If You Want to Play Corporate Travel Leapfrog, Best to Have Strong Legs

Morning, everyone! This week I had the pleasure of attending the Asia Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit here in Sydney. A 3-day gathering of the airline and travel industry glitterati packed with presentations and pontifications about the future of air travel, and the travel industry in general.

After flying on, writing about and booking tickets with airlines for years it was great fun to go to a conference devoted to the business of air travel. And what became apparent to me is that when it comes to business travel, airlines are pretty tough to keep up with.

As Cafe regulars would know I've devoted a few Friday Mornings lately to talking about Virgin Blue's quest for the Australian corporate market. And if the presentations I heard this week prove to deliver what was talked about, any possible leap frog plans past Qantas that Virgin had could prove to be very tough to deliver on.

It boils down to simple economics: the Qantas Group is profitable, despite all the groaning about costs and constant (and very publicised) battles with some categories of employees. Qantas' CEO Alan Joyce at the conference this week put it in very plain terms: they are making money. And when you make money, you can spend money. And when you can spend more money than your competitors, you'll end up leapfrogging well out of their league.

Joyce spoke at length about the 8 to 9 figure investments (yes that's tens to hundreds of millions of dollars) in airport operations and passenger experience technologies they've started to just roll out, and it is obvious they are moving into a new generation of convenience for business travellers. I'm soon to get my new Qantas Frequent Flyer card (got my "personal" email from Alan himself letting me know it's on the way!) and after what I heard this week I can't wait to try it out.

I've written lately about comfy seats, in-flight entertainment, air staff that try to do wonderful things for you, and all that good stuff. But time after time, in study after study, the things that business travellers tend to rate as most important when choosing an airline (assuming they have a choice of course) is convenience, reliability and capacity - and Qantas is nailing those facets well beyond the rest of the market.

With the new virtual check-in, and soon-to-come personal bag tags, as a busy traveller I'll be able to waltz into the airport minutes before my flight, stroll past the RFID kiosks which will pick up my information from the radio chip embedded in my Frequent Flyer card, toss my bag with similarly ID'd bag tag attached onto the waiting conveyor, and voila - I'll be checked in and on my way. No stopping at a touch-screen, and certainly I won't have to stand in line and talk to a person (heavens no!) to check in. It doesn't get more convenient than that.

And it probably didn't come cheap - which again is why Virgin will continue to struggle to capture the corporate market as I would predict that this new technology will be a huge hit with road warriors. As Virgin ekes out a profit, Qantas' money train seems to keep rumbling along just fine- "tank you very musch" as the Jolly Irishman Mr. Joyce would say. Deep pockets can buy big things, and this "frog" has some big legs. Going to be tough to get the jump on this....