most of us fly right?  generally it's not a great experience.

to me without a doubt one industry crying out to be next in line to reinvent itself is the airline industry.  big industries are reinventing themselves all the time- either by choice or being forced to.

consider for a moment :

how companies like skype are reinventing the telco industry, you could argue that apple is too

how television is being reinvented as we speak, just look at hulu, boxee, chumby, mobitv

that radio is being attacked from all sides by the likes of pandora, sirius, and itunes

the gas car tank is being taken down by water and electric models

these new companies are creating seismic waves in the traditional business models that their far larger and older rivals have long enjoyed.  sure at the core they have new technologies and interesting products but each and every one of them is also changing how much customers pay for their product or in some cases don't pay for their product.

i can see airlines making some effort to innovate - low cost providers, mobile reservations, wireless on planes, but it's not going to be enough.

so what's the airline industry to do.  well i don't have all the answers but it sure would be fun to work out what a 21st century airline looks like, help it to make money, AND improve the over all experience.