Skift Take
Our favorites of the year were stories that you could find nowhere else. Each featured hours — or months — of phone calls or in-person interviews, and provided insights about an important development or trend. Each of these talented journalists, you could find nowhere else, either.
We recently published the Skift 25 Travel Moments That Mattered in 2017, looking at the stories that likely had the most industrywide and global impact. Today, though, we asked each Skift Editorial staff member to detail the favorite story he or she wrote over the last 12 months.
Whether it was Hospitality Editor Deanna Ting's Complete Oral History of Boutique Hotels or Business Travel Editor Andrew Sheivachman's Channel Shock: The Future of Travel Distribution, many of our 2017 stories took stock of an industry and forecast where it is headed. But each of the stories our reporters describe below also had a personal angle for them, and writing these original pieces of journalism made them proud.
They made all of us at Skift proud, too, because they epitomized our mantra to deliver original, insightful reporting that you can find nowhere else.
Skift reporters describe below the stories they felt most proud writing in 2017:
Brian Sumers, Aviation Business Reporter
The Backstory: Before May, when I wrote For the First Time, Allegiant Air Learns What It's Like to Configure a New Airplane, U.S. discount airline Allegiant Air had never bought a new airplane, preferring to take cheaper used ones. And because the company is so focused on cost-control, it often left the cabins as they were — so some planes had a bright Orange Stripe favored by EasyJet, while one had an unusual tree pattern on its side walls.
But once Allegiant ordered new planes — it took 12 Airbus A320s — it could decide how it wanted them configured, and it would be included in the purchase price. But for Allegiant executives, the process wasn't so easy. "They kind of walk you through the process and say, ‘Now its time to make these 14 decisions,”' said Brian Davis, then Allegiant's vice president for marketing. “That’s when we open the catalogue and say, ‘Oh, shit, there are many, many options.'"
https://skiftstaging.dev/2017/05/04/for-the-first-time-allegiant-air-learns-what-its-like-to-configure-a-new-airplane/
Sarah Enelow, Assistant Editor
The Backstory: Traveling down to Washington, D.C. to see the new “Blacksonian” for myself and to write African A
