Re*Move: Airlines

Joe and I have decamped this week quite a lot to the cafe in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, because the wifi's so much faster than the Dearborn Inn, where we've been staying. We first visited the museum in December, when we interviewed the all-knowing Bob Casey, curator of transportation. Bob had great insights into the historical problems of matching demand to supply in the mass-production auto industry.

Proving the power of Twitter to get people together, we tweeted we were here and yesterday were soon joined by Carrie Nolan, a PR manager from the museum, who came to say hi and tell us how things are going.

See our short discussion with her below.

The Henry Ford Museum is a must for anyone interested in the social and technical history of how we move, mass produced vehicles, the story of the American railroad and its aviation history. One of my favourite exhibitions is its story of the transition of aviation from a dangerous sport to a credible, safe form of transport. The area had one of the world's first proper airports, and its first airport hotel, the aforementioned Dearborn Inn, which opened in 1931.

Follow Carrie through @cmnolan10 or the whole team via @thehenryford on Twitter. Posted by Mark Charmer and filmed at The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan on 20 April 2009.

In my predictions for 2009, I speculated this would be the year that the new Airbus A380 superjumbo becomes a selling point differentiator for airlines. Judging by this billboard advertisment (above) that's currently looming over the concourse at London's Waterloo station, it appears to be happening rather quickly.

What I think is fascinating about this is the direction in which it has the potential to take air travel. From the early years of flight - when air travel was an exotic, romantic experience - air travel has turned into something to be endured, rather than enjoyed.

I once heard the late, great Paul MacCready (designer of the Gossamer Albatross) lament “if only modern automobiles had been refined and developed to be as light and efficient as aeroplanes have, perhaps the automobile industry wouldn't be in such trouble” – but what this in turn means, is that the vehicles we travel on (or in), in the air - are largely indistinguishable from one another. As MacCready alludes, that's because modern aeroplane design walks a fine line in balancing efficiency, carrying capacity and cost - and the long, thin tube sitting on a central wing box seems to have won out as the design pattern of choice... Airlines therefore don't advertise, or differentiate on the types of aircraft they fly - they appeal with cheap fares, better entertainments systems and the allusion to superior service.

Paul MacCready's Gossamer Albatross a model of aviation efficiency... but a world away from modern day machines.

Compare this to the auto industry, conversely - where the minor detail differentiation of cars from competitor to competitor is the subject of millions - no makes that billions - of dollars of advertising money, not to mention design and development funds. Thus, I'd speculate that while 99 out of 100 people will be able to tell you what make and model of car they drive, 99 out of 100 people won’t be able to tell you what the last type of plane they flew on was - nor, I'd suggest, would they care.

Yet the Airbus A380 - superjumbo, whalejet, or double-decker plane (whatever you want to call it) - seems to have firmly entered the public conscience - such was the troubled nature of its birth, and the awe-inspiring size of this 'machine', and sense of disbelief that exists, that mankind has managed to engineers such a vast craft, capable of such a graceful ascension from earth to sky.

Judging by last weekend’s article in The Sunday Times, not only are the airlines (Qantas, Singapore and Emirates offer UK-based A380 departures) differentiating themselves from the competition by advertising that they fly the A380 - but the plane's following is allowing them to charge a tidy price premium for travel on it. In an article entitled “The search for the best A380” the paper reports that Emirates - for instance - flies four times a day from London Heathrow to Dubai, and while on its Boeing 777s you can make that trip for as little as £305 in economy, if you want to fly on an A380, the price starts at £530.

Emirates A380s have showers on board, while Singapore's first class suites have double beds

Is it worth the difference? Well, probably not - particularly in economy. As the Qantas advert illustrates, the big gains this plane allows the airlines (showers, bar areas, individual first class cabins with double beds) are reserved for Business and First class passengers. The question is, at what point will the A380 become so ubiquitous that they can now longer get away with charging a premium? And with Boeing's groundbreaking 787 Dreamliner not far away now, can new planes like these reverse the miserabilism and hatred currently exhibited by both public and media alike, towards the whole notion of flying? In the UK, at least, our wider priorities seem to suggest that's unlikely, but ultimately, planes like the A380 could be the best hope that exists of creating a new 'golden age' of air travel.

...and finally, on the subject of current air travel experiences - if you want a laugh, you must read this. It's possible the funniest complaint letter, ever. (via Dennis Howlett on twitter)