Airlinetrends.com is an independent industry and consumer trends research agency. Airlinetrends.com is continuously monitoring the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behavior. Their corporate clients and newsletter subscribers are marketers, product developers, managers, researchers, suppliers, and anyone else who wants to stay on top of the latest developments in the airline industry.

What others say …

“Raymond has an extensive knowledge of developments in the airline industry. His trend presentations and various desk research assignments provided high quality output that played a significant contribution to our marketing strategy.”
- Peter Verheijde, Product Strategy Manager, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

“Raymond’s ability to link major consumer trends to daily observations in the business arena, has made him an invaluable part of trendwatching.com’s core team.” - Reinier Evers, founder trendwatching.com

People …

Raymond Kollau (39), founder of airlinetrends.com, has extensive experience in analyzing industry and consumer trends. For the past 7 years, Raymond has been part of leading consumer trends agency trendwatching.com as a Consumer Trends Analyst, a position he still holds part-time today. Combining his travel industry expertise and his experience in consumer trends research, Raymond founded airlinetrends.com to bring inspiration and innovation to aviation professionals. Needless to say Raymond spends his fair share of time at airports and at 30,000 ft.

Raymond holds a Master degree in Business from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and also studied International Relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. His professional background also includes positions as Industry Analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consultants (now part of IBM), and Internet Strategist at agency.com. In these roles, Raymond worked with many clients in the travel industry.
For questions on airlinetrends.com’s services, or for input if you are writing an article, please contact Raymond directly at 

Researchers. airlinetrends.com works with a small and experienced team of freelance market researchers and workshop moderators. Depending on the nature of the project, a small and flexible team is formed with the required skills.

Website. Harley Peddie, independent designer, developed the current airlinetrends.com website and keeps all tech running.

Board of advisors. airlinetrends.com greatly benefits from the advice of Reinier Evers, foundertrendwatching.com, Liesbeth den Toom, senior editor Springwise new business ideas, and Stan Vermeulen, innovation director Generous Minds.

Delta has launched its first Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch travel application, or “app,” with on-the-go features and tools that customers can use to check in and view their flight status; review their SkyMiles account balances; access boarding passes; view upcoming flight schedules; get airport information and weather reports; and even store a parking location.

Delta has launched its first Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch travel application, or “app,” with on-the-go features and tools that customers can use to check in and view their flight status; review their SkyMiles account balances; access boarding passes; view upcoming flight schedules; get airport information and weather reports; and even store a parking location. Customers also can use the app, which is available on iTunes, on Delta’s Wi-Fi-equipped flights to access these features for free. Additional features will be available soon, including flight notifications and travel alerts; delayed baggage information; and a game. “Our customers spend a lot of time online, and they’re looking for the latest ways to connect with us,” said Bob Kupbens, v.p.-eCommerce. “We continue to deliver new technology that unlocks the full power of social media and mobile apps, while providing innovative travel tools and greater convenience in our customers’ mobile world.”In addition to already-scheduled updates for the iPhone app, Delta also is working to maximize the mobile travel experience, including introducing Delta Droid and Blackberry apps. As these other apps become available, Delta will relay the info through its blog, Twitter page, Facebook page, as well as traditional e-mail and direct customer communications.

airlinetrends.com ( a website we warmly recommend ) reports that Delta Air Lines has just opened a new café concept at four Delta Sky Club lounges at New York JFK Airport.

The new full-service cafés offer made-to-order breakfast, sandwiches, salads, small plates and desserts for purchase, as well as premium beverages. Meals are USD10-15 and premium drinks USD12 and bring another source of ancillary income to Delta. The café include dedicated seating areas within the lounge, but visitors also can order from the menu and dine anywhere in the lounge. Delta emphasizes that it continues to offer members the same selection of complimentary snacks and beverages in its lounge.

Delta’s introduction of paid catering in its lounge follows earlier initiatives from American Airlines and United. Besides complimentary beverages and snacks, American offers specialty sandwiches, salads and small bite samplers for purchase in its domestic Admiral Club lounges. The menus are available for dining in the lounge or to-go in travel friendly packages. United Airlines earlier in 2010 began offering a variety of sandwiches for sale in its Red Carpet lounges at Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International Airport.

Read more on airlinetrends.com …

In its analysis, WalletPop has emphasised on expenditure pertaining to international data usage.

“To the shame of many short-sighted iPhone app developers, many budget travel apps have an enormous flaw. This fatal issue could turn a 99-cent app intended to save you cash into a nightmarish drain on your cell phone bill. The problem: Many travel apps require a data connection to work,” highlighted an article from the site.

One needs to be wary of the cases where apps don’t tell users how much data they are using as they use it. No matter whether you use an iPhone, a BlackBerry, or whatever, the amount you spend in data could far surpass the amount you thought you were going to save by using the app. (more…)

American Airlines is using high-tech tracking devices to figure out how it can move passengers and their bags through the airport faster and with fewer hassles.

When Takeshi Misutake lands at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airportat 9 a.m., a white tag attached to his backpack tracks some of his moves. He volunteered to be part of the test when he boarded Flight 176 in Tokyo.

The tag on Misutake’s bag contains a tiny radio-frequency identification antenna. The airline placed another identical tag on the suitcase he checked. As the bags move through critical points in the airport, they pass under scanners that read the RFID tag, telling the airline exactly how long it took for the luggage and the traveler to move through parts of the travel process.

American is trying to find any hidden bottlenecks or points where bags are more likely to disappear.

“Where did the passenger get slowed? Was there a line? Was there a number of bags in one area waiting to get through?” AA spokeswomanStacey Frantz said.

The RFID technology allows the company to see what actually happens to bags and travelers, without anyone from the company having to be there to personally watch.

Read more on nbcdfw.com …

Michael Hiltzik’s tells us in his column in the Los Angeles Times what he is thinking about airline fees. I would guess that most airline customers would agree …

American’s bright new idea is to charge coach passengers extra for a seat in the first few rows of the cabin, the idea being that these are desirable because their occupants can be assured of getting overhead bin space and get off the plane faster after landing.

I can certainly understand the desire to get off an American Airlines plane as quickly as possible. But this is just another example of the airlines’ relentless campaign of “unbundling” — charging for service that used to be included in the ticket. Baggage fees, check-in fees (some airlines charge for checking in by phone, some for checking in online … what else is there — checking in by ESP? Soon there will be a fee for that). …

Everybody understands what’s driving the proliferation of fees. It’s the airline industry’s nearly permanent condition of economic prostration. American, for instance, has recorded only two profitable years in the last five. Bankruptcies and shotgun mergers riddle the entire industry, especially among the older, “legacy” carriers, saddled with fixed costs in equipment and labor that hobble their ability to compete.

It’s no surprise that the airline best at avoiding silly fees is Southwest, which came into the business after deregulation and kept its expenses low from the start. Yet it’s not completely innocent either. Southwest charges a baggage fee for three bags and over, and it has lately been rolling out new fees for preferential spots on the boarding line.

In any case, the airlines are being fundamentally dishonest by quoting fares in one place and then piling up fees, some of them entirely unexpected. The service you buy with the basic fare shrinks all the time.

Read more on the Los Angeles Times ...

Precise BioFlight, a solution for matching passengers through the aviation processes. Here used for boarding an aircraft. The 17 passengers on the clip boards in 6 seconds in average, back-to-back, taking into account card users and a few that has to try twice. The time between the finger is placed on the scanner, and the passenger pass through the turnstile, is about 2-4 seconds in many cases.

Precise Biometrics’ Jonas Andersson demonstrates a biometric check-in solution at GSMA World congress.