There’s no shortage
of IATA press releases. Not surprisingly, these press releases often convey
the IATA spin-doctors’ perspective on events and trends rather than
a mere objective accounting of facts.
While it is IATA’s genuine right as
an industry association to stand up for what it considers to be the best
interest of the air transport industry as a whole, sometimes facts tend
to backfire as the spin takes on a life of its own.
Uber Car
Most Admired?
Back in June 2014, Tony Tyler, DG of IATA spoke
at the Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels, focusing on the benefits of
proper IT and its importance for the bottom line and future of aviation
per se.
Mr. Tyler opined the obvious—that
airlines “need to keep their customers happy, so that they want
to return.”
He urged listeners to “always remember
that we fly people and cargo, not planes” and that an airline's
“mindset has to be oriented to view things from the perspective
of the customer in all that they do—including how they design, integrate,
and implement IT systems.”
In order to further illustrate the point,
Mr. Tyler also declared:
“We certainly see this occurring outside
of aviation—just look at companies like Uber, Airbnb, Pandora and
Open Table that created new market niches by identifying consumer needs
and meeting them using existing and emerging IT.
“There are lessons here both in terms
of the power of creative, customer-focused thinking and the speed-to-market
with which innovations are being introduced,” Tony Tyler said.
When you think about those concerned with
the privacy of their data being handed over to airlines, ground handling
providers, travel agents, and other stakeholders in the air transport
business, Tyler’s choices in illustrating his points may not have
been well thought out, and may even be worrisome.
We are thinking specifically about Tyler’s
choice of Uber and Airbnb as companies to admire, as ongoing revelations
this year have cast widespread doubt that either outfit is one that air
cargo should aspire to be like.
 For
those unfamiliar with the Uber business model:
Uber is a non-asset based transportation
provider competing with cabs, minicabs, and taxis via a smartphone app
that allows one to book transport.
The transportation is provided by anyone
whose vehicle has signed up and been accepted by Uber.
Whether the vehicle is properly insured,
whether VAT is deducted by the driver and any taxes are paid at all, and
whether or not the driver and/or his vehicle are licensed by the appropriate
national authorities is neither verifiable by Uber nor the passenger.
Some other revelations about Uber:
Recently one report said Uber manager Emil
Michael disclosed plans to spend in excess of 1 million USD to dig up
compromising facts about journalists being overly critical toward Uber.
Another report noted the Uber software apparently
also includes a function dubbed “god view,” where pretty much
anyone working for Uber is able to access all customer data including
a complete transport profile.
 As
for Airbnb, a day rental service that matches up apartment space with
renters via the web, there have been several reports of dissatisfaction
amongst people living in residential buildings—The State of New
York is coming down especially heavy on Airbnb , stating that “more
than 72 percent of all Airbnb day rentals are illegal,” according
to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
“There are serious concerns about
the proliferation of illegal hotels and the impact of Airbnb and sites
like it on the City of New York,” Eric Schneiderman emphasized.
“We must ensure that, as online marketplaces
revolutionize the way we live, laws designed to promote safety and quality-of-life
are not forsaken under the pretext of innovation,” the AG said.
Real Estate Board of New York President
Steven Spinola adds:
“We have serious concerns for the
safety of residents who live in buildings with apartments that are rented
by the day.
“Hotels correctly are required to
have a higher building code standard than residential buildings to protect
the public. We also question the appropriateness of purchasers or renters
discovering different people moving in and out after correctly assuming
they had purchased or rented in a residential building, not a transient
hotel.”
In New York especially, where buildings
in every Manhattan neighborhood are becoming wholly remodeled and turned
into exorbitantly expensive housing, the concern with Airbnb arises not
so much with a single renter subletting a spare room via the Airbnb service,
but rather a corporation purchasing an entire building and turning it
into a makeshift Airbnb hotel. Not only does this limit the already sparse
housing situation in NYC, but it also provides an illegal hotel model
that exists outside hotel code standards.
IATA may want to be more careful with whose
business models they associate themselves.
But the good common sense held by most air
cargo stakeholders would indicate that at least some of what IATA says
goes in one ear and out the other, including industry number projections
that are either behind the curve or regularly all over the lot.
But since the Tyler faux pas was raised
at an IT gathering, we shouldn’t forget IATA’s last attempt
to create software for air cargo aimed at the end-user.
“EasyDGR” met a pretty devastating
end. The much ballyhooed IATA software, which would issue shipper’s
declarations for dangerous goods, was unceremoniously pulled off the market
because IATA was unable to adapt their own software to their own set of
regulations—something we might recall their commercial competitors
had no trouble doing.
Predicting
Reality Check
According to IATA’s own figures, worldwide
penetration for e-AWB in air cargo stands at 19.9 percent.
While that number may show at least some upward movement, it is important
to recall that IATA originally told us in 2010 that the e-AWB number would
be 100 percent by 2014.
Jens |
