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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
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| Aug 21 2007, 8:35 PM EDT (current) | jimglab | 4 words added, 2 words deleted |
| Aug 21 2007, 1:47 PM EDT | jimglab | 1 photo added |
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by John Hopkinson
Details matter in Asian nations, perhaps moreso than in any other region of the world. In Japan, the simple act of apologizing has been elevated to a ritualistic art form, the shimatsu sho. In Singapore, chewing gum has been banned, lest it find its way onto the city’s immaculate streets.
This cultural attention to detail elevates Asian airlines to higher service levels and often superior operational and financial results than other airlines. Passengers consistently rave about the results: Eight transpacific carriers made the Top 10 International Airlines list in Travel + Leisure’s 2006 World’s Best Awards, and six of those were Asia-based airlines.
In addition, Pacific-based carriers have continued to differentiate themselves, even as airlines around the world have grown more and more alike. Pressured by tightening margins and intense competition from a steady stream of new entrants, many airlines have become more like commodities—offering pretty much the same product and forced to compete on price.
Damion Martin, a spokesperson for All Nippon Airlines (ANA)—which recently won the prestigious Air Transport World 2007 Airline of the Year Award—explains the difference by comparing eating at a T.G.I. Friday’s to dining at a small, family-owned Japanese restaurant.
Many airlines are as mass-market as large restaurant chains that serve hundreds of tables per night, so speed and volume are the key ingredients. But carriers like ANA focus much more on the cultural touches and personalized focus you would find at a Japanese restaurant. “We bring the qualities that people enjoy in Japan, the attentive service, the hospitality, and we put that on the flight,” explains Martin. “We are a global airline, but we are a Japanese airline first.”
The importance of regional cultural ethos, standards and expectations in shaping the transpacific airline market cannot be underestimated. The Asian tradition is not simply to develop an end result, but to focus on the process or journey toward that end—right down to the smallest details, which combine to create a finished product.
Singapore Airlines, perennially cited by global travelers as the finest airline in the world, is a perfect example of the influence of this tradition. Every aspect of Singapore’s in-flight experience has been analyzed by the airline to bring it closer to perfection.
That’s why Singapore is the only airline with its own wine cellar, where bottles are purchased up to seven years before they will ever be poured for a customer. Because passengers lose about 40 percent of the ability to taste while flying,
Singapore developed a compression chamber tasting room next to its catering facility that replicates the temperature, humidity and pressure at 30,000 feet and helps improve meal quality.
Another example: selection and training of Singapore Airlines flight attendants. Only 10 percent of applicants are offered positions, and those hired must enroll in five full months of training, rather than the industry average of six weeks. The second interview for flight attendants isn’t an interview at all, but a tea party for applicants only. The airline watches them from behind a two-way mirror to see how they conduct themselves. Applicants who initiate conversation and begin to serve others tea make it to the next round.
“We are looking for the people that have service that is innate, that is in their blood, as opposed to people who have to be taught service,” says James Boyd, a spokesman for Singapore Airlines. “That way, when they are providing service to a passenger, it’s from the heart, it’s genuine, it’s instinctive and it’s reflexive.”
No detail is too small to matter to Singapore flight attendants—there are three approved nail polish colors and five approved hairstyles. As Boyd notes, “It’s very much designed to have a tight focus on very small details. And the customer can’t necessarily pick out what the details are. But the cumulative effect of all those seemingly invisible, singular details result in them coming off the plane feeling like they had a good experience.”
Asian carriers continuously demonstrate a willingness to be at the vanguard of industry improvements that enhance the passenger experience. They fly some of the youngest fleets (some with an average age as low as one year) and purchase the latest and best aircraft. For example, ANA is the launch customer for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner debuting next year, with a huge 50-aircraft order. Singapore Airlines is scheduled to be the first airline to fly the Airbus 380, and China Southern Airlines, Korean Air Lines and Thai Airways have all placed A380 orders.
Asian carriers also embrace the latest seating and in-flight technology. Boyd says, “People are living with you for basically a full day of their lives. So you have to provide them a certain level of comfort, connectivity and sense of control over their travel experience that they wouldn’t necessarily require on other airlines.”
Not only Asia-based carriers excel at bringing passengers across the Pacific. U.S.-based carriers with significant flights to Asia, such as Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, go above and beyond their normal service offerings on these long-haul flights, with special Asian meal and drink offerings, seats that convert to fully flat beds in first and business class, and the latest in-flight entertainment.
But the bottom line is the bottom line—the Asian airline market is at the head of the class financially, too. International Asian carriers manage to remain consistently profitable in a highly cyclical industry. Perhaps nothing demonstrated the financial strength of these carriers more than the SARS panic of 2003, when travel to and from much of the region came to a screeching halt for months. Once the crisis passed, however, Asian carriers quickly rebounded, taking advantage of the heavy concentration of business travel demand driven by the rapidly expanding economies of the region in countries like China and India. Hong Kong–basedKong–based Cathay Pacific was the airline hardest hit by SARS, and while the carrier suffered heavy losses for a number of quarters, it returned to the black quickly in 2004.
While financial statements of U.S. carriers are not reported by region, it is generally accepted that the Asian routes of Northwest and United are among their most profitable. Indeed, when United Airlines paid the (then outrageous) sum of $1 billion for Pan Am’s Pacific network in 1986, the deal was met with skepticism and raised eyebrows. Today, that watershed purchase is considereda steal, the crown jewel of United’sUnited’s global route structure.
So, on your next flight to the Far East, take time to notice the little things as you travel. Choose the Asian meal selection. Try not to be embarrassed when cabin attendants treat you like a king or a queen. See if you can count more than three colors of nail polish on the flight attendants’ nails. And please, leave the chewing gum at home.
Check out these tips for transpacific air travel
______________________________________________________________________________
JOHN HOPKINSON is a freelance writer based in Connecticut.
Flights across the Pacific set the standard for superior service in air travel. What’s behind this phenomenon?
Details matter in Asian nations, perhaps moreso than in any other region of the world. In Japan, the simple act of apologizing has been elevated to a ritualistic art form, the shimatsu sho. In Singapore, chewing gum has been banned, lest it find its way onto the city’s immaculate streets. This cultural attention to detail elevates Asian airlines to higher service levels and often superior operational and financial results than other airlines. Passengers consistently rave about the results: Eight transpacific carriers made the Top 10 International Airlines list in Travel + Leisure’s 2006 World’s Best Awards, and six of those were Asia-based airlines.
In addition, Pacific-based carriers have continued to differentiate themselves, even as airlines around the world have grown more and more alike. Pressured by tightening margins and intense competition from a steady stream of new entrants, many airlines have become more like commodities—offering pretty much the same product and forced to compete on price.
Damion Martin, a spokesperson for All Nippon Airlines (ANA)—which recently won the prestigious Air Transport World 2007 Airline of the Year Award—explains the difference by comparing eating at a T.G.I. Friday’s to dining at a small, family-owned Japanese restaurant.
Many airlines are as mass-market as large restaurant chains that serve hundreds of tables per night, so speed and volume are the key ingredients. But carriers like ANA focus much more on the cultural touches and personalized focus you would find at a Japanese restaurant. “We bring the qualities that people enjoy in Japan, the attentive service, the hospitality, and we put that on the flight,” explains Martin. “We are a global airline, but we are a Japanese airline first.”
The importance of regional cultural ethos, standards and expectations in shaping the transpacific airline market cannot be underestimated. The Asian tradition is not simply to develop an end result, but to focus on the process or journey toward that end—right down to the smallest details, which combine to create a finished product.
A tradition of uncommon service
Singapore Airlines, perennially cited by global travelers as the finest airline in the world, is a perfect example of the influence of this tradition. Every aspect of Singapore’s in-flight experience has been analyzed by the airline to bring it closer to perfection.
That’s why Singapore is the only airline with its own wine cellar, where bottles are purchased up to seven years before they will ever be poured for a customer. Because passengers lose about 40 percent of the ability to taste while flying,
Singapore developed a compression chamber tasting room next to its catering facility that replicates the temperature, humidity and pressure at 30,000 feet and helps improve meal quality.
Another example: selection and training of Singapore Airlines flight attendants. Only 10 percent of applicants are offered positions, and those hired must enroll in five full months of training, rather than the industry average of six weeks. The second interview for flight attendants isn’t an interview at all, but a tea party for applicants only. The airline watches them from behind a two-way mirror to see how they conduct themselves. Applicants who initiate conversation and begin to serve others tea make it to the next round. “We are looking for the people that have service that is innate, that is in their blood, as opposed to people who have to be taught service,” says James Boyd, a spokesman for Singapore Airlines. “That way, when they are providing service to a passenger, it’s from the heart, it’s genuine, it’s instinctive and it’s reflexive.”
No detail is too small to matter to Singapore flight attendants—there are three approved nail polish colors and five approved hairstyles. As Boyd notes, “It’s very much designed to have a tight focus on very small details. And the customer can’t necessarily pick out what the details are. But the cumulative effect of all those seemingly invisible, singular details result in them coming off the plane feeling like they had a good experience.”
Always looking ahead
Asian carriers continuously demonstrate a willingness to be at the vanguard of industry improvements that enhance the passenger experience. They fly some of the youngest fleets (some with an average age as low as one year) and purchase the latest and best aircraft. For example, ANA is the launch customer for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner debuting next year, with a huge 50-aircraft order. Singapore Airlines is scheduled to be the first airline to fly the Airbus 380, and China Southern Airlines, Korean Air Lines and Thai Airways have all placed A380 orders.
Asian carriers also embrace the latest seating and in-flight technology. Boyd says, “People are living with you for basically a full day of their lives. So you have to provide them a certain level of comfort, connectivity and sense of control over their travel experience that they wouldn’t necessarily require on other airlines.”
Not only Asia-based carriers excel at bringing passengers across the Pacific. U.S.-based carriers with significant flights to Asia, such as Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, go above and beyond their normal service offerings on these long-haul flights, with special Asian meal and drink offerings, seats that convert to fully flat beds in first and business class, and the latest in-flight entertainment.
Excellence rewarded
But the bottom line is the bottom line—the Asian airline market is at the head of the class financially, too. International Asian carriers manage to remain consistently profitable in a highly cyclical industry. Perhaps nothing demonstrated the financial strength of these carriers more than the SARS panic of 2003, when travel to and from much of the region came to a screeching halt for months. Once the crisis passed, however, Asian carriers quickly rebounded, taking advantage of the heavy concentration of business travel demand driven by the rapidly expanding economies of the region in countries like China and India. Hong Kong–basedKong–based Cathay Pacific was the airline hardest hit by SARS, and while the carrier suffered heavy losses for a number of quarters, it returned to the black quickly in 2004.
While financial statements of U.S. carriers are not reported by region, it is generally accepted that the Asian routes of Northwest and United are among their most profitable. Indeed, when United Airlines paid the (then outrageous) sum of $1 billion for Pan Am’s Pacific network in 1986, the deal was met with skepticism and raised eyebrows. Today, that watershed purchase is considereda steal, the crown jewel of United’sUnited’s global route structure.
So, on your next flight to the Far East, take time to notice the little things as you travel. Choose the Asian meal selection. Try not to be embarrassed when cabin attendants treat you like a king or a queen. See if you can count more than three colors of nail polish on the flight attendants’ nails. And please, leave the chewing gum at home.
Check out these tips for transpacific air travel
______________________________________________________________________________
JOHN HOPKINSON is a freelance writer based in Connecticut.
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