The Expectation Equation

It often seems that airlines are particularly prone to attacks from the disgruntled. This is to be expected at times but unfortunately, valid threads can be hijacked and driven away from the true purpose. An airline may seek to post, tweet or otherwise broadcast a disruption due to volcanic activity or some other mechanism beyond their control, only to instigate an unrelated tirade. An informed post of delays in Bali flights due to the ash is met with a lost bag complaint on a Melbourne flight three months ago and the divergence begins. “That happened to me”, “My seat didn’t recline”, “My meal wasn’t hot”, and so on and so on. The true purpose of the initial post drifts slowly away like the ash cloud from Mount Agung.

These issues may well be valid and the airlines need to know, but as we were told as children, “There’s a time and a place.” Unfortunately, the ease of social media opens the floodgates for complaints in a way that the postal service never truly did. 280 characters can initiate a tsunami of discontent that can reach millions in a millisecond.

In many cases, the base issue is the age-old problem of reality not meeting expectation. Does the burger that we are served match the glowing image on the billboard? Does the garden hose we bought online live up to its promise? We may pay a fortune for a dinner and still add a tip as the evening and the experience exceeded our expectations but feel cheated when the three-bladed titanium reinforced razor goes blunt after one use.

This is the world in which the airlines exist and unfortunately for them the goalposts have shifted significantly in recent decades. Air travel was once a premium product and the air fare was set accordingly. Crew in white coats served up meals on linen tablecloths with silver service and sparkling glassware. Price, expectation and reality were all in relative alignment. However, the expectation/reality balance has now shifted incredibly. Expectation has risen dramatically in the face of a decreasing reality.

The most expensive component of some air travel is the taxi to the airport and yet some anticipate 5-star premium service. What they overlook is that behind the scenes, aviation safety has been on a continual path of improvement but that isn’t served on a meal tray. Given the increasing levels of air traffic, schedule integrity is impressive and the calibre of aircraft servicing many routes is more sophisticated than the 1980s. Human factors training and new technology all cost the airlines a pretty penny but if a bag goes missing or a service is cancelled they are seen as a shambles.

When the Airbus A220 recently visited our shores a thread on one forum began on a positive note, describing the aircraft’s interior. It soon degenerated into why there are no screens in the seats of the regional airliner. Such things as in-seat entertainment equate to weight and cost, installation and cost, maintenance and cost and then need to be considered with a view to sector length. It can be a complicated equation, not to mention that some routes were being serviced by piston-engined twins and the introduction of a turboprop was a giant leap. All this in an age when most people watch Netflix on an iPad anyway.

The thread then drifted to Wi-Fi and why every airliner doesn’t have it. Beyond the cost of retro-fitting, or even installation at the time of manufacture, appropriate checks and balances have had to be met. Security of the network, prevention of other passengers accessing other devices, children having access to inappropriate content and not to mention ensuring that the system is entirely safe operating alongside the digital aircraft systems. But none of that slowed the detractors. From an exciting new regional aircraft prospect, to no in-seat entertainment, to no Wi-Fi, to my bag got lost, to that bloke in front of me leant his seat all the way back. Game over – intent lost.

Effectively, the airlines can be on a hiding to nothing. The opportunity given to the public to share their experiences provides a sound launching pad from which purchasing decisions can be more informed, provided the extremes, both good and bad, can be discounted. Unfortunately, it would seem that the negative and distracting input tends to hog the debate and the airline’s valuable resources and time are spent putting out the never-ending little individual brushfires. Yes, they need to be attended to but at the same time perhaps the travelling public needs to pause and realise what is truly involved in safely conveying them from A to B. Maybe then there will be a little more alignment between our expectation and our reality when it comes to air travel.

‘Expectation has risen dramatically in the face of a decreasing reality’