Good Idea! Now find a better one.

As we discussed in the last post, another name for a disruptive innovation is an untouchable reorientation because it flips what’s valuable and what’s not and it’s initially perceived as inferior making it most undesirable for potential competitors.

So let’s take a look at the Airline industry and flip a few fundamental features upside-down. We’re looking at 3 major features: Flying Multiple Aircraft Types, Assigned Seating, and Baggage Handling. We backtracked from our original plan for 4 major features to keep focused.

Buy everything Boeing makes.

The thinking of all the major carriers was to purchase and maintain multiple aircraft types and match the aircraft to the distance and demand for each route. It means running 737’s, 757’s, 777’s, 747’s and DC-10’s not to mention Airbus’ offerings.

Southwest standardized on the 737. It, in its 3 variations, is the only type they own. They need pilots for one type of aircraft. They need maintenance and parts for one type of plane. The list of benefits for Southwest is quite long, especially as a low-cost carrier. Conventional thinking said that fewer aircraft types meant less flexibility, a negative, Southwest flipped it to greater efficiency, a positive.

And they walked down a path that the major carriers cannot easily follow. To copy Southwest they would need to sell off most of their fleet (to whom?) lay off or retrain a good portion of their workforce and make a huge purchase of one aircraft type. Untouchable.

It’s First Grade all over again.

That’s what we said when we heard that Southwest got rid of reserved seating. We’ll have to walk down the aisle picking who we’ll sit next to, just like boarding that big, yellow cheesewagon in Elementary school.

Reserved seats are definitely perceived as more valuable. Southwest flipped it and called it “Open Seating”. The result? Their booking system is much less complex. It was cheaper to build and is cheaper to maintain.

They eliminated reserved seating to reduce complexity in their business processes and reduce their operating costs. Lower costs are a beautiful thing in a price sensitive market like airline travel. How quickly have competitors adjusted to Southwest’s success with this? How quickly does any major corporation streamline its business processes?

I hope you like apples.

Because challenging this sacred cow is really pushing the limits; so gird yourself appropriately. Here we go: You can’t bring any luggage on the plane. No checked luggage, no carry-on bags, nadda, zip, zero, zilch. How ya like them apples?

To travel means to bring luggage. It’s fundamental, elementary and unavoidable. Kick it off the plane anyway. Why? Without hauling all that luggage, you can reconfigure the interior of the cabin to actually make it comfortable. Without the tonnage and space requirements of luggage, an interior designer could have a field day in there.

But what do you wear when you reach your destination? Well, the clothes from your luggage, of course! We sent it to your hotel/home via UPS/FedEx/DHL because, let’s face it, they’re better at baggage handling than we could ever be.

Now, we can be reasonable and handle some carry-on luggage like laptops, books, toiletries and other essentials.

But won’t those shipping services be expensive? It depends on when you send your luggage. Send it the day of your flight? Very Expensive. Send it to your destination 3-5 days in advance? Less expensive.

And what about the business travelers? Would they go for this? Maybe. But the point is that this is an exercise in disruption and reorientation. This isn’t about satisfying the mass market right out the gate. This is about satisfying a lucrative few. And those few are all the more lucrative because, at first, competitors won’t be inclined to follow.

If an airline began offering limited “no-luggage” service between select cities tommorow, assuming they already had their ducks in a row to pull it off, how long would it take for a serious competitor to emerge?

The other airlines can’t afford to simply idle their baggage handlers. They can’t reconfigure their aircraft overnight to take advantage of additional cabin room. They cannot quickly adjust their internal processes to offer a similar service.

That gives the first disruptive mover a significant advantage in creating a new market and dominating it.

The big question is, Could a no-luggage airline service negotiate a faster but more thorough security check-in for its customers?

Tags: disruption, reorientation, airlines, southwest