New Australian Airline Concept

[glenb]

OK Industry how about this one?

A new Airline, Ethical Air.

Every staff member is treated with the respect they deserve. The guy out on the tarmac looking after the baggage is wearing the best wet weather protection available, the flight attendants dont work for third party contracting agents, the pilots undergoing training, get access to more sim work as they desire. The Company makes a sincere effort to support Australian Industry,and be as considerate as practical to the environment, to provide jobs in Australia, etc, etc, etc.

Its not too expensive, its ETHICAL, not prestigious, not excessive, not extravagant. What customers will get, is interaction with people being treated with respect, staff well trained, staff with high morale.

The media would be 100% behind it, the exposure to the public via that media would be extensive. The Australian public would be 100% behind it, and the big Australian Companies would be drawn to it, to align themselves as corporately responsible with the brand.

Someone out there must be able to pull together some financial backing and draw a team together to manage such a concept to make it work. God knows this industry needs it. As long as the customer is paying a fairly competitive price, you will have plenty of customers, and access to the best staff. You wont need expensive to manage loyalty programs, your not going to be wasting resources fighting with unions etc etc.

Four 737 aircraft on Melbourne-Sydney initially.

It couldnt fail, could it?

[deadcut]

Except that passengers will go with a fare that's 10 bucks cheaper and after they had poor service, go on facebook, complain and vow that they will never fly that airline again. :E

We can dream.

[NzCaptainAndrew]

I agree with Deadcut. We can dream.:{

[propelled]

thats the sad part..
majority will go for best price/value.. just look at dick smith foods (oops maybe i shouldnt bring that up here lol).. but u get my drift.. they hardly compete although would be great if customers could spend the extra 20/30c per item to support local aussie business, same could be said for 'ethical airlines'..
$$ talk unfortunately..
myself i would pay the extra $20/ticket but 80% of the population wont..

[Wally Mk2]

Sadly I doubt that concept would ever work here in Oz.

We now live in a very diff world than we did when we had the 2 Airline policy operating many years ago with full service etc.
We have a greater population these days that spend their money on a lot more things than just flying hence when most want to go somewhere by plane they shop around just like most of us do when buying any product. Remember the greater population are working class people with little disposable income in these uncertain times.
The cost of doing business is forever rising yet the ticket prices are still very cheap,something or in this case someone has to give,the employees they are the only part of a business that's manipulative.

The model would never work & like it or not cheap fares are the way of the future meaning the supplier has to run cheap in order to compete.

Wmk2

[Nulli Secundus]

Yes, it would certainly work. It is a lot of hard work to identify & implement a unique point of difference, but not impossible. Do what the others don't do and make sure you let everyone know. (Put aside economies of scale and one route for now, I think that bit needs tweaking).

Southwest is a case in point. Herb Kelleher would always place his staffs' well being ahead of his passegers who were closely followed by the shareholders. You don't have to be the cheapest to be successful. Cheap competitors have discernible weaknesses which are there to be exploited. The best bit is, the cheapies' margins are so thin, they can't counter (easily). You now have a niche (which is what's planned - not volume). I guess something like a phase 2 of a biz plan would be to activate the strategies dealing with specific competition that want a piece of your action. (All good, you know its coming & it confirms you're on the right track)

A big key to this model's success would be for the investors to be comfortable with a modest ROI. This is not banking, pharmaceuticals, gaming. Your money will be made in the asset, so build it carefully and deliver an unbeatable team with unparalleled customer benefits.

Remember the old days when airlines actually competed with eachother? When skilled marketing teams promoted their respective airlines with well planned marketing strategies and team work actually brought results?

Other than price, what actually is the point of difference between the RPT jet operators in Australia today?

[Wizofoz]

Except that Southwest is ALSO the cheapest!!

Keller's philosophy was that treating staff well motivated them to be more productive, and ultimately better value to the business.

It worked.

It hasn't necessarily worked any better (in terms of pure financial success) than, say the Ryanair approach of treat your staff like crap, drive down the price of EVERYTHING, offer a shoddy product at a rock-bottom sticker price.

I've been watching in horror as an Airline I used to work for (easyjet) and always respected, is slowly morphing from a SW model to a Ryan clone.

Damn shame, put the reality is it will probably generate bigger profits (at least short term) that way.

[chimbu warrior]

Every staff member is treated with the respect they deserve. The guy out on the tarmac looking after the baggage is wearing the best wet weather protection available, the flight attendants dont work for third party contracting agents, the pilots undergoing training, get access to more sim work as they desire.

Until along comes someone that wants to undercut the existing staff.......

[bloated goat]

......and NO outsourcing jobs outside of Australia........good work glenb !

[Worrals in the wilds]

The Australian public would be 100% behind it,No they wouldn't. They'd just moan about the cost. Over the years I've dealt with enough passengers to populate Toowoomba and Browns Cows is a polite description for most of them. Not all; but most. 'Where's my something for nothing' is the mantra of the average Aussie pax.
...would be great if customers could spend the extra 20/30c per item to support local aussie business, IME the average Australian only cares about buying Australian/local if they know something about the relevant industry, have family/friends working in it or have health concerns about the foreign product. The recent milk wars are ample proof of that. :(
Remember the old days when airlines actually competed with eachother? When skilled marketing teams promoted their respective airlines with well planned marketing strategies and team work actually brought results?That was before the bogan market took over the airways. Back when tickets were really expensive (and they were practically unaffordable well into the 1980s) airlines were targeting relatively sophisticated customers. These days anyone can afford to fly so the market demands a different approach. FWIW I don't think cheaper fares are a bad thing for the community.

I know Southwest did it differently but they had an incredibly smart, charismatic guy in charge. The reason they get used as an example so often is that they're really unusual. I don't think Australia has many CEOs with that skill level, nor do I think our business community really supports that sort of thing. Australian Big Business tends to specialise at being mediocre. :ouch: Of course one of the reasons Southwest get touted as an example so often is that it's a really unusual company.

I think your Ethical Air would be great, but I just don't see it happening. :sad:

[aroa]

Why... because CASA doesnt believe in ethics and wont allow it. :eek:

Dig deep enough in the reg sh*theap and you'll probably find it, all written in "manglish"/unintelligable legalese...and strict liability,of course.
:mad:

A definite WOFTAM. Dont even think about it.!

[LongLats]

http://i.imgur.com/QnTHy.gif