Airlines Lure Premium Customers
Delta Air Lines' master sommelier Andrea Robinson opened up bottle after bottle of white and red wine from France, Italy, Australia, the U.S. and other parts of the world.
As she tasted them Monday, a blue bucket sat on the table next to her. It was there so she could spit out each sip, ensuring she didn't get tipsy and could distinguish between the different wines. By the time she's done in the next few days, Robinson will have tasted and smelled roughly 2,000 bottles.
The delicate work of a sommelier has become more important as U.S. airlines fight for premium passengers willing to shell out up to thousands of dollars to fly business class on international and transcontinental flights. The idea isn't to make money on the wine -- the passengers in those seats drink for free -- but rather to keep those customers coming back and encourage their well-heeled friends and co-workers to join them. Other airlines including United Airlines and American Airlines also work with wine experts to help them choose what to serve on their flights.
And there's a market for it: According to the International Air Transport Association, through the first four months of this year, there was an 8.5 percent increase year-over-year in premium passenger traffic, which includes business class and first class seats. Those seats are among the most pricey and profitable for airlines. The trade group expects fuel costs to weigh on premium traffic, and stronger growth in the second half of the year will depend on how well the economy holds up.
Robinson's task is to choose 30 labels for Delta, which is based in Atlanta. The wine and champagne will be served in Delta's BusinessElite class cabins in 2012. The world's second-largest carrier expects to order some 1.6 million bottles for the service. The still wines Robinson looks for range from a retail price of $25 to $30 a bottle, while dessert wines will run $30 to $35 a bottle and the champagne will run $45 to $50 a bottle.
"If it costs $20, it has to taste like $40. That's what I'm aiming for," Robinson said.
She is looking for wines with a distinct taste that will come through when sipped at 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) by bankers and vacationers alike, because passengers' sense of taste and smell can be diminished when in flight.
Delta's domestic coach passengers can buy glasses of wine, though the selections won't be as chic and won't get the same special attention from Robinson. Coach passengers on Delta international flights get wine for free.
Sommeliers are also working with other airlines.
Doug Frost, a Kansas City author who writes and lectures about wine and also is a master sommelier, is the wine and spirits consultant for United Airlines. He helps select tens of thousands of cases of wines and spirits each year for the carrier. Ken Chase, a Canadian classically trained wine merchant with an international reputation, does wine selections for American Airlines. According to the airline, Chase selects fine wines for various routes paying close attention to menu parings, as well as the ethnic, cultural, seasonal and stylistic differences of each destination.
Delta also is mindful of the destinations it serves when it selects wines. Some of the offerings on Robinson's taste menu came from Chile and Argentina. Delta has a big presence in Latin America.
The selection of wine, though, isn't the only thing that's important. So, too, is the flight attendants' knowledge of the offerings so they can answer business class passengers' questions. Delta is offering wine training for flight attendants.
Julie Pearson, who has been a Delta flight attendant for 23 years, attended Monday's wine tasting. The 44-year-old works in the BusinessElite cabin on the airline's Boston to Amsterdam route. Some passengers will know exactly what they want, while others have questions and enjoy the ability to taste the different wines on board before making a selection.
"A good sign for the flight is when all my wine glasses are dirty -- and that happens a lot," Pearson said.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Business intelligence
As economic recovery boosts IT hiring, specialized skill sets will see the most action. These include business analytics, storage and cloud computing. Tim said data needs to be analyzed to be useful, and Jordan said data storage is always a good place to be. And CIOs who can deliver continue to be in demand
IT careers are heating up again -- at least in some sectors. So what are the best IT careers for 2011? Is it the mobile market? Enterprise security? Business analytics? The good news is, experts say there is plenty of action across the board for technologists with specialized skill sets.
Is betting on business analytics. Tim, a spokesperson for Big Blue's business-analytics division, said businesses and governments alike are grappling with the challenge of making sense of this data deluge to turn it into new opportunities, increased performance, and faster, better decision-making. Gartner reports business analytics is a top 10 priority for companies in 2011.
"The power of business analytics is transforming this information into a strategic asset. Although having the best, most complete and up-to-date information is useless if you can't make sense of it," Powers said. "Data unanalyzed is data wasted. Therefore, businesses and governments need two very important things to make this happen: The right technology, and employees with the right expertise and skill sets."
Storage, Virtualization and the Cloud
Jordan, president and CEO of Insider Search, focuses on another area of IT: Senior level sales, marketing, engineering, consulting and management talent -- with a specific focus on data storage and infrastructure . He sees plenty of activity on those sectors in 2011.
"Storage has always been a great place to be, because no matter how bad the economy gets, storage is always a sizable chunk of any IT budget. Every organization needs to store and manage their critical data. Storage administrators, architects and consultants will always be in high demand," said.
"Two other key areas of massive potential growth are virtualization and cloud -computing-related technologies. It's often said that 'virtualization is the gateway drug to the cloud,'" he added. "In the future, more and more companies will move toward virtualized environments and utilize cloud architectures. It's a good idea to get on board now as the train builds momentum."
A Fresh Look at CIOs
Steve, a managing director at global search firm Chase, said the CIO position continues to grow in breadth of demands, complexity and responsibility to a wide range of senior executives. Because of this, he said, great CIO talent is still in demand, along with several first-level managers.
"IT jobs are especially in demand for people who can deliver to the complexity of the business -- more for less, effectiveness and efficiencies, compliances, risk management, proactive business alignment, and service-level expectations," said. "Skills in strategic planning, business analysis and process improvement, project management, infrastructure services, security and risk management are in demand."
Jack, vice president and chief delivery officer for Avandex, said communication , collaboration and data access within the enterprise will drive greater reliance on positions such as computer-systems analysts and IT specialists who ensure the implementation and efficiency of the technologies that help to run our businesses every day. He concluded, "The best IT careers will be those that allow for the chance to engage with people on a global level -- learning cultures throughout the world through collaboration with teammates located at various offices."
As economic recovery boosts IT hiring, specialized skill sets will see the most action. These include business analytics, storage and cloud computing. Tim said data needs to be analyzed to be useful, and Jordan said data storage is always a good place to be. And CIOs who can deliver continue to be in demand
IT careers are heating up again -- at least in some sectors. So what are the best IT careers for 2011? Is it the mobile market? Enterprise security? Business analytics? The good news is, experts say there is plenty of action across the board for technologists with specialized skill sets.
Is betting on business analytics. Tim, a spokesperson for Big Blue's business-analytics division, said businesses and governments alike are grappling with the challenge of making sense of this data deluge to turn it into new opportunities, increased performance, and faster, better decision-making. Gartner reports business analytics is a top 10 priority for companies in 2011.
"The power of business analytics is transforming this information into a strategic asset. Although having the best, most complete and up-to-date information is useless if you can't make sense of it," Powers said. "Data unanalyzed is data wasted. Therefore, businesses and governments need two very important things to make this happen: The right technology, and employees with the right expertise and skill sets."
Storage, Virtualization and the Cloud
Jordan, president and CEO of Insider Search, focuses on another area of IT: Senior level sales, marketing, engineering, consulting and management talent -- with a specific focus on data storage and infrastructure . He sees plenty of activity on those sectors in 2011.
"Storage has always been a great place to be, because no matter how bad the economy gets, storage is always a sizable chunk of any IT budget. Every organization needs to store and manage their critical data. Storage administrators, architects and consultants will always be in high demand," said.
"Two other key areas of massive potential growth are virtualization and cloud -computing-related technologies. It's often said that 'virtualization is the gateway drug to the cloud,'" he added. "In the future, more and more companies will move toward virtualized environments and utilize cloud architectures. It's a good idea to get on board now as the train builds momentum."
A Fresh Look at CIOs
Steve, a managing director at global search firm Chase, said the CIO position continues to grow in breadth of demands, complexity and responsibility to a wide range of senior executives. Because of this, he said, great CIO talent is still in demand, along with several first-level managers.
"IT jobs are especially in demand for people who can deliver to the complexity of the business -- more for less, effectiveness and efficiencies, compliances, risk management, proactive business alignment, and service-level expectations," said. "Skills in strategic planning, business analysis and process improvement, project management, infrastructure services, security and risk management are in demand."
Jack, vice president and chief delivery officer for Avandex, said communication , collaboration and data access within the enterprise will drive greater reliance on positions such as computer-systems analysts and IT specialists who ensure the implementation and efficiency of the technologies that help to run our businesses every day. He concluded, "The best IT careers will be those that allow for the chance to engage with people on a global level -- learning cultures throughout the world through collaboration with teammates located at various offices."
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