The biggest farce floating around the industry, be it airline, air charter or air taxi, is the moaning and wailing regarding Jet-A. Yes, it is expensive. Yes, it has gone up…. ok, it has gone up A LOT.
I hate to say it, but the Jet-A price increase isn’t the reason people are going out of business, or a reason to lay people off. It is an opportunity for the truly transparent to shine.
Fuel (or any cost you have) is not a reason for customers who need you, value you, etc. to ditch you. If you opt for the car instead of the plane, guess what? You’ll still get clobbered on price. Fuel is a very integral part of our lives. It is even raising the cost of my beloved avocados. But I’ll still buy them and look to cut somewhere else, like the avocados draped across the sushi I spend money on like an idiot.
(Hard times tend to be harder on the idiots.)
Popularity: 35%
I don’t know why Andy Rooney bugs me so much, but a recent airline bashing piece finally brought my Rooney focus into better and more obvious light.
Andy is upset about the airlines - so are we, we get that. The problem of running an efficient, profitable, and “expectation exceeding” airline is not an easy one to solve. The problem with rants of this sort is that as old as Andy is, he is beginning to suffer from simple amnesia.
Popularity: 24%
The problem with hype is that it can really get away from you. Salespeople often require lots of fantastic premises and a careful architecture of quasi logic and emotional zingers to keep the potential customers slack jawed and credulous. Dayjet (of all air taxi schemes) was actually the one that had the best hope of “working.” Nonetheless, Dayjet’s most recent big news has reminded us of one critical thing: True “Air Taxi” is a tough sell - not so much to future passengers, but the darn investors you need to fuel up the venture in the first place.
Popularity: 100%