The Aerospace community has a seemingly insatiable demand for ever more high-value information, delivered with ever greater frequency and speed. Nowhere is this demand more visible than in the airline sector, where information (on competitors, suppliers and customers) has become as powerful a competitive tool as any.
Historically, the bigger and more powerful airlines could afford better equipment than their lesser competitors; with the rise of leasing, that is no longer the case.
Historically, flag carriers could share the monopoly spoils of prime routes; the spread of open skies and liberalisation are opening those profitable routes to hungry newcomers. In parts of the world such as Western Europe, the traditional predominance of air travel is being seriously challenged by high speed railways and undersea tunnels.
As the advantages of historical market power have been eroded, the demand for information, and the advantages that money can still buy, have risen. It is to satisfy this demand that Reed Business Information, the publisher of Flight International and Airline Business, is launching its on-line news and data service for the airline community, Air Transport Intelligence.
Source: Flight International
