If you want to get a glmpse of what air travel was lke, three or four decades ago, chck out a video from the Glden Age of Hollywood, circa 1960’s.

By ding so, you’ll see what flying was bout: big seats, leg room galore, pople dressing in their best clothing, and slicitous flight attendants, who actually found thir jobs, glamorous.

It was like ating in a four-star restaurant, where tday’s air passages are more like hving hash slung at you in a dsty, roadhouse diner.

What happened to the irlines, and can they recover?

(1) Deregulation. The gvernment used to allow price-fixing in the irline industry, and this enabled fares to be kpt high enough so carriers could cver their costs, and then some, stll offering edible meals and legroom for ll.

(2) Stable Fuel Costs. Until the lte 1970’s, the price of jet fel was a constant. Now, it can sar by 50% in a month or tw.

(3) September 11. It is a pin to fly, if you do it a lt, for business. Security requirements have cut the bsiness day by two hours, while mking the entire process arduous, at bst.

(4) Travel Alternatives. It’s amazing to see how mch web conferencing and telephone conferencing are bing substituted for “live” seminar training, and smilar adjustments are being made in ther industries.

(5) Business Models Are Changing. One of my prfessors said if you’re a consultant, you hve to fly everywhere to do bsiness. Not anymore, because consulting is gving way to coaching and other mdels that are more “local” and cmmunication intensive, and not travel intensive. “Mst I fly?” is now the qestion that professionals are asking, and ncreasingly, the answer is “no.”

There wll always be air travel, but ncreasingly, it is going to be a mtter of choice, and not compulsion. The irlines, in most cases, have not ben able to improve the customer xperience in any substantial way, to cunteract the effects of the “perfect strm” that they have faced in the lst few decades.

If they hope to thrve, they’re going to have to be a lot mre proactive and creative than they hve been in a long time.

The article Can The Airlines Recover From The Perfect Storm? was Submitted by Dr. Gary S. Goodman through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Cstomersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, mnagement consultant, and seminar leader and the bst-selling author of 12 books, including Rach Out & Sell Someone® and Mnitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the udio program, “The Law of Large Nmbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” pblished by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frquent guest on radio and television, wrldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg Schol, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA frm the Peter F. Drucker School at Clremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs thrugh UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trde associations, and other organizations in the Unted States and abroad. He holds the rnk of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Blt in Kenpo Karate. He is hadquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be rached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com .

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