Don't Buy the Airline, Buy the Shovels
Now, the knee-jerk reaction might be to look at the airlines themselves, but I think that’s a rookie mistake. It’s the old gold rush analogy, isn’t it? When everyone is digging for gold, don’t join the frenzy, sell the shovels. In this case, the ‘shovels’ are the companies that enable this new business model. Think about it. Every time an airline decides to retrofit its cabins with new premium economy seats, someone has to supply them. A company like Triumph Group, which makes all the essential but unseen cabin components, could see a steady stream of orders. When Southwest reconfigures its entire fleet, that’s a lot of shovels. The same goes for the technology. Airlines need incredibly sophisticated software to price these extras dynamically, figuring out precisely how much you’re willing to pay for an extra inch of legroom on a Tuesday flight to Majorca.