Origins of Aviation Strategy Lab
You might be wondering why I started the research series…it didn’t originate this year. It did in 2016.
Yes. 10 years go, I took my first flight. Southwest Airlines from San Antonio, TX to Grand Rapids, MI. I was so excited to ride the plane. I can’t recall being nervous, I was so happy. Ever since January 2016, I was set on airliners.
Me, my mom, and my sister at San Antonio’s airport getting ready to take off.
We were heading to my great-grandmother’s funeral. Who knew that was the time I’d realize my love to fly?
Photo creds to Mother
After the funeral, I immediately started researching airlines. Their fleets. Destinations. And crazy enough, their accidents…
I was hyperfixated on watching Mayday Air Disasters. US Airways 1549, Air France 447, American Airlines 191 and 96, and much more. RIP to Allec Joshua Ibay, who would recreate the air disasters in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, and retell the story. For about ½ a year after he died (he died within the past two years), I could not watch his content without getting sad and nostalgic. His storytelling of the air disasters was so fulfilling to the 9 year old who just realized how cool a 737 is.
I watched the “Sully” movie, “Flight 93”, and was so interested in what happened during some of aviation’s pivotal moments. Knowing Sully and Skiles landed that Airbus A320 in the Hudson River with precision and NO DEATH always fascinated me. How all 155 occupants survived. That’s one of the first videos I watched from Allec Joshua Ibay’s YouTube page. I realized that, in the 5th grade, I had found something that feels like me. The freedom to fly.
In middle school, back in Memphis, we always took trips to Memphis International and visit the FedEx facility and see the planes parked. They loved to show off the MD-10/MD-11s to us. I remember playing Infinite Flight Simulator and XPlane10 (I still play IFS), and buying the planes off my mom’s card (I didn’t know…). I found an old slideshow where I made a slideshow on my findings of the US Airways 1549 incident…I must say I was IN this passion for airliners.
By the time high school came around, I was intentional about WHERE I went. My high school, East High, has an aviation program where I took classes on learning about the functions of an aircraft and flying environments. We had simulators, and a certified flight instructor as our teacher. In the 11th grade, I received my Part 107 sUAS license (drones), where I discovered that I was no longer interested in being a pilot. Instead, I loved flying drones but had an appreciation for the commercial aviation industry. One that I did not pay attention to into college for a while.
In college, I began to fly WAY more. I go to university an hour east of San Francisco, and I had to fly every summer and winter break. Delta served my route, and that’s where I began to fall in love with flying again.
Since August 2024, I’ve been on almost 50 flights and over 50,000 miles.
Let’s say that I’ve now been out the country three times: Guatemala, France, and now Netherlands with England Spring 2027.
Flying for summer internships, school breaks, and now studying abroad has me traveling a lot but also pondering airline economics…
When I began flying more often, I realized I had nothing to show my understanding of airline economics and passion for the commercial aviation industry. My collegiate experiences were diverse in business, marketing, media arts, and leadership. However, NOTHING in correlation to airlines.
I realized I needed something to show for it. Whether it was for other aviation enthusiasts, or professionals in the industry, I knew having some portfolio of understanding and research was the next viable step in a potential career in the airline industry.
My personal experiences that my flights took me to and also my experiences flying, paired with my 10-year passion and passive research was the ingredients needed to launch this research initiative. That’s where Aviation Strategy Lab comes in.
I already was making comparisons of the 737 versus A320, A330 versus 777, CRJ versus E175s. Even flying on an A380 (British Airways) to France then 777 back to California had me think of how much understanding and perspective I was sitting on. Yet I had nothing tangible for anyone to see what I saw.
The Aviation Strategy Lab was born June 2026, starting with just a few ideas and a survey on college students and our international travel preferences. Now it has multiple analysis posted and more to come.
My goal for readers is to either: learn something new and find new interest in airlines, get an understanding of what I wonder about, or see how much I love this industry and my will to be a part of it.
May you enjoy your findings!
