel markets.
On the other hand, McKinsey talks about price uniformity across sectors. They call for cooperation among partnerships instead of competition of withholding information. They talk about end-to-end customer experience and the huge impact of social media:
And the incumbents must understand that the customer experience not only begins before the time of sale—and even before the time of search—but also extends well after purchase and travel.
What they don’t talk about is the emergence of an entirely new class of travel products and services flying in under the radar. This new class of services fills in the voids where little is known to exist; a classic disruption.
Enter The Private Sector
Private aviation, private travel agents, private hotels, and private entrepreneurs all have the data and resources that they need to carve out a niche where nobody else can reach. For example (corresponding to 1-4 McKinsey recommendations above):
- Social Flights is the first air service to focus on needs of the traveler, the group, and the community when deploying an airplane to market.
- Social Flights introduced the concept of replacing infrastructure with data to sort people and planes.
- Social Flights is the first to publish about price uniformity between commercial airlines and private air service.
- Social Flights is the first to deploy a Value Game; which is a system that integrates all travel stakeholders so they can cooperate instead of compete.
The Customer Integration
In Fact, nearly all of the McKinsey recommendation can be rolled up into a new class of business methods for the travel industry. Social Flights and all of our amazing partners, operator, travelers, and communities are on the deck … and under the radar, for now.
Private Aviation Is Leaving Money on The Tarmac
From Analytics Magazine
Airline accountants and statisticians perform two extremely important functions. The first is called “Yield Management” and the second is called “Fleet Management”.
Yield management is how airlines put the right customer in the right seat at the right price. Fleet management assigns the right airplane to the right time table at the rights price. This is the important integration for all airlines.
The Easy Way Outbound
Most charter brokers do not bother with yield management or fleet management. They hammer hard on sales; they scope out the wealthiest passengers and find them the jet that delivers (to the broker) a profit they can sell up to the passenger for fast turnaround. They neither expand the market to more people nor help existing clients share a plane among each other.
With proper yield management, a private ticket could “value out’ the same as a premium class commercial fare. The North American premium class market accounts for 6.6% of all airline traffic and 22.7% of all commercial airline revenue (IATA 2010) of 147 Billion dollars. Premium travel is a 30 Billion Dollar Industry. General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMMA) shows total billing of general aviation aircraft of $7.3 billion.
How to Double Your Market
Applications of yield management can easily double the number of passengers that would take a seat on a private aircraft. Meanwhile application of fleet management can nearly double the amount of available revenue seats; after all, 40% of private flights are empty.
Today’s private aviation industry has both a fragmented supply and a fragmented demand. Operators do not communicate with each other, they do not share legs, They do not share inventory, they do not allow customers to talk to each other or share a jet between them. Even the taxi industry lets people share a cab. As long as the industry is fragmented, investors, hospitality partners, and most importantly, passengers, will look elsewhere for their investment in time and money.
New Features At Social Flights
Social Flights offers instant quote feature that allows passengers to immediately cost out the price and flight time for a private aircraft between any two airports in the US. Social Flights then helps passengers communicate with each other so that they know the true cost before they are accosted by a broker. Social Flights publishes a wide range of aircraft and airports where they may fly.
Social Flights builds alliances and partnerships with owners, operator, passengers, hospitality, and support services so that everyone can see what everyone else is doing and price accordingly. Social flights posts empty legs, lists events in various cities, and refers service providers that can help out passengers on the ground
Watch us Grow
Keep in mind that each of these features represent initial applications of both yield management and fleet management. This is a huge innovation for private aviation. As the dataset increases and becomes integrated, we will begin performing essential calculations that the airlines use to manage their fleets.
Bring your information and inventory to us and let us combine it into new markets and customers – there is a lot more going on at Social Flights than many people realize.
Social Flights; The NextGen of Private Air Transport
Next Generation Air Traffic Management represents a major evolution in ground based air traffic control to satellite based air traffic management; it also represents an opportunity for private aviation to deliver far more value to the communities that they serve.
In order to accomplish this, Social Flights is developing a unifying business method that accurately and reliably matches supply and demand for private transportation assets across several thousand airports in the United States. NextGen, combined with the Internet and social media, gives the private aviation industry a set of tools that were unimaginable 20 or 30 years ago when the private aviation market last shifted.
How will private travel evolve?
NextGen will use aviation-specific applications for existing, widely-used technologies such as GPS, Weather Forecasting, data networking, and digital communication. Not surprisingly, these applications will lead to new procedures and airport infrastructure.
Some of these changes may be quite predictable
To get an idea as to how these new technologies will impact aviation, it may be a simple matter to compare how these EXACT same technologies have changed social cooperation in general. This prediction is valid because we all cooperate for our little piece of the sky.
Society has learned to cooperate in amazing ways as mobile devices, VOIP, GPS, Weather Reports, Traffic Reports, and non-corporate social organization become evermore commonplace. New business models constantly form around the technology. The result has been a profound shift in power and influence to those (for better or for worse) who can access and curate relevant information AND then share that information with people in their networks (and beyond).
Social Flights is taking the lead and calling on all private operators to join with us to build a common platform for private aircraft inventory and ground operations across the United States:
- Where are your jets stationed?
- What inventory do you have available?
- Where are your empty legs going?
- Are you willing to share facilities or “code-share” with other operators?
- Are you willing to cooperate with the major airlines?
- If entrepreneurs in your community had access to the whole system, would this help you?
- If corporations and event planners had access to the whole system, would this help you?
- Are local hospitality and support services sharing information with you?
The New Technology Advantage
Since the late 1800’s America has replaced every single telephone pole with a new one every 50 years or so. Today, every less developed country can simply build relatively few cellular towers and avoid that mess. For this reason, we can assume that airlines no longer have the advantage of vast hub infrastructure when together, we can just as easily sort people and planes with access to the right data shared across the right network.
The Cooperative Advantage in Private Aviation
Any number of b-school power plays will cite the competitive advantage necessary in hard economic times. But how many people talk about the cooperative advantage?
Information is power
When the buyer has the same information as the seller, markets are more efficient. The Internet has made information free and easy to transport. So, understandably, any business that hopes to survive by restricting information will ultimately find competition from a start-up that does not.
The “equal information” playing field
This scenario plays out over and over as industries as diverse as newspapers to higher education to government to commercial aviation are forced into profound transformation by the availability of equal information. True to conventional wisdom, good information creates more good information and bad information creates more bad information. For Social Flights, our best customer is the educated customer because they’ll educate each other.
Coming to an Airfield near you…
The true cost of flying private jets is one of the best-kept secrets in aviation. Corporate Jets are a source of mystery, controversy, and symbolism. There are many reasons for suppressing true costs such as avoiding public disclosure of VIP expenditures, or to protect profit margins enjoyed by charter brokers.
On the other hand, there are many important and legitimate reasons why some people should fly private instead of commercial. Social Flights believes that there are many situations where the true value of private flight greatly exceeds the cost of private flight for a large population of travelers. The problem is to find possibly millions of passengers who do not know that Social Flights applies to them.
Information Transparency
For this reason, it is essential that a baseline cost be established in a market so that everyone can use the same data to make educated decisions about how to travel efficiently. It is essential that the market can eliminate price distortions, suppress arbitrage opportunities, and equalize asymmetric information. The focus of the industry should be on expanding the market through transparency, not short term gain by hoarding the limited existing market.
Cooperation is the new market advantage
Social Flights has developed an instant flight quote feature that calculates a nominal estimate to fly a private aircraft from any airport in the US to any other airport in the US. This establishes a baseline on the actual cost to fly. From this baseline, jet operators can bid and win missions that are naturally most profitable to them. Or, operators can cooperate with each other by sharing legs in an abundant market rather than compete with each other for a constrained market.
Event planners, corporate executives, travel agents, economic development agencies, and travelers of every type now have the information that allows them to access private aviation inventory for businesses and the magnificent value that it brings to communities. That is the new market advantage.
Stronger Commercial Carriers Equals Stronger Private Carriers
A strong Commercial Aviation Industry portends a strong private aviation industry. This article features data from Honeywell Business jet forecast which correlates with the FAA forecast for 2011 through 2031 for commercial aviation.
Social Flights was launched at precisely the right time with up-to-the-minute social technology tools and business methods for aggregating large fleets of private aircraft and building out public charter routes that can meet customer needs.
According to Honeywell Aerospace’s Annual Business Outlook, business aviation is poised for recovery beginning in 2012. The Honeywell forecast is based on surveys of more than 1,500 flight departments around the world.
The World According to FAA.gov
The carriers have stopped less profitable routes, retired older aircraft, and unbundled services while initiating new services that passengers were willing to pay for such as WiFi. There is optimism in the industry that the next decade will show sustaining profits as the industry continues to grow in the long term.
The 2011 FAA forecast now calls for one billion passengers to be flown in 2021, two years earlier than projected in last year’s forecast. Growth over the next five years will average 3.7 percent per year, with average annual growth of 2.5 percent per year for the remainder of the forecast period. The level of activity and demand is expected to eclipse those published in last year’s FAA forecast.
Some of the reasons include stronger than expected traffic and higher expectations of economic recovery. As such, available seat miles (the benchmark for industry capacity) is expected to increase globally by 4.5% next year after years remaining flat or decreasing. The global market is expected to increase at 3.1% through 2031.
In the domestic market, capacity grew 2.9 percent in 2011 and is expected to grow to 3.0% in the long term. For the regional carriers, the domestic capacity will increase at 3.8% over 2010 rates.
The average size of domestic aircraft is expected to increase to 122.0 seats from just over 121.7 seats currently. The demand for 70-90 seat aircraft will continue to grow. The FAA expects the number of 50 seat aircraft to fall (and many will become available for lease or purchase). The average regional jet size will increase to 54.6 seats while the average length of the trip will increase.
The profitability of all air carriers will depend on stable fuel prices, increase in demand for business travelers, and the willingness of travelers to continue to accept higher prices for less services. In order to keep costs low, the carriers will need to better match their routes, aircraft capacity, and their markets (supply and demand). they will need to ground older aircraft, drop low margin routes, and pressure regional carriers to accept lower fees.
This is where social flights comes in:
All this is bad news for 6-60 passenger scheduled service. However, Social Flights can effectively join these two forecasts by providing public charter services across industries. The weakness of one mode can be hedged by the strength of the other, and vice versa. This makes for an excellent investment opportunity in social organization methods for air transportation pioneered by Social Flights.
There is an entire segment where Social Flights can capture market share that commercial carriers would willingly cede to Social Flights in order to keep THEIR own costs low.