Airlines in a Crisis

Last years plan of decorating the edges of the accounts with removing a few new non profitable routes seems like the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. Much more needs doing and I doubt the current management are the ones to do it, except for some financial tinkering. They certainly do not  seem to have the airline experience needed, or from the right airlines, to know what makes a Low Fares carrier a Low Cost. Neither do the new ones added to the management team recently, who have absolutely no airline experience whatsoever. Are they trying to make Norwegian into a shopping mall or think the website rather than actually flying passengers and stuff is what will make the company profitable. There are certainly many steps the airline can do to make it more like the model of the industry Southwest. Where the principle of Low Fares Low Cost was first modelled and who have been profitable in nearly all of the years since, with very little industrial strife to boot. Take the ...

Norwegian have tried to have a service level more like easyJet than Wizz, and that has not really worked out for them. Maybe they can never reach the really ULCC levels being based in a high cost country like Norway. But the loyalty from their core customer base is more based on regional belonging than a steadily eroding included service level through adapting the Ryanair way of everything is an additional extra. They should more try for bettering Ryanair by mimicking the early days of Ryanair when they where an ULCC Ultra Low Cost Carrier. There are definitely an alternative way forward for Norwegian with less frills freeing up many costs and more important removing distractions for the staff and management. Anything other than a single menu offering should sample be avoided. All cabin staff should serve the whole cabin that should be of a single type configuration even on long haul. Let other airlines take the premium segment and simplify the product offered. That would also give e...

Airlines that normally do not allow changes or give refunds should draw a line in the sand and say bookings after such and such a date will be to the rules unless travel advice changes and we can no longer fly you. For tose more service minded airlines who always used to issue refunds for a number of reasons, it would help on passenger confidence that historic refunds were actually issued and one could see a current timeline for waiting time for refunds of potential new bookings. If one changes once mind or travel advice changes. Few will commit to booking new flights if they are still awaiting refund of old bookings. And even less so if they think new purchases will just end up with no actual flying and their money gone into an uncertain black hole. Who would book today with an airline pleading the poor mouth to governments in the news every day, and risk being left with just an usecured worthless voucher. It should also be made clear to all passengers that government mandated pena...

Some airlines, like Ryanair, demand all online check in while others, like Emirates, demand desk check in. Some want more checked in baggage and less carry on while others demand more carry on and less checked in. It seems that full service airlines want more control and less obstacles demanding check ins where they can hand out kits of sanitizing measures and less passenger handling by hand of anything in the cabin. Low Fares airlines go for more of what the passenger can do and less of what they have to do. A policy they have pushed for years. So no real change there then, even in a communicable disease crisis.

If your airline continues an albeit limited trolley service in CoVid19 times, it is important that your staff don't become super spreaders. They should of course wear masks and gloves. But the gloves  should also be cleanable so they can be treated with hand sanitizer between each customer. This hinders immediate transfers of viruses from the card/cash of one customer to the items of the next. Remember that virus stays alive for minutes on skin, hours on clothes but days on hard surfaces. In general, if you are doing to much with your hands to clean them constantly, just wear gloves and clean them. The same goes for they who are allergic to cleaning stuff or get sores from washing their hands to often.