The coronavirus had a strong impact in the aviation industry, but here are some situations which will happen and how travelers and even airlines companies must adapt to keep the business in the air.
Travelers, despite their trip goal (leisure or business), will have to adapt themselves in order to comply with security and public health. They will have to understand new policies, fines must be put in place.
Airports facilities, airlines, security companies and every person involved in aviation, will have to collect many real data, true information which will prevent the spread of this virus and new variants. This of course will impact rates, system’s implementation must be placed in order to move the industry, at least for a while.
Revenue management and good investments are the key to successfully keep people working and travelers in the air. That’s the reason why workers must be trained, their main objectives plus the security will be public health. Any violation should be taken seriously.
Usually people do not know or do not see the difference between one airline and another, but the airlines elasticity will create the opportunity for marketing to play an important role of how to seek new services for passengers and how the experience could be easier and healthy for them.
One of the opportunities I recommend for airlines is to start from zero, from scratch, from the beginning. Divide the following (marketing and market segments).
Commercial airlines over corporates have good chances to move faster due to these variables: leisure and business. Events, concerts, congress and more are being cancelled that’s why corporate aviation has been impacted for artists, even for business men and women, thus the market share should be focused from the beginning. One example of this is to create new and fresh brands, logotypes, colors, strategies that will impact the customer mindset and take them back to the air with no fear, focused not only on flight safety but on public safety as I already stated.
Airlines will have to lead with leasing processes as well and start to return some of their airplanes to the leasehold. Good luck for those who has airplanes such as the Airbus A380. 4 engines airplanes will not be produced anymore for sure, and the airliners understood that flight capability and capacity does not converge on the quantity of engines.
A lease return contract has too many clauses which will put the operators in a complicated situation. They will have to prepare people in-house in order to do a clean work and avoid as much as they can in return costs for the companies.
Values and airplanes quotes from the market must be considered seriously, so the revenue manager with his/her team must be ready to make important decisions and put over the table 2 main strategies.
The first one: The cost and quotes from the market at the moment of the airplane reception, will this be interesting or not ? Having in mind the costs and preparation which an airplane needs to have in order to be returned properly.
The second: Not comply with all the clauses and just return the plane as it is, pay fines but saving time and preparation costs.
A good time to return an airplane is 6 months, prepare one single plane is a tough and a huge challenge which must be managed and performed carefully. An airplane and its components must comply with all the conditions stipulated on the lease contract, so this time includes airplane preparation, fleet reorganization and their routes, the simple impact to take away one airplane and of course the financial impact inside the company. That’s the reason why the revenue manager must act fast, clean and strategically with the only objective to keep the company running and balanced with the minimum negative impact.
The airplane returns companies, as Airbus and Boeing, will work in better systems with more safety, and the impact will be positive for environment. This will be an opportunity for a deep breath to the industry.
The world has changed, definitely, but we have to be adapted and keep flying.
