As has being said before the good operators will remain that way, the pond scum won't change either.
That said SMS offers a real advantage to the good guys if they think out of the box.
The problem to date is the public really has no clue with who they are flying with. (I should say pretend to have no clue, in a lot a places people know exactly who they hire.) The cover is everyone presumes the government is making it safe and they are all the same. The real issue is getting the public to recognize that you get what you pay for.
If say a group of air taxi operators banded together and said - we are going to create a "club" that excludes the low life's. This club will be open to all who meet the standards which you could wrap into an SMS
Standards would include things like , pilot pay, pilot security to refuse a flight, a filled out w&B with a signed dispatch log for every flight, a MEL that has being updated since they built the beaver, etc etc. This would be backed by a third party audit like DNV, NBAA etc. The audit files would be available to all.
If this "band" were really together they would self insure with a back up high deductible policy. Run a good shop for a few years and reinvest the premiums and you will get to a point where you don't even need the back up policy. Regardless of the operator making money the insurance company always makes money. Nothing scares an insurance company like self insurance.
Once this is in place you have to let the public and the companies that charter that hey - we are brand X, we offer all this, when you look at prices ask the low ballers what they offer.
I would make it clear that we pay pilots well. Most people are not going to get on a plane with a pilot paid grocery bagger wages when the other guy pays his pilots a living wage
I say most because you want to cream the premium customers. Reputable lodge operators, contractors and individuals with a brain will pay extra. No one goes to the cheap surgeon, why fly with the cheap pilot?
The biggest obstacle is right now any one can say we are TC certified which means very little. Create a quality brand and build a reputation. You will never change the minds of some, the old timers will stick with so and so cause he always gets it in. A well designed website spelling out why "we" are better will pull in new customers who have never hired a plane and start to make some charters re think. No one wants to be the person that hires the plane that crashes.
SMS represents a big change and change creates opportunities. It will not happen overnight but it will happen.
20driver