When I asked last week, many of you really liked the idea of a podcast. So here it is. This one went longer than planned (17m50s) because I repurposed an interview I was planning to transcribe for my Across the Aisle series. Now you get to hear me speak with OneJet CEO Matt Maguire instead.
Please provide feedback on this, so I can tweak and ultimately decide if this is worth doing. And if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, email me at cf@crankyflier.com.
I think the podcast is great. especially when you do across the aisle segments. Plus if you break your fingers again you can just do a podcast! Also, I think a cranky rant segment about how awful United is! Also as far as sponsors you should check out patreon.com/. keep up the good work!
I really liked this! Worked well for the across-the-aisle segments
Is the podcast going to become a regular (maybe weekly) feature? If so, how do I subscribe?
Thanks Cranky.
Alan – I’m testing it out now. It will get posted on the blog, so if you’re a blog subscriber, you’ll see it there.
Sorry I won’t be listening.
This is an interesting business model. I like the idea of connecting mid sized cities directly. It reminds of the Ultimate Air Shuttle operation out of Cincinnati, only with much smaller planes.
Did Mr. Maguire mention that he would ever consider flying out of non-commercial airports that are closer to city centers (again, like UAS does out of Lunken in Cincy)? I know he mentioned that fuel was much cheaper at the commercial airports, but they are usually much less convenient for travels, especially when flight times are so short. Could be interesting to see OneAir try both options, like UAS does.
I found it very interesting that Mr. Maguire mentioned WiFi as a credibility / appearances issue. Didn’t realize that it was such a must have on short flights, even for appearances.
As for the format, I found the podcast to be very good, and you have a good radio/TV voice. These types of podcasts really do work well for Across the Aisle segments. I would suggest not letting yourself be bound by artificial time constraints (don’t try to make episodes of X length, or under Y minutes every time), but rather to let the podcasts run as long as necessary to adequately cover the subject matter. This podcast was focused and interesting, so the length wasn’t an issue for me at all.
The next time you do a podcast, it would be nice if you could include in the post a quick text summary or a handful of bullets showing the topics covered and major revelations from the podcast, ideally with references to times in the podcast where the topics start. This would help audiences decide if they want to listen to the podcast, and if they are time constrained it would help them jump ahead to the parts of the podcast that are most relevant for them.
Thanks for the feedback Kilroy.
*Matt didn’t say anything about close-in airports, but they like operating in a terminal environment.
*Summary bullets may happen in the future, but the whole point now is to minimize my typing.
Oh, and not to continue to harp on Ultimate Air Shuttle, but if you could arrange an interview with them (suggested topics: their history, their business model / niche, future plans, etc), that would make for a great Across the Aisle post.
An interview with an EAS carrier like SeaPort Air would also be worth a shot.
I find these smaller scheduled operators to be very fascinating, and a good change of pace from reading about the big guys.
An interview with SeaPort would be interesting, but in a “wow, what happened that led to Chapter 7?” way. I’d listen, but I don’t know how many others would.
Could not get podcast. Said——this content is not compatible with your email client. ???
Mark – The podcast player will not show up in your email. You have to click it or the link above the player. You can download there if you want.
Well done.
Great job on your first podcast. Like to hear many more. Actually, I prefer podcast these days over written content as I can multitask when enjoying the podcast.
One important thing though would be ensure they are available iTunes and Google. Helps the listeners with access to and for you broadens distribution methods and builds awareness of your podcast.
James – Thank you! Now that I have one podcast under the belt, I’ve submitted to both iTunes and Google. Both are waiting for approval.
As long as the post is accompanied with a picture of our usual cigarette smoker, I’m ok with it :)
I would love in addition to the podcast if we had a chance to view the text of it. I always read the blog at work. I realize right now that is a ton of work especially with the broken fingers right now. But maybe something in the future.
Excellent Brett! Well done – please continue with the great work!
Nice podcast. One thing I wonder about with very small aircraft is variable demand. When you have 100-200 daily seats in a market, you can assume demand will be somewhat similar from day to day or week to week, and then you fine-tune the match between seats and demand by dynamically adjusting prices. But what do you do when you have just 7 or 14 seats? How can you guarantee that you don’t fly empty one day, and are oversubscribed the next day?
Ron has nailed one of the chief headaches on Essential Air Services routes. You may get the “completion” subsidy for flying empty, but if you can’t keep the numbers up, no one can justify paying for the route to continue. That said, these are smaller aircraft than the 19-seaters we were flying on EAS routes, which is an advantage during off-peak periods.
The advantage we had was 34-seaters we could swap in during peak demand.
Doug (Colgan dispatch 2003-6)
Ron – Well, you can also look at it by thinking that there is a whole lot more demand than the number of seats they put out there. So if that’s the case, then even on slow days they can get 4 seats. Might not be much more than that out there but they’re spilling more demand on peak days.