from the editor of aseidman.com

The U.S Airline Innovation Imperative

Posted by Ariel Seidman | June 7, 2008

In the past four years my overall flying experience has degraded so quickly that the thought of a vacation requiring air travel is frankly not very interesting. Here are some gory details from my latest trip from SFO to Brazil:

• Each flight was 100% full
• Seats were old, cloth was ripped in some places, and one of my seats did not recline.
• Entertainment included watching David Letterman reruns from a few months back on monitors which vacillated between black & white and full color throughout.
• Due to mechanical issues the cabin temperature was either frigid or so warm people were tearing off their cloths (sounds more exciting then it actually was).
• For a 6 hr. flight from San Francisco to Miami they charge you for food (odd, since for a 6.5 hr. flight from Boston to London they serve you food)
• The definition of “carry-on” luggage now includes 50 pound rollers — when 100 or so people are each try stuffing this into the overhead compartment it gets rather crowded.

While I happened to be flying American Airlines they clearly have lots of company in the category of poor flying experiences these days. This is a rampant problem throughout all of the major U.S carriers (United, American, Delta, Northwest). These carriers have old equipment, neglected employees, and antiquated software systems. When you combine this with the FAA that is still using 1950’s technology to manage air traffic flow it creates “get me out of here” customer experiences. For a country that prides itself on technology innovation and service our flying experience is an embarrassment.

Business professionals — folks who fly a lot have reached a boiling point and are looking for something new and different. Which airline executive has the the guts to begin innovating again. Only a few years ago cell phone customers were an angry bunch — they had dingy plastic cell phones that did no more then call people, shoddy network coverage, long handcuff contracts, and call-centers that replaced humans with robots. Apple came along and re-defined much of that experience —everything from buying the cell phone, to onboarding customers, to the cell phone itself. Who is going to pull an Apple on the airline industry. Lets start with the flight experience — here are some of the things I am looking for:

• New airplanes: clean interior, inviting ambience, cushy seats that recline properly, and a comfortable cabin temperature and pressure.
• In-seat entertainment: I want at least 15 channels of live TV.
• Laptop friendly seats: Electrical outlets in all seats and seats when fully reclined do not crush an open laptop in the seat behind it.
• Food: Option to buy a meal at booking— if the flight is six hours and leaves at 9am I am pretty certain that I will want either breakfast or lunch provide me the option to buy a civilized hot meal.
• No Black-Out Dates: No black out dates for using frequent flier miles.

Granted this only solves part of the problem, but its a start and its focused on the longest segment of most peoples trip — the flight itself. Other parts of this problem — cramped airport terminals,, long security lines, limited public transportation to airports, etc. require federal and local government agencies, so lets leave that till January ‘09 to start addressing those problems.

Boeing 787…Are the winds shifting?

Posted by Ariel Seidman | January 30, 2007

Is this more concerning news coming out of Boeing regarding the 787 program or standard hiccups in the development process of a complex and innovative product — only time will tell. While this issue is peanuts relative to analyst reports that some of the 787 suppliers are struggling to meet Boeing specs and timelines. While I am sure that a delay (even a relatively short one of a few months) will not bode well for the Boeing stock I can’t imagine that this will drastically change the Boeing vs. Airbus competitive dynamics as Airbus is a good 2-3 yrs. behind Airbus and has significant resources tied up in the A380 for the forseeable future.

In my humble opinion business schools should start preparing a case study on the turn-around of Boeing which is based on a few key elements—here are a few:

1. leapfrog technology aka the 787
2. insight that point to point is more important then network
3. new supplier model: extension of risk to large suppliers

What do you all think?

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