Myth, Reality, Opportunity

The Future of the Airline Industry:

Myth, Reality, Opportunity

Revised Edition: March, 2006

$195.00 Tuition
Special Promotional Price
Limited Time Only!

In addition to the presentation online presentation, you will receive a DVD containing the complete discussion, together with other reference materials, which you can play on any PC or DVD player and share with co-workers.

David J. Wardell has worked in aviation industry for over 29 years as a consultant to many of the world's largest and most successful airlines, to national governments on aviation and travel logistics, policy, and program design, and in other phases of industry strategy, operations, management, training, technology and IS, and distribution.

He has authored over 450 articles for technical, trade, consumer, and general interest publications, including such prestigious periodicals as The Economist, on numerous technical and non-technical subjects.

His wide experience in dealing with decades of change in aviation policy, distribution, and operations provides a uniquely valuable perspective on current challenges facing the industry and what airlines, consumers, and distributors should be doing now.

Why, despite record passenger numbers, the airline industry is such a mess and can't seem to rationalize its operations or finances.

Government isn't responsible for the industry's ills.

There is no "overcapacity" in the industry, and if one or more major carriers were to disappear, the industry as a whole would not benefit.

Most analysts and experts have missed the true direction of airline distribution--and simply selling through major online agencies isn't the answer.

If all airlines looked like the major low cost carriers, the industry would not be better off--the most successful low cost carriers operate much differently than most people assume.

Why recent changes to the airline industry have significantly damaged consumers--and there is no relief in sight.

Who will survive and who will not in the current airline industry--and why.

Despite a booming U.S. economy, years of draconian cost-cutting, massive financial concessions from employees and lenders, and in some cases bankruptcy, the airline industry in the U.S. can't make any money, can't rationalize its operations and seems determined to abuse its customers by "compressing" service at every turn.

In 2004, the global airline industry marked its fourth year of cumulative losses, exceeding $36 billion since 2001.

2005 traffic is up but yields and profits are not. The global industry increased its fuel bill by $17 billion in 2004, but appeared powerless to pass these costs along to the consumer; 2005 is much worse.

Although some regions and companies worldwide are better-off than others, the global airline industry is unable to appropriately design and price its products and services.

What on earth is the matter?  What happened to some of the best-known, most prestigious, and most successful transportation companies in the world?  Something changed--and nobody seems to understand or still less agree on what that might be.

Airline management routinely blames:

• Overcapacity

• High Fuel Costs

• Government

• Employees

• Deregulation

• Customers

They are wrong in each case.

This discussion moves beyond business posturing and academic doubletalk to center on a practical assessment of what is really happening to the airline industry and why.  Central to the discussion is a series of realist appraisal of what's right and wrong with current industry thinking and practices--together with predictions as to what the next few years may hold.

Airlines will adjust operational and management practices only if the alternative is worse—the lack of real strategic planning in the industry is astounding. The discussion suggests what some elements of a sound airline strategy may be--and whether customers are ever likely to see one.

A summary of where travel distribution is headed over the short term is also included, as the composition and health of the airline industry is an essential component of traditional and emerging travel distribution.

DID YOU KNOW, FOR INSTANCE:

Government regulators are not prepared to oversee airline cost-cutting in maintenance and other safety-related areas. This should be an issue of significant public policy concern.

Appeals to government for intervention to slow or reverse industry changes are inevitable and politically difficult to disregard.

Airline consolidation has never resulted in lower customer prices and there is no reason to believe it should.

Overcapacity is not the problem--appropriately priced capacity is the issue.

Industry suppliers, consultants, and analysts who want to appreciate the inevitable business and especially technological changes caused by today's chaotic airline environment and who are tired on industry double-talk.

Educators, government officials, and business executives who are confused by industry rhetoric and want an independent view of what is really happening in airline travel.

Corporate travel managers who need to understand the fundamental operational, financial, and customer service changes airline industry events will cause.

Travel agency managers and principals who are concerned about the industry and how they'll remain operationally and financially competitive.

Anyone interested in a short and long-term strategic outlook on airline travel, with an emphasis upon what really happening and emerging opportunities.

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