Aerospace OEMs should also be ramping up their
research and development at times when business operations are being impacted in order to prepare themselves for the next technological wave. Boeing alone has spent over $43B buying back its stock over the past ten years and now needs taxpayer assistance to get through COVID-19. During this time, their expenditure has either fallen or stayed relatively flat, which may eventually impact future products.
AIRLINES During the SARS crisis, airlines began disinfecting aircraft after international trips with more vigor, and some airlines kept doing so after that crisis ended. COVID19 may force more airlines to keep this type of more thorough cleaning regimen as part of their regular procedures. Let’s hope that this happens. Airlines are typically reacting to a crisis, rather than
pro-actively changing their business practices. Part of this is unavoidable due to their role as a service business. On the other hand, no, this is a tired excuse. It is time for airlines to move beyond e-ticketing and self-service check-in terminals to process passengers. With cellphones moving to facial recognition, why not do so for ticketing? Less human interaction needed, less possibility of fraud (?) and quicker processing of travelers, what is not to like to have your face scanned in a booth with verbal prompting versus having to wait in a long line to handle check-ins? Imagine setting up a profile which includes a 3D scan of your head, and your fingerprint perhaps, and then you simply need to walk into a compartment (holding up your passport or ID) in which you are scanned (as well as your credentials that you are holding) without having to touch anything? All of the technology for this already exists, why not bring it to the masses? And what about the travel experience? Aircraft interiors need to change to become more comfortable, cleaner (or be easier to clean), and provide a more enticing travel experience. Where is the innovation in this area? Has aviation simply given up and is stuck in the 1930s on how to seat people? We need re-configurable seating, where family’s and groups can have a group of seats together with some sort of privacy (curtains, movable walls/partitions, Maxwell Smart’s Cone of Silence — for those of you under 50 years of age, google this). Travelers would pay extra for this, and airlines need new types of revenue. What more do I need to say?
And a bone of contention with the airline industry
on how it has no financial reserves. We just experienced arguably the greatest decade for airlines EVER, in which record profits rolled in for years, and when this crisis happens, there are no reserves to fall back upon? The
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