Plane Conversations

I’m not a big fan of jargon, although I’m sure I speak aviation jargon all day long without realizing it.  So, I guess what I really mean is: I’m not a fan of jargon that I don’t understand.  It agitates me and leaves me anxious that I’m going to miss some crucial grain of information, simply because I misunderstood the meaning of a word – because I thought that “cloud computing” had something to do with weather predictions.

At the end of last summer, several of us sat down in the conference room to discuss social media and how our use of it might transform our industry, our company and us.  By now, most Americans know what social media is and maybe most people knew then.  Maybe I was the clueless one.  I struggled to keep up in the meeting simply because I didn’t understand the terminology.  It all sounded like Jabberwocky to me.  I recognized the words as being English, but I had no idea what to do with them.  I’m still no pro at social media jargon, largely because it changes faster than I can keep up; however, I’m better at it now than I was then.  I have learned to translate the jargon into words that are comfortable for me.  I can boil the strange, new concepts down into conceptual language that I can relate to.

When I was at an industry conference in San Antonio, a session speaker used our company as an example of one that is diving headfirst into the technology and communication culture.  I mistook the presentation date and missed it, to my great embarrassment, but I heard that it was fantastic and that we were reflected in a complimentary way.  As I chatted with people during the conference, I got a lot of, “I’ve heard I should do this, but I’m still not sure how”  or “They said I should do these things, but I don’t know why.”  After nearly eight months of blogging, tweeting, posting, disseminating, commenting, editing, photographing and god knows what else, some days I’m still not sure the How but I’m figuring out the Why.

When I first shifted from operations into outside sales, I met lots of blank stares when I told people who I was and who I worked for.  They’d never heard of us, in spite of our size and our history.  It was a disheartening struggle.  I went door-to-door, talking about who we are and what we do.  I was making progress, but in a global scheme, it could be measured in microsteps.  At the end of the day, you’re not going to see an ad for our company or most other aviation companies in the Wall Street Journal.  We don’t buy ads during Wimbledon.  And we don’t have an agreement with a mainline airline.  But, we’re good at what we do.  Social media has given all of us a way to share our questions, our beliefs and our ideas with the world.

You’re good at what you do.  You’re more than a set of wings and a block purchase program.  You have ideas of your own and beliefs on how to make your company and our industry better.  This is your way to share it.  You don’t have to rely on a canned message from somebody else.  You can say it for yourself.  All you have to do is learn the language.

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In our ongoing discussions about how to reduce the costs of flying private aircraft by putting together a way to share a ride I posted a blog titled “Would Business Travelers Share?”

We believe that people would be willing to share a private jet flight with others provided it left at a mutually agreed on time both coming and going.

So if you can answer the when question (when we all want to go) what about the who (who will I share a ride with) question?  

Who you would share the flight with?

Would you share a flight with your competitor? Probably not. You would not want to have your competitor in close quarters for two hours listening to your discussions about today’s meeting or presentation.

If you are on a business trip would you share the flight with a group of college kids going to spring break and ready to party?

When you ride on the airlines you don’t have much choice who you sit next to. You may get lucky enough to sit next to Kevin Smith and share his space? Or a bratty kid who keeps kicking you and you can’t kick back?

If you were sharing a ride on a private jet charter flight it would be very easy to know in advance who was sitting next to you. With all of the social media profiling surely you could just go take a look at your seat mates Facebook page or LinkedIn profile and figure out if they might be OK to share the flight with. It would seem that knowing who you are riding with could be very easy to determine and even control.  

You never know, the person you share the flight with may end up being your next friend, client, partner, collaborator…..

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On January 25, Dan Robles suggested that Social Currency might be used to fight terrorism. Some of our friends on Linkedin joined the conversation. 

Greg Johnson, President, CEO and founder of OneSky Jets, says:

“I think there are a few interesting points of discussion in Dan’s latest post. The first relates to where we catch terrorists… Trying to stop them at the airport checkpoint is an effort in futility. Terrorists are a determined lot and as Dan states, they only have to succeed once. The answer lies in knowing more about everyone who elects to fly as personally invasive as that may sound.

The U.S. and other countries are already starting to collect more data from passengers…birthdate and place of birth in addition to name, even on domestic flights. There has been an ongoing debate about a federal ID card although my opinion is that an additional card would be redundant. The databases exist today to to give law enforcement a pretty decent ability to profile passengers and I only see that capability expanding.

The typical terrorist’s desire to keep a low profile works against them when they are attempting to blend in to an increasingly data-driven society. The absence of data or abnormal patterns will stand out.

I don’t believe that “social currency” on its own is enough. There are billions of peaceful people on the planet that are not actively engaged in social networking today. The fact that my Mother isn’t on Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace shouldn’t (on its own) subject her to an additional level of security screening, however a college student today without an online presence might throw a red flag or two.

Also, don’t think that law enforcement isn’t already leveraging social networks. I have an associate who has been involved in government facial recognition projects. When the government needed a database of names and photos to test this new technology, where do you think they went? The publicly available pages of Facebook!

So the net/net here in my opinion is that the publicly available data in social networks can and will be used by governments of the world as one facet in a multi-dimensional campaign to know who is flying before they get anywhere near the airport and in the big picture, that’s a good thing.”

Mike Osborne, Operations AME at Honeywell, shares this concern:

“How do you propose to ascertain their networks and claims? Either or both seem easy enough to falsify.”

My reply is:

“I believe that the idea is to go for a “preponderance of evidence.” Just as the lack of a credit report, utility bills or bank records casts doubt on the authenticity of an identity, the lack of social credit and social activity history casts doubt on the social interaction and perhaps even identity of the passenger. Certainly, just as false credit reports, etc. can be created to support an alias, false social backgrounds could be created to support it as well. I think the point that Dan Robles is making is that to create monetary history and social history that coincide is difficult and would make it more difficult for terrorists to support several believeable aliases.”

Kenneth J. Goldstein, President at KJG International Consulting, responds:

“No as left to their own devices, most would not provide a sufficient background to grant the rest of us security.”

What do you think?

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Aviation supports a role in society that is analogous to the Internet itself. While the hard work gets done at the points on the ground, Aviation provides the diversity of ideas that can congregate.

Sure, Twitter, Facebook, and Linked in are great for broadcasting across the globe, but nothing can happen until the rubber meets the tarmac. Emerging trends in the Last Mile of Social Media portend opportunities for Private Aviation.

The following video describes how the components of the next economic paradigm must act locally, but share globally. For anyone wondering what to do next or where the great opportunities are, think about building out the Last mile of Social Media.

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The commercial aviation industry in the United States, as a whole, experienced a net loss in revenue in 2008. The key metric to watch is the Revenue Per Mile (RPM) since the predictable behavior of the commercial airlines, individually and as an industry, will largely be in response to RPM.

Revenue Per Mile may be impacted by internal efficiency, modernization, and technological change. However, RPM may also be influenced by shifting cost back to the passenger in the form of lost amenities.

For the purpose of this analysis, we’ll call that shift a social cost denominated as a social currency. For example, charging extra for that oversized bag does not move from the loss to profit column of the accounting statement; rather, it is simply shifted to a social burden column which will manifest in social media as a future public relations nightmare, a poor review in a social network, loss of loyalty and goodwill, or learned travel behaviors such as denying the carrier of extra revenue by not carrying that extra bag.

At first, social costs will act as a liability against the offending carrier (such as the five hour tarmac tours). Over time, as tacit collusion among the carriers unfolds, the social currency liability shifts to the industry as a whole where the aggregate decision is to simply not travel, to bundle travel events, gang travel legs, or choose alternate modes of transportation.

Few people realize that Social Media itself is a competitor to commercial air travel.  Today, groups of people can integrate and coordinate more tightly, ultimately reducing the need to travel or organizing their travel more efficiently.  Meanwhile, business travelers are adopting a host of technologies that keeps them informed and connected virtually.

The commercial airline response to financial strain may, in fact, lead passengers to alternate modes of transportation; physical and virtual.

While commercial and private aviation is reacting to RPM denominated in dollars, the customers are responding to a social currency.  Private aviation has accurately identified the burdens imposed by the commercial airlines industry to distinguish itself as a viable alternative.  Now, the challenge is to express this as a social currency denominated asset prior to converting back to dollars denominated ticket price, not after.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Human Writes

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

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

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

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

Ruse and lose

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

The Paradigm Shift

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

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When it comes to air travel today, no one enjoys it.

Is There A Better Way?

Watch the video below and give this alternative some thought the next time you think about using a commercial airline. This alternative would have enabled me to go to New York City and back within the same day.  Total travel time would have been roughly five hours instead of 18.  And it would have cost me less!

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I live in Edmonds, Washington, near Paine Field – home of the sprawling Boeing manufacturing site for the 747, 777, and 787 aircraft.  For years, the county executives have been trying to lure major airline service into Paine Field claiming that the economic benefits would far outweigh the drawbacks.  Paine Field is about one hour north of the Seattle Tacoma Airport and about three hours south of Vancouver International.

Airline expansion hurts communities

Many efforts over the years to locate another airport in this gap have hit political and environmental land mines. Paine Field expansion is no different.  For years, the county, state, and FAA have been funding “improvements” that look a lot like accommodations for scheduled airlines.  The county executive has been courting carriers and lobbying ‘unaffected voters’ and legislators to this grand economic development cause.

Community activism counter-attack

The citizens of neighboring communities have not stood still.  They have commissioned studies of every environmental and quality of life factor from home value impact to distracted learning at local schools.  They cite urban blight, social deviance, and under development at other similar expansion projects.    Political careers are made and broken over support or opposition to the airport expansion.

The Market rules

So far, the market has not proven large enough to support a major B737-sized scheduled service.  Ironically, there have been very few studies of the impact of private aviation service expansions.  Little data is discussed related to the noise foot print of small jets versus large jets.  Very little data is presented to the community about distributed vs. concentrated air and car traffic flows and the upscale effects of a private aviation presence.

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

To the community’s advantage, small private carriers can soak up and diffuse the market that would eventually support a major carrier.  These battles are raging all over the country against the political mantra of Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Local communities are running out of money, lawyers, and stall tactics to fight them.

Citizen Airlines, LLC

With the price of seat on a (full) private jet often being about the same as a business class ticket on a major airline, local communities may want to go into the travel agency business.  By keeping a community database that identifies and matches travelers to destinations combined with some proactive social media marketing, Citizen Airlines, LLC can stave off an airport expansion by competing with it.

Empower yourself, empower your community….

Meanwhile, thousands of unemployed citizens are available to manage an on-line branded community jet service (operated by a private carrier).  Advertising and marketing can be transferred to the community in exchange for reduced rates and shared access to private aviation reports and data which would help them fight airline expansion.

This requires that the private aviation industry empower communities who are not necessarily their direct customers but are stakeholders none the less.  Social Capitalism is the act of elevating oneself by elevating the entire community. By giving people a voice, the industry would get a bullhorn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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