Airplanes: The Life Story of a Technology Book

After six months, I've finished reading a textbook on one of my passions, the global airline industry!

Although the book is a bit outdated, it provides the most comprehensive view of the airline industry that I could find (I'm very open to additional suggestions!). The book's principal authors each have 20+ years of industry experience and ties to the industry's research leader, MIT.

I especially enjoyed the chapters on the airline planning process (Ch. 6), airport design (Ch. 12), and information technology (Ch. 15). The casual reader would have interest in and much to gain from these three chapters, along with the overview chapters (Ch. 1, 3).

I read this book because my intellectual passion is operations improvement in the airline industry. Because of low profit margins, volatile fuel prices, and increasing environmental concerns, operations improvement is paramount to sustaining a competitive airline company. This book sparked three improvement ideas that I hope to have the chance to pose in the future; as a bonus, it was an enjoyable read!