Posts from Airport Business Magazine editor Ronnie Garrett on current events and issue related to airports and FBOs.
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Beat the Competition With Better Customer Service
By Ronnie Garrett - Wednesday April 24, 2013An airport director recently shared an amusing story. He said the airport’s social media policy worked so well that when they received a Tweet about a lack of toilet paper in one of their restrooms, they were able to remedy the problem in less than 60 seconds. While his story put a smile on my face, the situation he describes might have been no laughing matter if this Tweet had gone viral and cast the airport in a negative light. Instead the airport’s responsiveness generated a second Tweet complimenting them on how quickly they resolved the problem. Now that’s customer service! My father owned a grocery store for many years and as a teenager, I often tired of his responses to my complaints about this or that customer. He... -
Why I Love Aviation
By Brad McAllister - Wednesday January 16, 2013
I have comprehensively experienced nearly all segments of the aviation industry in my four and a half years at Airport Business magazine. Before my time here, I had very limited exposure to the industry, apart from a stint my brother made in pursuing a professional piloting career years ago. Despite that, I have always been interested in powered flight — from the first time as a young boy seeing airliners approaching O'Hare when my father would take us kids to an occasional Twins/Sox game in Chicago. I am not a pilot, although I did participate in an introductory flight lesson as part of my initial foray as assistant editor for this publication (my trainer was Wisconsin Aviation's Jim Quinn) — yet, the aviation 'bug' has me firmly... -
Industry Events Showcase Airport Leaders In Retail & Concessions, Sustainability
By Brad McAllister - Wednesday November 21, 2012
In early November, I made my way to the annual Airports Going Green conference, held each year in downtown Chicago and organized by the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and the Amercian Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). I have attended this event for the past three years, and I don't intend to stop. It seems that the program is more comprehensive each year — and attendance is growing, bringing in more than 300 airport and aviation professionals from the U.S. as well as from abroad in 2012. The agenda included an airport sustainability directors track and a technology and innovation track. One session, 'Closing the Loop: Toward a Net Zero Airport,' featured key case studies of net-zero programs at airports today, like... -
At NBAA 2012, Cautious Optimism Persists
By Brad McAllister - Tuesday October 30, 2012Attendance seemed down slightly on opening day, probably due somewhat to the temporary TFR in affect for Obama's shortened visit to Florida ... and mostly due to superstorm Sandy, which blasted the East Coast on Monday and Tuesday causing thousands of commercial flight cancellations. For many FBOs I spoke with at the National Business Aviation Association's (NBAA) 65th annual meeting and convention in Orlando this week, fuel sales and aircraft activity has not yet returned to pre-recession levels. That said, aircraft service companies are cautiosly optimistic for the near-term, and operators that have diversified their service offerings say the additional profit centers have helped supplement the decline in activity in recent... -
Slow Growth And The Acceleration Of Regionalization ...
By Brad McAllister - Wednesday September 26, 2012
This event keeps getting bigger each year ... more attendees, more industry CEOs, and more for me to talk about. The underlying message from Mike Boyd (Chairman, Boyd Group International) at this year's forecast summit: Airline strategies have eclipsed economic factors as drivers of passenger levels. Airlines are essentially flying at capacity, says Boyd, and airline operating strategies will lead to slower passenger growth in the U.S. "It's one airline system," he comments. "Forecasting major and regional systems are meaningless." While the replacement of regional jets by mainline carriers will spike traffic at several markets, air access to and from a particular region will focus on fewer airports, he adds. Carriers are...
