Det er en ny Low-Fare Carrier paa gang!

[LN-MOW]

There's A New Low-Fare Airline In The Works

It's coming in the next 18 months. America's newest airline. In a very real way, it will re-write much of the book on airline operations, and be one very nasty competitor.

It'll Be Big - Real Big - From The Start. No bootstrapping here, this carrier's going to be big - a fleet of several hundred airliners, eventually comprised of units from 100 to 140 seats. It won't follow the nonsense espoused by empty-suit academics who claim just one airplane type is best - it'll have a fleet that's structured to flexibly access maximum revenue, not win an "A" grade from some zipperhead professor at the Whartog School of Business. Probably it will end up with at least three airliner types between 100 and roughly 150 seats. No RJs - the airline knows better. No widebodies, either.

Low Fares - But To Smaller Markets, Too. The route system will be huge, with at least four de facto connecting hubs, plus linear flying as well. The plan will certainly be be focused on large, high-density markets, eventually including large transborder leisure points in Mexico and possibly the Caribbean. But it may also identify emerging growth points, even at communities that today generate as few as 500,000 annual O&D passengers, and have the ability to produce strong price-based stimulation. The airline will look hard at any such community that's also experiencing strong industrial investment. Hence, the 100-seat airliners. Probably E-Jets.

A Simple, But Competitive Product. The new airline knows that the best product is one that gets the customer to the destination as quickly and as anxiety-free as possible. So the new airline will provide excellence in all aspects of customer service. It will offer a single-cabin product with advanced seat assignment system-wide. IFE systems may be in the plan eventually, but having video screens in every seat-back isn't a priority. Instead, in-flight service will be simple and efficient. This airline may dabble with innovative snack items - as long as the cost is about the equivalent of a bag of pretzels.

Competitively Carnivorous. Other airlines are best advised to not mistake the new carrier's excellent customer service as being an indication of how it views competition. These are not friendly people when it comes to dealing with other airlines. Strong, dominant revenue share in chosen markets will be the goal. If that means some incumbents end up singing the blues, so be it.

This is a management team that fully understands that a strong economy won't last forever, and they know that traffic can and will flatten. They'll view every passenger now on American, United, Frontier, AirTran or anybody else as potentially theirs, and they will have as a basic marketing plan to change "potentially" to "now." They won't put other airlines out of business. Instead, they'll offer a level of service that will have consumers do it for them.

New In Concept & Direction. But Been Around Awhile. The new airline's name? Well, it technically won't be a new carrier, just one re-born and polished to meet the future, even if it does mean breaking with lots of things in the past.

Write this prediction down: the "new carrier" is .... les videre i linken


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