The Culture Of Demand Chapter 2. The Airplane Industry Demands Change

The real divide is between the maker’s customers and the customer’s customers called passengers. The manufacturer works for the commercial carriers’ bottom line while enhancing its own bottom line. The carrot dangled is the passenger low price ticket. The passenger's demand, centers on low fares because the economy of scale throughout the world has skewed values.  The airline responds with the beef hook idea for hanging the price over a customers sensibilities. The culture has changed and passengers may grumble but what choice do they have, an Emirates $4,000 dollar one way fare?

Ryan Air, Winging It’s favorite example out of Ireland, has shrunk the galley, squeezed in more seats rows, and ordered a new single aisle type named the 737-200C. The “C” stands for cord-wood stacked in its airplane with room for two hundred stacks of wood on board. The Ryan Air game is to offer a convenient kiosk experience unlike its competitors. Pick your food and pick your pleasure from a buffet of offerings within its operation, thus adding value to the Ryan Air revenue flight each time it flies. The main thing is the airplane “crack” that passengers crave, which is a cheap ticket for its travel. Ryan Air has set a time standard for its routes. That is to say, how long can they keep humans pleased with cheap tickets while offering pay-as-you-go options for its travel preoccupations?  They are exploring that notion today, as it plays with the new ticket price culture.

The culture has changed indeed and low fares lead the charge while amenities appear and disappear as much as your credit line can stand the kiosk assault. It’s not the airlines' problem, it gave you a cheap ticket and your eyes could only fixate on the price. Airline “crack” will sell your children down the jet way in short order by a multitude of travel ticket rules. The Twelve year old can get on for half fare, while the 13 year does not get to see the Pirates of The Caribbean, Orlando adventure ride and stays at summer boarding school for a price ten times higher than a full price Airfare. 

In fact if your very young child poops its pants real trouble begins as surrounding customers begin an airline chant, “Remove That Child”, I paid good money for my low fare”.

The lawyers get involved as they read the tickets fine print, it says here, “pooping is only allowed in the rear toilet area any infraction of this rule could cause an airline disruption and immediate removal of family or offender. Passengers may receive shock sticks to the neck if non respondent”.

Don’t forget that your eyes were fixated on the word “Economy” and the purchasing passenger lost its nervous control over that word and bought the ticket(s) on the “737-200C” to New York from Ireland. It’s a cultural thing you know? The next Chapter gets off Ryan Air's back and mentions South West Airlines and its cattle call to the meat hooks.

That question arises, Is Boeing responsible, the airline or the passenger in this culture shift? That is the very nature of the up-coming chapters. Whose fault is it? I mean the electrical probe to the neck of a screaming economy passenger. All they did was buy an airlines’ low fare on a single aisle aircraft made by a manufacturer meeting the current industry demand. So they culture had to change from “Build it and they will come” to: "build it wonderfully" which is old school and a myth. 

So the manufacturer stuffed everything invented to the airplanes frame as a modern marvel but forgot the “bottom line” of the passenger. They traded that position away at an online web site starting with “cheap fare”. The passenger bottom is no longer protected.

The commercial airline test lab is experimenting with how much room does a person need for breathing from the tip of the nose to the partition in front of it on a 10 hour fight?

The second airline test is how to keep meat hooks holding the vertical freight from swinging thus causing airsickness for its passengers (freight)?

The third lab test will reveal what advertising is needed convincing people this is the way of travel from a cultural perspective?

Boeing is stuck with the culture shift to low fares and how to build an airplane carrying so much weight, it not its problem how a customer will fill it, nor is it a passenger problem because they bought a low fare ticket. The airline crack now controls the buying public with low fares.

The Airline Industry Demands Change in this inverted structure when once competition was the key to success. The competitive nature built the best pleasing the passenger. Now it builds what is best for the Manufacturer and Airline “Bottom Line”.