Those who read my propaganda have probably realized that there is a recuring theme of comparisons or commonalities between the airline industry and the professional ground transportation industries. It is not only planes, trains and automobiles. There are obviously buses and of course cruise ships and soon to be rocket ships.
The airlines, in my unpopular opinion, have the most advantages in operational success, synergy and profit. That would be because they are heavily regulated by the government and heavily harnessed by the unions. When I say heavily regulated, I am aware of the airline deregulation act years ago, but this is not that. The regulation I refer to is the safety standards and guidelines the FAA imposes and enforces. The gate ownership and route approval that Air Traffic Control (ATC) oversees amongst thousands of other rules and directives.
What is the bottom line. Alaska Airlines has 16,000 employees, 328 aircraft and runs like a Rolex. More importantly they make money. The typical ground transportation enterprise in comparison has free reign of Its territory and operation, can basically do as they please with minor restrictions yet is constantly screaming into the void.
What you ask, how you wonder, can we remove the chains of tyranny and move forward unencumbered to be allowed pure prosperity.
There are several alterations we require such as symmetrical symbolism so our client base worldwide can understand we belong. We will touch on that later. Lastly, we must follow the airline’s lead by buying vehicles of our design, not by their offerings. Case in point. Three of the top ten most efficient and profitable airlines are Southwest, Alaska and Ryanair. What do they have in common. All three only fly the Boeing 737 in different variants and they also, primarily Southwest, have tweaked and modified production and design to meet their requirements.
This is a critical “doable” step for our industries. I remember back in the day when Ford decided to retire the Panther chassis. That spelled the end for the Town Car. We were all in a daze figuring out that we put that car on the map. It was no different when Cadillac retired the Series 75 Limousine. Truth is we never put anything on the map. We never ranked because we never did it right. The taxicab industry was a larger client than we were, and they were still smaller than the police car market. Although we were ahead of the funeral industry, the rental car companies beat us all combined. We were never a blip on their radar.
The first of many steps needed to reinvent our industry is to create a clearinghouse to facilitate net settlement among fellow operators. This is referred to as netting. By pre-qualifying eligible industry participants, we can add stellar credibility to our industry. Reading and following these pathetic stories on financial dysfunction is getting old. Watching a slimeball limo operator get chastised by Judge Judy is embarrassing as all get out. Remember, we have a “Deadbeat Affiliate” Facebook group.
With a licensed, insured bonded clearinghouse. If Joes limousine has a thousand-dollar debt with Jim’s limousine, and Jim’s happens to owe Sam’s bus company nine hundred dollars, the clearing house will simply wire Jim one hundred dollars, and all bets are settled. Approximately 80% of the airline industry (people and freight) belong and it is a smooth as can be.
The real key to this stage is when only credible, vetted operators are allowed. The bad apples are removed by default.
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