National Aviation Day 2024
Platform Smart is celebrating National Aviation Day, a day dedicated to honouring the remarkable journey of aviation.
WHAT is national aviation day?
This special day commemorates the incredible advancements in aviation, celebrating the engineers, pilots, scientists, and visionaries who have transformed flight into what it is today. Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, it marks the birthday of Orville Wright, one of the pioneering Wright Brothers who invented the airplane.
why is platform smart celebrating?
At Platform Smart, aviation is more than just an industry – it’s a field where we have deep roots and extensive expertise. Many of our clients are integral to the aviation sector, making this day especially meaningful for us. Our long-standing partnerships and projects within aviation highlight our commitment and passion for this dynamic field.
how are we celebrating?
In honour of National Aviation Day, we engaged our associates with a special initiative. We posted a submission form inviting them to ask anything about the aviation industry. Our Managing Consultants who manage our aviation accounts have taken the time to answer these questions, sharing insights and fostering a deeper understanding of the industry we proudly support.
Continue reading to see what questions our associates came up with and to learn more about the insights our industry experts shared.
AVIATION QUESTIONS
Victor Shum
Managing Consultant - Heathrow
What is going on at Boeing at the moment? And how do they navigate that storm of pressures from shareholders, government and clients?
I’ll be honest, I don’t have an answer! As an observer, it does seem to be a perfect storm of unfortunate events, bad press, poor leadership and lacklustre product. I draw parallels with Intel’s current woes. The dominant player under threat from external challengers whilst internally lacking strategic leadership and innovative compelling product. But unlike Intel and the semiconductor industry, aircraft have such a long product lifecycle, it is very difficult to recover from setbacks and missteps. One bad roadmap decision or choice can take a decade to rectify!
So, in conclusion Boeing have a challenging time ahead, trying to rehabilitate their reputation, quality and safety record whilst trying to improve their product range to be a more attractive proposition for airlines to buy.
How do businesses such as British Airways and Virgin succeed in their market position in between low-cost airlines vs luxury airlines?
I don’t think market position is the issue or root cause problem to address. It’s a question of brand and does that align in the consumer’s eyes to what they’re offering…and ultimately what the customer wants.
In that respect I’d contrast BA executing poorly and Virgin (for all their cons) doing it effectively. To expand on that a little further, Virgin may not be perceived as ‘luxury segment’ but it is clearly distinctive and has settled into a niche of transatlantic and long haul flight experience that are a little bit special and unique. BA has fallen into an all things to all people trap. On the one hand selling cheap flights and then everything is an extra cost add-on, whilst also pushing premium club and first-class services on flights and doing neither well.
What are the 3 biggest threats to the aviation industry right now?
Not 3 threats but in two words, Climate Change. Aviation has been an easy target in terms of being the villain in any climate change, carbon and sustainability debate. In the long term, I see technology and innovation meeting this challenge head on, but short/medium term the combination of government legislation and intervention combined with changing consumer behaviour will be the biggest influences and therefore threats to where the industry is heading. The bounce back from the pandemic has been quite marked and probably quicker than I expected, however, who would rule out another similar global event? Not something I want to dwell on, so I’ll remain positive and say that there are more creative solutions out there so long as there is an appetite and a need to travel.
If we look around us, everything is changing from everyone having smart devices, cars that drive for you to Amazon delivering things on the same day to you. Do we envisage that airports and aviation will change as drastically?
It depends on what you mean by drastically. I do see a tremendous amount of technologically driven change through necessity (re: Climate Change Challenge question) and competitive innovation. But in reference to the latter, I don’t see a disruptive technology on the horizon, largely because unlike some of the industries you mention, the barrier to entry is so high. However, I don’t rule it out I mean look at Tesla, but by the same token we don’t see any Apple or Dyson EVs on the road either….
Simon Bliss
Managing Consultant - IAG
What percentage of associate members are currently engaged in aviation or airport projects with Platform Smart?
A large percentage of our associates are currently engaged on aviation or airport projects. Around one third of our associates are or have been engaged on these projects with Platform Smart.
Are there any areas of an airport that Platform Smart hasn’t worked on?
No! Our extensive experience of transformation in airports covers all areas of airport systems, infrastructure, and operations. To illustrate, we have run projects in off-airport, websites, mobile apps, ticketing, surface arrival, taxi systems, parking, ANPR, ticketing, check-in and pass checking, common use kiosks, eGates, security, CCTV, next-gen security, retail, queue management, loyalty, passenger flow, airfield ops and aircraft movement, private 5G, ground movement, stand planning, stand entry guidance, push to talk radio, ground to air radio, literally tons of baggage projects, AODB, FIDs, ESB, BMS, IoT, access control, cargo strategy, automation, digitisation, and connected vehicle strategy. All of this plus over 100 core IT projects in the two largest UK airports.
Tell me more about how much aviation experience you have at Platform Smart.
The answer above says much about our experience, but to put it another way, we have 94 associates with over 10 years of aviation experience, 158 with 5-10 years of aviation experience and 62 with up to 5 years!
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