Aviation Outlook

Ah, it's been so long since I blogged. I'm now using my office laptop to blog. quite surprised as I thought it'll be restricted. There's a lot of things that's restricted on this company's laptop due to firewalls and stuff. Cannot download or install applications, so i can't put the post it pad. Haiz.

Anyway, it's been 3 weeks into this new job and I realised that I haven't mention where I'm working. Ha, so i think i'll leave it this way. it's aviation related and it's not hardcore engineering. Which is what I prayed for. I just pray that the prospects will be good. Anyways, the society now looks at life long employability and not life long employment. Ok, since it's aviation related, I'll give my outlook of this sector....

The aviation industry, esp in this region, will see greater growth in the years to come. This is especially so as China and India open up. As businesses grow,the need to travel will increase. Now, all these are all my predictions and i'm blogging this down so that years later I can see if I'm right or not. There will come a time where there will be super sonic passenger planes again. The concord came ahead of its time but the industry will need supersonic planes in the future. It will come back again but probably not so soon. Unless there are major breakthroughs in the aerodynamics or engineering dept, the scene will remain much the same with a constant focus on developing more fuel efficient engines. As most aviation engineers know, if you want to go supersonic, it is impt that you create one that will go very supersonic, like mach 2 or even more. Flying at Mach 1 is the most inefficient way and I think hardly anyone cruises at that speed. It's the law of physics. hee. In asia, there will soon come a greater demand for budget carriers. However, this real boom of the budget airlines will only happen when more people have traveled on a plane at least once. Asians are generally very "face" concious. So, they will not take budget for fear of being laughed at. This will only change if economical situations push them so. It is important for budget airlines to change that image so as not hte appear so cheapskate and at the same time, it's only when ppl start to travel more and know what's the real world like outside and realise that it's ok to be practical, will they then dare to take budget airlines. Put it this way, after you've traveled a few times on a legacy carrier, you will then realise that it is actually quite ok to travel on budget airlines since you've tasted that experience already. Situation in EU is different from Asia and that's why airlines like Ryanair are doing so well. The Asian market can grow and will grow to be like EU's but the question is when. Until that day, our very own SIA will still enjoy the huge profits that they are taking now. However, as the pressure continues to rise with fuel pricing getting higher and higher, there will be widespread consolidation in this industry. That is when the men are seperated from the boys and I think SIA will grow stronger as the weaker competition will be eliminated. However, in the long run, they will have to change their strategy as the Asian market will turn to budget for its practicality and once the budget airlines are able to shed the cheapskate image, perhaps by having better seats or even more high class planes, which airasia X is going to do, they will surely make legacy airlines work harder for their pay cheque. SIA's job for now, will be to continue to capture the market share and by market I mean those who will and always travel with legacy carriers. As the consolidation happens, SIA must remain at the top. This is the real test. If she is able to emerge as the winner, she will survive as there will still be a group of people who will take legacy rather than budget. The SAF will gladly spent that money as they travel for example. Basically, rich people or people who do not know how to better manage finances will always be around to keep the demand for legacy going.