Interchange - ringing the changes

The losses suffered by a number of major carriers in the 2001-2002 period after the short-lived boom of 2000 forced them to think very carefully about how they could turn volume into profit. The assumption that they were the same thing was finally seen to be fatally flawed.

Yield management, which had been tried in earnest by a few lines and toyed with by many, began to be adopted seriously and systematically.

In his comments on APL’s profit in 2003, CEO Ron Widdows acknowledged the success of this new approach. “During 2003, we changed the way we worked,” he said, “managing the mix of our business to make the most of our assets - shifting equipment where it was needed most, flexing the network to respond to demand. This gave us a significantly better yield than we would have achieved through rate increases alone.”...