getifero

I would love to see again Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air in our scale, but I wish to join with the others in questioning the sense and purpose of these polls.

I assume that herpa knows that above mentioned European LCC would be popular among many collectors. Why they can’t reach an agreement with Ryanair/easyJet/Wizz Air and some other LCC (formerly Southwest, Indigo, Spirit Airlines, Jet2.com, Frontier Airlines) has to remain their own secret, especially given the fact that so many LCC were represented (or were announced) in recent years (in alphabetic order: AirBaltic, Air Canada Rouge, Allegiant Air, Azul, Blue Panorama, Cebu Pacific, Eurowings, Gol, Flybe, FlySafair, JetBlue, Jetstar, kulula.com, Lion Air, Nok Air, Norwegian, Mango, Pegasus, Thai Air Asia, Transavia, Tui Fly, Vueling, Westjet). In other words: the majority of LCC has been considered (oddly enough all South African LCC), but the three largest LCC (ranked by number of transported passengers: Southwest Airlines, Ryanair, easyJet) are since many years not represented.

As airlines without widebody aircraft have a difficult position in our scale it is quite surprising that LCC (that mostly operate only on a regional or continental level and don’t need widebody aircraft) are so well represented.

The inability to integrate the three largest LCC may rankle. But I think it’s far away from being herpa’s biggest problem.

If we could ask collectors, who were active in the last two decades, why they quit the hobby, the majority of them would probably answer that their interests and life priorities have changed and that they have grown out of the »model-airplane collector’s age« (yes some people pass beyond our stage). Some collector’s might have dropped out for health reasons (hard to believe but collecting does not prevent aging and does not make immortal), some might have quit for financial reasons or because they were unhappy with the perceived drop of value for money, but hardly any might have gave up because of the lack of a specific airline.

A representative survey of former 1:500-scale collectors who have switched scale could reveal that the lack of a specific airline played a certain role, but normally other factors (more competition, more quality, another range of moulds and (depending on region) better availability) are decisive.

I am neither an economist nor an entrepreneur but in times of shrinking demand I would focus on the company’s strengths, try to reduce production costs but nevertheless fight for more quality and would be very careful to extend the product range. And if my company would make quicker and safer money with an Emirates A380 re-release than with the new edition of a LATAM A320 neo, the »boring« Emirates re-release would be prioritized.

We could argue with herpa over some or other decision (whereby we normally have no insight into the background), we could argue over their quality standards, but we cannot stand there and claim that we now better than them, what sells fast and what sells bad. They are the ones that receive constant information about their stocks, which receive constant feedbacks from customers. This has not prevented them from occasional poor decisions and will not do so in future. But an occasional wrong decision is not a good argument for taking further risks (according to the motto: if you were prepared to release X, why you hesitate to release W?).

If anyone has good ideas how to increase demand, i.e. generate more collectors in times of rising prices, changing leisure-time activities, less opportunities to have physical experiences with a die-cast airliner model (less physical stores, less inflight sales), than he is welcome to present them to this forum. And those willing to overtax with the seemingly obvious »more competition« argument please add of where this increase in competition should come from.