As the newest member of the SimpliFlying team, the past month has already been a whirlwind and now I am about to jet off to Nassau, Bahamas for Routes Americas.

Routes Americas is a gathering of airlines, airports, aviation service providers and industry experts focused around air service development. With a constantly changing and evolving industry like aviation, the people in our great industry are always on the move, figuring out what direction to grow, what direction to stop growing and, quite simply, what to do next.

The focus of the Routes Americas event, and similar events that take place throughout the year, is often analogized with what common culture refers to as “speed dating.”  These meetings sometimes lead to new air service but most importantly allow airlines the opportunity to meet with multiple airports over the two-day period and to get a feel for what each community could bring to the table if the airline were to consider service.  Airports get the chance to wow the airlines with news and updates on their communities and even send the airline planning reps home with cool, memorable marketing trinkets.

As a former, small airport, marketing and development director, this will be the first …

A couple of weeks ago, I asked had an interesting conversation with a senior airline executive in Asia. Here’s how it went:
SN: What’s the emotional motivation (not $) for your customers to fly your airline?
Airline exec: Erm…I’m not sure.
SN: Hmm…is there someone front-line I can speak with who’d know, like the check-in staff, or flight crew?
Airline exec: Actually, the airport crew is outsourced, so we have little inputs, and it’s logistically tough to reach out to the crew.
What fascinated me the most were two things. One – I was talking to a (very) senior executive who didn’t know what, beyond price, attracts his customers. And secondly, the fact that the airport crew is outsourced may be a short term gain ($$ savings) but a long term loss due to the lack of front line inputs.

Twitter to the rescue! Tweet. Tweet.
But market research need not be that difficult. Especially when tools like Twitter exist these days, which allow you to connect with anyone – inside or outside your company – to seek opinions, cheaply and in real-time. Twitter is the in-thing these days. An …

The airline industry is one in which there are a lot of externalities – situations beyond the control of individual airlines, which they have to deal with. These may include events such as 9/11, weather conditions, pilot union trouble or even the bankruptcy of a competitor. Though on the face of it, these may all seem to bring trouble, but if leveraged well, these externalities can lift the airline brand in a number of ways. This is because almost always, a number of airlines face a similar macro-situation simultaneously, but it is those who deal with it well who come out triumphant.
Here are three examples of how airlines around the world have been resilient in the face of externalities.

Olympics in Beijing? Let’s send the A380 there. To capitalize on the increased travel demand to Beijing during the Olympics, Singapore Airlines recently announced that they will be flying the A380 to Beijing during this period. What a perfect example of dexterity. Not only will SIA be able to showcase their …