Now is probably a real good time to start an airline. You saw that right. Now is a good time to start an airline. Available planes are sitting in the desert, thousands of skilled airline workers are available, and potential customers are ready to support the right offering. On top of that the big airlines are struggling. The challenge is financing. It's a difficult environment to raise the necessary capital these days. Still, the environment is ripe. As the economy recovers watch for a new large airline.

So with this much opportunity what's a newly bankrupt airline to do? Toss out the business plan and play like a start-up. Realize the world has changed for good. Blame terrorists or the dot-com bust or whatever. The fact is that the changes we're seeing in the airline business are real. You cannot renegotiate or reorganize your way back to the way things were. You can't go back to eat the lunch you once ate. The picnic has moved.

It is time the airlines reconfigured themselves to be something different. Think outside the box...er tube. The day of the universal global airline serving anyone and everyone is over. That model was based on the efficiencies of mass production. Now in the era of mass customization and experience it's differentiate or die.

No longer is it about shaving costs and prices to win a greater share of a shrinking market. It's about designing a product offering that will command (earn) a premium. To do that you must narrow your focus and broadly appeal to a narrow targeted customer base. My previous posts (below) include some suggestions of specific ways that airlines can do this.