Planes to Profit

Planes to Profit is a blog devoted to making money from the operation of airplanes. History has proven that creating a profitable business around aviation is a very difficult proposition, whether you are trying to run an FBO and flight school at a small community airport, or operating hundreds of wide-body jets on international routes. Capital costs are extremely high, competition is fierce, and margins are thin. Yet, without profitable business models and the ability to execute, the demand for new aircraft in the commercial market would decline leaving governments or government supported entities as the only operators. Planes to Profit exists out of a love for airplanes. When business can make money off of airplanes, more airplanes are built and the state of the art is advanced, and all those who love aviation benefit.

I’ve borrowed the 3-phase business model of the Underpants Gnomes from South Park and adapted it to aviation:

Phase 1: Buy Airplanes
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit

As you can see, there is a bit of a gap between buying the airplanes and generating a profit. Planes to Profit seeks to analyze and discuss phase 2.

Chris Kerns

I have loved aviation since boyhood and have recently decided to pursue a career solving business problems in the aviation industry after having flirted with the industry since studying aeronautical engineering in college. The commonality across my careers in military logistics, aerospace engineering, and software development is that quickly assimilate information in order to come up with pragmatic solutions to complex problems.

In 2006, I decided to adjust my career goals and focus on the practice of business. To aid in this transition I will be spending the next two years at the Johnson School at Cornell University working on my MBA. My goal is to combine the fundamental business knowledge gained through business school with my years of experience in solving complex problems and apply my talents to enhancing the profitability of air transport businesses.

I am also a low time (~100 hrs) private pilot and came very close to pursuing a career as a commercial pilot (after failing to get the military to flip the bill). After passing my checkride, I realized that I would be happiest if I kept piloting as a hobby and continued to pursue a professional path that makes better use of my problem solving talents.

Credits

The banner image is adopted froma photo ( shown at right; used with permission) taken by Sebastian Nodolny that I found on Airliners.net.

You can view Sebastian’s other photos at JetPhotos.net and airfoto.pl

The WordPress Theme is an adaptation of Kaushal Sheth’s Indigo theme, which is apparently an Englishification of Viktor Persson’s theme as found on arcsin.se.

Snap Shots

I have installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots brings you the information you need, without you having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.