Right now all the news is on the Covid 19 problem and all the chaos that it has created in the airline industry, it is a real aviation pandemic. At first we all took it for granted as “just another” health scare. Obviously that has been proven wrong on many levels. Even I thought it would be done and over in ten days. So what does this mean for the industry as a whole when the pandemic ends? I believe there will be several steps that the airlines will follow to get back to generating revenue. But that is not really the main thought behind this article. The main thought is, what will the industry look like.
Crisis management
There is an old saying, “never let a good crisis go to waste. I am sure you have noticed that since the crisis you are getting lots and lots of emails from all sorts of companies that you generally do not hear from. The reason is called a touch point. Touch points are legitimate reasons to contact you about something in order to keep that companies name recognition in your brain. The reason companies do that is because it usually takes between 5-7 touches to motivate someone to click or purchase. So the reasoning of never letting a good crisis go to waste is that all companies have free reign to convey that they care about you “staying safe” So what happens when the pandemic is over? The opportunity to follow up and offer deals and incentives is the first part of recovery which means more emails. It is a hot topic that most people are still paying attention too.
Past Problems
The next part of the recovery is addressing older issues or problems that the airlines had going into the aviation pandemic such as the very big and very real problem of cabin air contamination. This was about to go global, but it has been unsaddled and put away due to bigger fish to fry (so to speak) I addressed an email to the union replying to their concerns about the company creating a safe and disinfected works space for pilots to work in. My main point there was that airline cockpits are NOT a clean work environment and never have been. But no one cares because it costs extra money to clean cockpits and no one wants to spend the extra money because passengers demand a $99 ticket to wherever. I have never seen a CEO, President or VP of anything sit in a filthy chair in a filthy office. That would never be tolerated. But the fact is, this happens every day in every single cockpit. Will it change after Covid 19? The answer is NO, unless someone dies of a dirty cockpit, and no one will ever be able to prove that.
Back to the contaminated cabin air issue. This will surface again over time when people forget about the issues of this aviation pandemic. Again it will go back to the issue of money to solve this problem. Money is always the issue in a razor thin margin airline industry. But mark my words. Some CEO, VP, Board of Directors will get some sort of huge year end bonus for going above and beyond (not really) at the end of the year. Just sit back and watch.
Results of the Aviation Pandemic
A long recovery is forcast, Airlines have lost lots of money during it no doubt. Everything will be about cash and getting people in the air again. No expansions, no growth, no new markets, no gizmos, new planes or new ideas will come forth. Everything will be about saving money. Employees will have to suck it up and embrace the mediocrity that is coming.
