Industry is flying, but what next?

George Pitcher (MW August 12) reviews some of the key issues affecting commercial aviation – and the budget sector in particular.

Looking at the economics of aviation marketing another significant trend is apparent: the shift in emphasis from demand satisfaction to demand generation.

Pitcher identifies rising costs as one factor contributing to the belief that “it can’t go on”. The challenge of what happens next is all the more real when the introduction of new aircraft and routes is driven more by the potential to generate new reasons to travel, than by the potential to meet existing demand. There has to be a point at which the consequent level of change in customer behaviour is no longer sustainable.

One result is the high level (and cost) of media advertising required, as demonstrated by the amount of space now used by low-cost carriers in the UK press.

Ken Thomson

Bannockburn

Stirling