A better model for technology companies?
Airlines are a lot like tech companies.
A few possess almost all the power. Just as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft dominate the technology, four airlines (American, United, Delta and Southwest) own more than 80% of all seats in the nation.
However, here we are in a pandemic, where management approaches in all companies are being severely tested.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how United Airlines plans to resume its flights from San Francisco to Shanghai, a route that Apple and other technology executives often sponsored. The airline, American Airlines, is also doing this, insisting it will try to fill every seat on its planes because blocking intermediate seats is “a public relations strategy, not a security strategy.”
Delta Air Lines, and Southwest, decided that their customers would prefer those empty intermediate seats.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and the CDC are alarmed at the idea of complete planes. Large brains at MIT, for example, that of Professor Arnold Barnett, also differ. They say putting humans in intermediate seats doubles the risk of catching COVID-19.
Naturally, it is results-oriented, so you will need more data.
I can’t say if anyone has tried to collect health numbers on those who have flown at United compared to those who have flown at Delta. This week, however, Delta made a profit call in which it said it was extending its policy of emptying the middle seats.
Delta is raising its prices, I hear you smell.
No, CEO Ed Bastian said. Why this sudden decency? Because, Bastian explained, those half-empty seats are the “number 1 reason” travelers book with Delta. Would this suggest that it is a mere public relations strategy? Or could it imply that passengers are driven by the kind of human suspicions that Professor Barnett gives them a more concrete essence?
How could a brand affect its future now? How might Delta’s approach be in line with future trends in business travel?
Bastian said: “I am sure the number of trips the average road warrior takes will be reduced in certain cases. The international trips we’ve all been on and have flown to Europe for two … meeting time and I’ll be back. That just hits you, and you’d certainly be much better off staying on a video call. “
Fly to Europe for a two-hour meeting? Why would someone do that? Maybe it makes you look more important.
Not that any airline is currently doing well. However, Bastian believes that the future of business travel lies in “travel that focuses on building relationships or interaction, whether it be with your customers, conventions, new contacts, performance review on a global scale.” Yes, the human. The one that instinctively tells you that filling the middle seats makes the pandemic more dangerous.
Let’s say, then, that Zoom calls and the like will make executives wonder more deeply whether flying is really necessary, even when the virus has passed. But let’s also say that the likes of United and American may be more tempted to offer all kinds of financial incentives to stimulate business travel. How persuasive could they be?
In a pandemic, pausing to consider all the human ramifications of a customer decision will surely be crucial to business success. Why, on Friday Delta even cracked down on those who don’t want to wear masks on flights. Now, they must have a virtual consultation with a medical professional before they can board.
Where Apple and, more recently, Microsoft have for many years emphasized truly human elements like privacy, other big tech companies (hello, Facebook) have continued rampant, United Airlines-style, to fight for revenue above all else.
Delta, like Apple, is by no means a complete bastion of humanity. Her efforts to suppress unionization of flight attendants, for example, have been unpleasant. However, while United has issued leave notices to 36,000 employees, Bastian says even Delta may not be able to suspend anyone at all. (Although I will believe it when I see all the happy faces).
For some time, Delta has been shifting to the Apple side of the spectrum, constantly wondering how to create good human feelings and loyalty, how to secure emotional advantage, what some people believe to be simply public relations and marketing.
United is more Facebook: It strives to make ever bigger profits while occasionally admitting, perhaps in a vacuum, that it could be doing much more on the human side. (Do you remember Dr. David Dao and the aftermath of his terrible United experience?)
Both approaches can be successful in running a business. However, the experience of the pandemic can sharpen people’s sense of the choices they make and the elements they let go.
Airlines, and also tech companies, may have to deal with customers who are increasingly critical of the brands they partner with.
So what brand will humans choose to fly?
Apple Air Lines? Or the Facebook airlines?
