futurist

Technology: Mobile Boarding Passes: Convenience, or Technology for Technology's Sake?

Robert Buckman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:09:29 -0400

When new software is introduced, such as whiz-bang applications for mobile devices, technology reviewers tend to focus whether it is the latest, greatest, or coolest thing to hit the market. Less often do you see reviewers take a step back and ask the forest-for-the-trees question, i.e., Do we even need this technology? What's driving it? Is it fixing something that is not broken? The big one for me is, Is it going to be more trouble than it is worth?

Technology: Transparency in Pricing Means Technology in Practice

Robert Buckman — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:51:52 -0400

Fliers increasingly are warming up to the concept of choice, aka à la carte, meaning paying only for those services you want in the airport or on the plane. But going à la carte comprehensively, that is, across hundreds of airlines around the world, is not as easy as it seems. New real-time booking technology is required to make that a reality.

Technology: The Wild Green Yonder

Robert Buckman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:54:05 -0400

In January, Continental Airlines became the first U.S. airline to test biofuel in a jet engine. The Boeing 737 used a B50 blend of jet-A, jatropha, and algae - so it was 50 percent conventional jet fuel and 50 percent bio-oil.

Technology: When Is a Cola Not a Cola?

Robert Buckman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:08:13 -0400

This month, Northwest Airlines' identity is merging with that of Delta Air Lines, starting with abandonment of the old Northwest uniforms. FoxBusiness.com reports that baggage counters, gates, and luggage claim areas are all being redone in Delta's flagship hues of red, white, and blue. But it will take until the end of next year to repaint all of Northwest's planes.

Technology: Destination Moon

Robert Buckman — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:23:33 -0500

Travel technology is taking one small leap for mankind in this moon walk anniversary year. It is, after all, forty years this July 20 that the Armstrong and Aldrin set down on the moon. It is also the year that the private suborbital space tourism industry, highlighted by start-ups like Virgin Galactic, really ramps up.

Technology: What Is in Store in 2009

Robert Buckman — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:34:42 -0500

Technology: Social Networking Meets Your Travel Itinerary

Robert Buckman — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:12:52 -0500

If you'd like some good news about travel, mine is that technology is evolving in ways which helps travelers organize their trips to a "t."

The Caterpillar Self-Driving Dump Truck

Tim McKeough — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:00:44 -0500

The Caterpillar truck will soon have a mind of its own. Working with the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, the industrial titan is developing self-driven large-haul trucks for use at BHP Billiton's mine sites -- no human required. The vehicles, programmed to perform specific tasks, will be modified versions of Caterpillar's off-highway behemoths, which can carry 240 tons. They're expected to be on the ground by 2010.

Technology: Extreme À La Carte

Robert Buckman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:04:54 -0400

Here’s a notion you might find difficult to stuff in your overhead bin: Airlines haven’t gone near far enough when it comes to "à la carte" pricing. In the airline world today, "à la carte" means experimenting with delivering products and services for an additional fee with the ultimate goal of growing revenues. And when network giants like Continental forecast netting $100 million from its checked bag fee, airline CEOs see an experiment worth pursuing.

Technology: A380 Impact Within U.S. Muted at First

Robert Buckman — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:37:58 -0400

As big as the Airbus A380 is, its impact in the U.S. market will be muted for the first few years simply because there won't be a lot of them flying here. In fact, to date no American carriers have even ordered the plane.

The impetus for the A380 really rests with other markets and the real impact will be felt where the plane is configured like a giant bus to carry up to 850 passengers. Which speaks
to its purpose: To provide major point-to-point, global, long-haul flight capacity.

Technology: The Sun Rises in the Southwest

Robert Buckman — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:52:51 -0400

The air travel landscape is changing forever from what we've come to expect: cheap flights, frequent flights, and all-inclusive fares.

The slow economy, the weak dollar, and high-priced fuel are all contributing to the big move by the big carriers in the U.S. market to slash their schedules. The network airlines' goal is fuller flights — boosting "passenger load capacity" from 82 percent to more than 90 percent. Meaning every flight will seem like Christmas or Thanksgiving.

In fact, the airlines are not finishing cutting schedules.

Technology: Are Airports at Risk?

Robert Buckman — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:48:35 -0400

Are airports really at risk?

Yes, says the Pennsylvania-based Business Travel Coalition, which claims 150 airports will lose all air service if oil prices stay in the $130-a-barrel range ("BTC Warns Congress About Airline Industry Failure").

Technology: Between a Rock and an IT Place

Robert Buckman — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:19:23 -0400

As the news site Anna.Aero points out, route reductions are providing opportunities for some airlines to expand and others to cut back.

The overriding issue derailing airline recovery especially in the U.S. is, of course, oil.

Technology: Airline Industry Basically Bankrupt?

Robert Buckman — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:34:04 -0400

George Mason University's Kenneth Button, a professor of public policy, calls an airline basically "a bus with wings."

In the same Travel Weekly article in which Button makes that assertion, he also points out that
the airlines have a razor-thin operating margin of just 0.4 percent vs. 6 percent for other industries.

"The cost of flying is cheap when you compare it to the cost of driving," he said. "People expect too much for too little."

Technology: Fees, Fuel, and Survival

Robert Buckman — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:37:09 -0400

Terry Trippler is absolutely "right on" in his quote in a recent edition of USA Today in which he says "This isn't nickel-and-diming. It's survival."

Trippler is talking about the American Airlines $15 first-checked-bag fee.

I think flyers are starting to recognize that right now, moves like this one, controversial as it is, are about survival. This fee isn't about getting extra revenue, but about getting operational revenue.

A Day With Futurist David Zach

Donna Karlin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:52:59 -0400

I just came back from CAM, 'Conversation Among Masters' and even though it was a dialogue among Master Coaches, we had in our midst a true master futurist, David Zach.

Technology: Share the Air

Robert Buckman — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:01:29 -0400

I have to admit I wasn't aware the extent to which commercial air traffic shares the sky with military air traffic — and how long ago those lanes in the sky were laid out. But Scott McCartney, a pilot himself, knows all about it.

What is amazing is how much of a difference it made when two air corridors were opened in military airspace for the Thanksgiving holiday.

At first I thought the big question would be, Can we do that sort of sharing more regularly?