OK, so I'm in management - please don't eat me!
- but my style of management is firstly to shut up and listen, and for several years I've been "listening" to several different branches of the aviation industry, most recently to you guys on here. What I'm "hearing" is an industry that seems to be devoured by internal hostility, one that portrays itself as part of the modern world yet mostly behaves like it's stuck in a mediaeval time-warp with a bunch of would-be feudal lords gouging each other's eyes out and exploiting every peasant in their quest for domination over some small patch of land.
I never liked history - my background is the future: science and education - so with the help of some disinterested third parties and a totally blank page, I've built an alternative proposal for "passenger transport by air". When I discuss this with anyone (
anyone) from outside the aviation industry, their reaction is universally "Oh, how I wish it was like that, when are you starting?" - which isn't really a surprise to me because
my management training says listen to your customers and give them what they want and your business will be a success.
Now, here's the thing as I have begun to take the idea off the page an into the real world, everyone
in the aviation industry says "you can't do it like that, that's not the way it's done." Why is that? What is so superbly perfect about the current model that it mustn't be challenged? This has been brought into particular focus this week as I've been in discussions with aircraft lease companies and the CAA. Both want to analyse my business plan to satisfy themselves that the proposal matches the "industry standard" - but it seems to me that it's the same "industry standard" that has pushed them (especially the CAA) to protect themselves (or the pubilc) to such an extent.
In any other commercial domain, it would be possible to set up shop and do things in an alternative way, complying with the necessary rules and regs but still being "different".
Is there room for variation in this industry? Are there some aviation authorities that are more tolerant of imaginative proposals than others? That's a genuine question - I have the option of choosing France, Ireland or the UK as a base for operations.
Now I'll sit back and listen again - so someone say something ... please!
