Eric Ruhlin is managing director of revenue decision support at United. Eric started his career as an engineer in the petrochemical industry, but fell in love with aviation when he did an internship at Continental while pursuing an MBA at Rice University. “I was always fascinated by how dynamic airline pricing was — to me, airline pricing was this mysterious thing that was always changing and seemed impossible for customers to figure out. The more I got into revenue management, the more I was hooked.”
There are many reasons why Eric enjoys working for an airline. He likes interacting with front-line employees and learning about their experiences and the “crazy operational challenges” they face. Also Eric finds that “there is never a dull moment” in RM and always something new to work on. For example, United is currently working to bring more customer context into their demand forecasts. Historically, demand forecasts were predominately based on United’s historic booking data, but “we know that passengers do not make booking decisions just based on the flight prices and products at United, so when you bring in more context, like how much the customer is willing to spend overall on the trip for the trip on airfare and hotels, how much the customer is willing to spend for ancillary products, and what options they are considering from competitors, we are able to build better forecasts and improvements. It’s amazing to me to think that we are getting closer to the ultimate goal of presenting relevant offers to customers that include not just the flight, but other products and services they are interested in.”
Eric encourages students who are interested in RM or working for an airline to do an internship, even if it’s not in their favorite area. “For me, I started my career in aviation as an intern, and I never looked back! Getting started, I recommend that students accept an internship in any department at an airline to get a foot in the door and then look for opportunities to move to areas they are really passionate about.”
Interested in learning more about Eric? Check out his LinkedIn page.