This most recent foiled airline bombing plot and the reactions and measures taken are making the already unattractive proposal of commercial airline travel even worst. Seth Godin posted that in his opinion this may mark a tipping point for the enormous amount of business travel done by commercial air.
When you need an additional 90 minutes, can’t bring your laptop (or even a book on some routes) and can’t have a bottle of water, the calculus for most trips is fundamentally changed.
My own feelings on airline travel, that I express in a previous post, are that the level of service on many airlines had already dropped to a level that approached all the charm of a public bus. Seth in his post also stated that:
The prevalance of online video, constant skype connections and the multiple threads of data we get online, combined with the enormous overhead that flying now brings might just change the story for a long time to come.
From my own experience, almost half of my previous business travel has already been replaced with video conferencing and online meetings. Along with Seth, I would expect much more business travel to be replaced by newer technology and it’s capabilities. For those who can’t do business this way and must fly commercial, it’s going to become an even more unpleasant experience.
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