1st Edition

Stormy Skies Airlines in Crisis

By Paul Clark Copyright 2010

    As the airline industry struggles to extricate itself from its latest crisis, the time has come to examine the fundamentals of airline business strategy in a more innovative way and find answers to the questions, "What went wrong?" and "Why didn't we see it coming?". Stormy Skies captures the key issues that determine a viable airline industry in an increasingly globalised world and calls for more radical business thinking to ensure that mistakes are avoided in future. It looks at the airline business through the eyes of both the airlines themselves and also their customers, drawing upon the experience and views of industry personalities.

    Preface

    1. I Should Have Known Better: a history of crisis and prediction

    2. Tomorrow Never Knows: forecasting aircraft capacity

    3. Love Me Do: the changing nature of traveller expectations

    4. I Want to Hold Your Hand: airline consolidation

    5. You Never Give Me Your Money: pricing and revenue management

    6. With a Little Help From My Friends: social media

    7. Strawberry Fields Forever: the environment

    8. Here Comes the Sun: 20-20 vision

    Biography

    Paul Clark is the author of Buying The Big Jets, now in its second edition. He worked for more than 20 years at Airbus, then established and managed AirBusiness Academy in Toulouse for 3 years before moving to Montreal to run the IATA Training and Development Institute for almost 2 years. He is currently working independently as an aviation consultant (Through The Looking Glass: www.ttlglearn.com). Paul is a Visiting Professor at City University in the UK, and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

    'This is a stimulating book about the complexity, profitability (or, rather, non-profitably) and management of international airlines. The author has included anecdotes from his own experiences and written in a lucid, thought-provoking way that will encourage a wider interest in an industry that provides much benefit to world economic activity.'

    Roger Wootton, City University London, UK

    '"Do you want to know a secret?" You should read Paul Clark's new book, Stormy Skies, "Eight days a week". "Ask me why?" Because it has masterfully written essays dealing with most relevant issues facing the airline industry today in a refreshing and interesting way.'

    Adam Pilarski, Avitas, USA

    'As books on air transport economics go, this has to be regarded as a rather unusual volume. It is written in the vernacular of everyday English, in a style very much journalistic in nature. The result is a most readable, interesting and stimulating book which, despite being so easy to read, does in fact take the reader quite some distance into the various topics discussed; and it is all so beautifully expressed.'

    Aerospace Professional