Death Of The Silver Birds

          American Airlines decided Monday to file for Chapter 11, bankruptcy protection, citing high fuel costs and labor problems.  Is it possible they are ignoring the obvious?  In any industry, labor and operation costs may be passed to the customer, if the goods or services provided, warrant it. 

In the past ten years, airlines have reduced or eliminated numbers of flights; added additional seats making airplanes more crowded; downsized or eliminated meals and snacks; and started charging additional fees for everything from pillows to luggage. 

Apparently, the customer base is not expanding and airlines are forced to squeeze more revenue from existing customers.  An MBA is not required to understand that these tactics will never expand customer base and without new customers, bankruptcy is the only possible end.  Surely, airline executives know this and they are not ignoring the obvious, but their hands are tied by government intervention.  They cannot change the customer inconveniences that started the cycle destined to destroy the airline industry, sooner or later.

Is it possible that potential airline customers tired of arriving two hours before their flights so they can be scanned, questioned, groped and herded as if they were convicted felons?  Are those who deliver and retrieve passengers, weary of limited access and information?  Are Americans from the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” rejecting an industry controlled by fear, not freedom?  Also, for anyone who may be interested in facts, not political correctness, the 911 terrorists did not look like American grandmothers or pre-school children. 

Perhaps, declining customer base is not due to lack of peanuts during the flight. 

Jim

http://www.jim-mac.com/