Welcome aboard your flight to revenue growth.
This is your Captain speaking! Welcome aboard your flight to revenue innovation. Thank you for subscribing and becoming a member of my community - I am delighted to see you.
Whether you work at an airline, OEM or airline supplier, Airline Revenue Economics is here to help you understand everything that airlines can do to earn revenue from new products and services.
But this is not a traditional revenue management and pricing newsletter. You probably already have 100 people and a dozen subscriptions looking at that, plus deep operational expertise in the field.
I am here to help you understand the revenue generators of tomorrow and figure out what you need to do today to make these a reality.
These of course include airline retailing and services. They also dive deep into how aircraft and airports are revenue generating platforms.
I am passionate about passenger experience and believe that cabin assets like seats, galleys and interactive surfaces directly impact revenue. Loyalty, AI, blockchain and Internet of Things are all featured. My experience includes designing the Qatar Airways Qsuite, 787 and A380 interiors and I often call upon these to guide the discussion.
Although I write about emerging high technology and ideas at the frontier of airline economics knowledge, my articles are always mindful of fundamental aviation principles. Real aircraft, networks and schedules. Published fares and retail prices. And data sources you can access yourselves. This is not the Jetsons.
Maybe you are a seasoned travel industry veteran, a recent hire or a student. Or perhaps you are a frequent traveller, a plane spotter or simply interested in the business. Whichever applies to you, welcome.
All my articles are written by me, and sometimes with my human partners. Airline Revenue Economics is 100% organic and AI free. No chat bots are allowed.
Why is Airline Revenue Economics different?
Almost everyone in the airline industry works in a silo. My articles try to work across airline silos, not within them. My goal is that whenever you read a piece I want you to learn something new or see it in a new way.
The airline industry also has serious tunnel vision. Big bodies and vendors shape the conversation along narrow lines of discussion like offer-and-order. My articles try to show a broader perspective, presenting ideas in historical and other industry context.
Mega OEMs and suppliers of seats, galleys, IFE systems and the rest talk about revenue generation but are often unable to link their products to the way airline seats are revenue managed and sold in practice. My articles try to bring everything together in one place for the first time.
Most importantly, Airline Revenue Economics is entirely independent. There is no airline, travel industry parent or big media organisation telling me what to write about.
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For full access to Airline Revenue Economics, please purchase a subscription. This buys you full access to the archive and at least 120 articles a year. These articles don’t write themselves. Writing them is my main job and I put a lot of work into it. Please upgrade by clicking “manage your subscription”.
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Who am I & what have I done in aviation?
My name is Oliver Ranson and I am an airline outsider with an insider’s perspective.
When I took my Economics degree from LSE I went to become a consultant and got a job in a telecoms team. I loved consulting but did not care for telecoms. What I really liked was the flying to see Clients. The Cunard steamship line used to say that getting there is half the fun and I think this is still true today.
I lived in London and one day had to fly to Abu Dhabi. Rather than take BA like we normally did I decided to try a growing airline that nobody had flown but was apparently very good called Qatar Airways.
The flight left from Heathrow Terminal 3 and once on-board I was hooked. Seat, service and catering were all fabulous. So I applied to join the airline in any open job and they had me. I moved to Doha.
Five years later I had grown their revenue by $300 million, helped develop the award-winning Qsuite, probably the world’s most popular busines class seat today, and played a part in more than doubling the size of the network.
Along the way I touched almost every part of the business, apart from actually flying the planes and turning the wrenches. Commercial. Marketing. Planning. Loyalty. HR and Recruitment. Catering. Seat and Cabin Design. Customer Research. Cabin Crew. Airport Ground Services. And more. I did them all.
But I never forgot what it was like to be a passenger on Qatar Airways for the first time. That sense of surprise and delight. Most airline managers never buy a ticket in their lives. Always thinking like a passenger is what makes me unique.
Oliver.
Your favourite airline revenue economist
