(Illustration by Coë Steinwart, 2005)
Around the holidays, Jetsy (the elf above) somehow disappears every morning. Jetsy does not sit on the shelf for long, nor on the same shelf for that matter. But in speaking with Santa, Jetsy’s sitting on the shelf was a proverbial headache since early 2020. For airlines, sitting on the shelf meant sitting on the ground. And a group of leading airline CEOs turned to Santa for help after the recovery struggles in mid 2022. They all got into the same Skybus S360 sleigh to visit Santa far far away and way way up in Northern Québec, Canada where they end up centre-ville Pôle-Nord. Since the last Boeing 747 was just built for Atlas Air, Santa took delivery of the S360 straight from the assembly line in Nuuk, Greenland.
Read on to get insights into their conversations.
Before he could give his advice, Santa had sent his elves to take a peek inside airlines’ operations during the March and May breaks. They would show up and magically disappear across all departments and even snuck onto planes. Advanced Elf Information (AEI) could not be provided to the authorities, and they quickly jumped the airport fences, too. Naughty!
The list of notes was endless. Some highlights: The elves loved Qantas’ new First Class; were impressed with Finnair’s new Business Class; but didn’t appreciate the middle seats on KLM’s Boeing 787s in Economy Comfort. Anyway, they were delighted to help pick up a few Airbus A380s for Qantas, Emirates, and ANA from storage. The Residence on Etihad’s A380 was a treat! But when KLM refused to enforce the wearing of masks in March (naughty!) because the legal obligation dropped, the elves switched back to Air Canada. They knew the Canadian government would drag their feet (good or naughty?), but at least the elves were ‘safe’. Thank you HEPA!
The elves reported back to Santa before the executives arrived. They described the airline struggles (more about this before New Year’s Eve) but shared their observations about the airlines and executives with Santa first.
Here were the top ones:
The elves were glad to see that more and more executives were active on LinkedIn.
They said it was commendable that all executives said they were humbled or honored by events and their staff’s successes.
The elves were also proud to share that the top bosses couldn’t have done it without all the employees’ work.
Santa didn’t like the bashing on Twitter [he jettisoned tweetyland, too] and preferred the celebratory and congratulatory posts on LinkedIn by the same people.
So, all honky dory. But Santa had his own struggles in 2022 and he wanted to get them off his chest first.
Santa’s Struggles
From China to Chile, Santa’s operations were interrupted after Christmas 2019. Not only the grounded flights and staff shortages, but also the low inventory levels of gifts (caused by the supply chains that were out of sync) made Santa scramble for aspirins. Then Santa caused a shortage in Tylenol and Advil, too!
Even prices of food to feed the reindeer went up, creating cash imbalances for Santa. The rising interest rate at the North Pole Central Bank was another looming problem.
Santa was very happy that he could rely on air cargo, though. He had thanked Calin Rouvinescu (Air Canada’s former CEO) for pivoting the business and converting passenger aircraft to preighters with cargo in the cabin. Pioneers!
Other freighters from FedEx helped Santa out by transferring small packages and moss, ferns, and grass for the reindeer.
(Air Force Times)
In the past, Santa could call on his friends at British Airways and Air France if he was running late. More speed! Really, it was them that invented cargo-in-cabin, not Air Canada, but it was legally not permitted in 2005. See, Santa can be naughty, too!
(Illustration by London Air Travel)
But there were other challenges now. In an a recent poll, 68% of the elves indicated that they exclusively wanted to work from home. Combined with elf shortages as they were, Santa was growing older quickly, needed glasses, and started working with Joby Aviation and Archer to get to remote areas himself and do so more sustainably (below). Here’s Santa in a test-bed eVTOL:
(Illustration by Pacific Air Coastal Museum)
Santa’s Suggestions
So, what were the 5 main recommendations the executives got from Santa? I got the ‘cc’ and am happy to be the messenger:
Create a customer organization and gradually move in all functions that touch the emotions of end customers. That’s more than airline folks think and it doesn’t even start with call centers or customer service. This will flatten the silos and ultimately the vendors’ solutions, too, Santa said.
Stop referring to retailing when you are talking about selling more ancillary products and services through new ‘standard’ communication methods through travel agents. And don’t confuse “Offer & Order” with true trailing. It’s not. Therefore: bring in more real retail experts, less distribution folks.
Hire applied psychologists with airline and consumer behavior in retail experience. See what you execute through their eyes. New tactics and differentiation strategies will be born!
Invest more in training and turn specialists into cross-functional experts that can apply enterprise-level changes. Specialists always resist change in and outside their bubble.
Update brand positioning away from luxury, exclusivity, or anything that reeks of wastage and pollution. Popular demand dictates a refined message focused on benefits to people’s well-being, not the economic benefits of aviation. Trust Santa.
The executives still had many questions as to how they would apply the suggestions in practice, and how they could create ways to track results, other than through more conventional metrics mania. Speaking of, Santa asked me to share an article on all this, too. We’ll keep that for 2023.
Wishing you all a wonderful day, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays!
Ricardo
Montreal, Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Feel free to contact me for questions, comments, or a chat: ricardo DOT pilon AT millavia DOT com or for startup and VC assistance, ricardo AT pomonaworld DOT com.