Flying Again

This summary of what it will like to fly post-corona makes the pre-corona air travel feel like the thing to get misty-eyed nostalgic over. This will prove a very serious disincentive for business travel for one thing. Just the math of the hours wasted in trying to get on the plane will not make sense. Customers are now getting used to meeting us on-line from the comfort of their homes. It used to feel awkward at first but after week five, not nearly as much. We are now talking about the nice wall-decor that they acquired from their honeymoon trip and sometimes a kid shows up to get permission for a snack which they are reluctantly granted. Life goes on for all of us. There are new opportunities to bond. 

At first we put in an extra effort to look presentable on those calls where customers would be joining. Then it started to feel over-kill. They want to dress-down and relax so we followed their lead while remaining respectful. It is hard to imagine in a few months all of these folks will suddenly want to commute to busy metropolitan downtowns to sit in a conference room just to see us in person and have us walk up to the whiteboard to illustrate a point in the conversation. Specially when social-distancing will still be the order of the day. We will likely not be taking them out to lunch or dinner. Drinks at the bar would be very much out of question. 

So the value of the in-person interaction balanced against the waste of time and degree of difficulty for all involved, does not add up. My guess is that no one will be getting on a plane just to meet a customer in-person anytime soon - not until the conditions for travel become realistic and we can actually be social with each other.