April 1, 2010
Perhaps not an especially delightful image, but every industry has one. A place where participants experiment. Where risky new ideas can be tried out in a market so big that even mistakes can sort of get lost in the noise. For the airline industry, the Petri dish is the North Atlantic. Here is where new airline models get tried out - new products and new ideas. Explaining the nature of this market and its current trials are Darryl Jenkins, a doyen of the US airline industry and Doug Abbey, a long time industry consultant. We review the latest legacy/LCC dating game, the all-business experiments that came before, the open skies deal, ownership issues, United/Aer Lingus, Stansted and on and on. If there is one place that gets everyone's attention in this industry its the market from the US north east to Europe, especially London.