What Makes a Great Airline
 

from a pilot perspective, what do you think constitutes a great airline? secondly, what would you do to get an airline going well? does it rest in a great leader, efficient A/C, market niches, passenger benefits and fares, etc?

everyone try to leave an opinion about what you would do to try to build the perfect airline. for those of you who think i am about to start a Kiwi type airline, I'm not, I'm just interested in what the line guys think

leadership....leadership...leadership...

take a look at any winning team / organization / company / enterprise - it comes down to leadership...

-LA

Leadership that can understand both ends of the spectrum. Both operational and business end. Oh, fuel efficient airplanes, good CASM, fuel hedging program, Spare parts maintenance program, being diversified, treating your employees as good as your customers, and finally paying them a good salary with performence bonus's.

Sadly, leadership is what is lacking most in the airline industry. The idea of management bonuses while a company loses millions and employees take huge cuts really proves this point.

Exactly, I don't think an airline CEO should make more than 100K a year. However I think capts should make 200K. That maybe the pilot in me and it may be backwards but, that is my opinion right or wrong.

Corporate management runs the corporation... and respects the 119 personnel.

Airline management runs the airline and respects corporate management.

You can discuss the usual rhetoric about the quality of pilots, flight attendants, ground handlers, maintenance, dispatchers, etc.

Start at the beginning… the desired culture of the company. The culture should be that an employee looks forward to coming to work every day… take pride in what he or she does, and at the end of the day go home believing they made a difference and accomplished their daily tasks and goals… and look forward to coming to work the next day. Corporate management should realize these accomplishments and reward their employees appropriately to contiune to instill motivation which will increase productivety.

Pride… pride in knowing that each employees’ involvement was responsible for pulling together as a team in getting a plane with passengers, and hopefully baggage successfully from A to B with happy passengers at their destination.

tools for an airline
 

am i wrong to believe that there is some niche remaining in this market? understanding that management and the corporate side really helps make a great airline, is there anything left for entry into the market.. i did my economic thesis on the deregulation of the industry back when Braniff and TWA were MONSTERS in the industry and one thing i noticed is that there are actually routes that no one has touched.... im not about to say i will go into business and try to have an airline service these routes, but it would be interesting to see if it would be work...

like the thread says, what tools would help build an airline to service these routes.. what airplanes, what pilots (regional minimums or major?), and who runs it... everyone says management, but where do you get that kind of experience, and the investors too?

there needs to be someone on the inside (pilots) that can understand how to run an efficient airline out of small airports with connections to larger places... old airports like Tweed New Haven in CT used to have commercial service but no longer and those customers need to drive 2 hours to the airport, kind of strange.

I believe there still is a niche in the market for new airlines. I am doing the same thing. My senior thesis for college is a business plan. I chose mine to figure out what it takes to start an airline. I have about 100pages so far. Theres A lot to it. Lot of different issues but I definitly believe it is something that can work. It is terribly difficult to get other people motivated to invest when when you have airlines in bankruptcy, high fuel prices, etc. I have been working on my project for about a year now. Until a few months ago it was between myself in the computer. I bounced the ideas around to a few people I know including my professor who is a business consultant and I have gathered a team of people some experienced in airline operations and some that have not dealt with airline ops. I cannot reveal any info until I have a copyright on the business plan. When we become in a position to hire some people and post some info, I will post here. Until then not much I can say. The only advice I can give is do surveys gather some Stats. I spent many months doing that. Do your homework well, study the rise and fall of airlines. See who is profiting now and why? Read the airlines annual reports, SEC filings, quartlerly performence, and talk to as many people as you can. Good luck...

100k? Well, you get you pay for. That's true for pilots and for management.

If you think there is an opportunity at HVN, then that shows that your instincts are strong. There are other opportunities like it, though we think HVN is among the top 5 in the country (lots of data to back that up btw). Of course, the strip is short and they are having trouble getting the DEP to go with the FAA backed safety area extension...but we think that will eventually be approved sometime this year. With that done (and even without it) 73Gs and 319s can go just about anywhere. The terminal is too small, but there are innovative solutions for that problem. NIMBYs are more quiet than they used to be, but are still a concern.

emerging:
i see you dont have PM yet, but e-mail me and we need to talk.. thanks

pvh

Someone once said " If management will take care of the employees, the employees will take care of the business".

Communication.

PVH,

Email me at [email protected]

EA

Build a team. Don't treat any of the working groups as adversaries. In order to do this, it will take something very rare in business management and even more rare in airline management; don't lie to or double-cross your employees! You can not substitute impassioned letters from the senior leadership of the company to the workers about their "integrity". No matter how great the temptation, practice treachery or deceit once, and it will never be forgotten or forgiven. You've poisoned that waterhole.

Definately taking care of your people is a must. Also have to keep the tin floating as much as possible and not sitting. I have often wondered if major airports are the best choice. Has any of the majors researched the possibility of a separate (private?) airport so they're aren't sitting in queue or in landing traffic? This could also be a major selling point since many people don't want to do the dreaded 3-hour wait at the airport.

Perhaps first class is a waste of time. How does the income per square foot of first class cabin space compare to that of coach?

There are a couple of hooks and gimmicks they can try, but they are all usually short-lived as competition catches up.

They just need to quit trying to give the service out cheap. When you think about what a $300 plane ticket gets you, its a real good deal and cutting that ticket down to $250 or less just turns the public perception of the airline industry into that of a garbage can with wings. There used to be a time when the flight itself was as much of the vacation as the destination. People loaded into DC-3s and actually enjoyed the flight. Now between the airport hassles (God bless the TSA), sitting on the taxiway and the impersonal service of it all, the flight has become the dreaded part of the vacation. To many, the vacation doesn't even start until they are driving away from the destination airport. Hmmm...perhaps the major airport is what is eroding the fun of flying.

First off, I am fortunate to have free flying benefits on United, and as a result I sit in first class on at least 20 trips a year. So I have a good perspective of who does, and who does not sit in first class.

Number one, first class is not full of all upgrades. When I check the loads, before anyone can upgrade using miles, a typical flight looks something like 15/24 in first class. It is not uncommon to see first class full! These tickets cost at least 4 times as much as an economy ticket.
Next, a lot of people fly in first class when they buy last minute tickets. Because last minute tickets are typically very expensive, and first class prices do not depend on date of purchase, a last minute traveler will often make the jump from economy to first class.
A lot of times, the people who I sit next to are business travelers who just don't care how much first class costs, because they can throw their company credit card down, and not worry. There are still travelers like this. It has obviously decreased since 9/11, but trust me, they still exist.

Finally, first class is a great perk for a frequent flier program. Like those old United commercials ripping on Southwest:
"Our miles are better than theirs..."

You can either spend 25,000 miles to buy a $200 plane ticket, or you can spend 5,000 (maybe its 8) to upgrade to first class. This is a big incentive to business travelers and is a reason why legacies still have loyal customers. No where is this more prevelant than on hub to hub flights on a 3 class 777.
The load will be like 7/12, 25/49, and 196/197. Then ALL the frequent fliers will upgrade. But since you can only upgrade one class of service, they upgrade to business. So business class usually fills up faster than first. This is nice for employee pass travel. I can't remember the last time I sat in business class. It is usually first class, or coach.

Also, first class seats take up about the room normally occupied by 2 coach seats. So as long as you can sell those seats for twice as much, or the incentive of keeping frequent fliers is worth 2 coach seats, first class will benefit airlines.

To reply to the original question, I feel a good airline can be determined by a simple stat.

RASM > CASM.
Period. If that is true, than everything else can fall into place. You want a place with good work rules, well employees have power when an airline is making money.

Thanks for the insight, Ryane946, us folks in steerage don't always know what things are like on the upper-deck.

We're going to be flying from Chattanooga to Vegas here in mid-May for a week, just the wife and I. Pricing out the airfare has made me realize what the problem is with airlines not making money: 2 people RT from Chat to Vegas for $423, that right there is the problem. The airlines should be charging much more than that. 2,000 road miles for $200, that's ten cents per mile and people complain about airlines charging too much.

Hey ERJ135...
 

I don't have PM yet, but shoot me an email: [email protected]. I think I'm embarking on the same endeavor as you and would like to ask a question or two.

Ryane is right and wrong, if you're making money everything *should* fall into place. It depends on what kind of filter that money has to fall through first, if you know what I mean. On his radio show the other day Jim Rome asked Jalen Rose what it would take to make things right in NY. "Winning" was his one word answer.

I will most definitly send you an e-mail probably not until tommorow or tonight, I away for the week and have limited access to a computer