Flying Can Mean Going Nowhere Fast - CBSNews.Com

Or so she wrote. Aye…. Not good for our industry. Especially not good for us front liners either- The gate agents, flight attendants, and us pilots. Irritated passengers are almost as bad as thunderstorms sometimes!

I remember one time recently Denver International Airport (KDEN) completely shut down for a fast moving line of rapidly developing, unforecasted storms.. We diverted to Colorado Springs, along with over 40 other airliners. Well as you can imagine Colorado Springs (KCOS) was inundated with airplanes, with some airlines diverting there who didn’t even serve that airport! Airplanes were parked on the taxiways, ramps, and remote parking; eventually KCOS itself shut down because there wasn’t anywhere to park airplanes anymore. None of the local airline staffs were prepared to deal with that many aircraft at once; consequently, airplanes sat, and sat and sat… In our case, 4 hours, the shortest- Obviously the folks in the back weren’t happy, nor was I. We couldn’t let anyone off because there were no gates. Let me explain that in a little more detail…

We were parked in the middle of 10 acres of concrete and we could not move because there were other airplanes all around us; any gates already had previous flights in them, served by the airlines that serve KCOS. There’s 6 station personnel working 24 airplanes in our area; and the weather was getting worse as the afternoon dragged on: Pouring rain, wind gusts are in excess of 30 knots; and lightening in the area by the end of the afternoon. When there’s lightening in the area all ramp personnel have to get inside for their own safety anyway. So I couldn’t walk all the passengers across the ramp to the terminal as I was venturing to think- for that and other reasons, as much as I wanted to.

In order to help out and make personal contact with the passengers as opposed to just a periodic, unconnected voice over the PA, I decided to jump into the action and started helping out with the beverage and snack service. I also comped drinks for the entire airplane. It was nice to individually talk to my passengers and I know they appreciated it too. I also think that seeing me back there helping out was concrete proof for them that we were in fact stuck and as a crew we were trying to make the best of it. That was about all I could do that day, when up against the big picture.

And the big picture is one of much more complicated factors, but in the end here are some of the big parts, but not necessarily in this order, as they relate to us front liners:

• Pilots & flight attendants working longer hours / Crew resources stretched too thin
• Fewer gate personnel who are working longer hours
• Fewer maintenance personnel who are working longer hours
• Fewer ramp personnel who are working longer hours
• Everyone working for less money, and/or with the same cost of living increases as 5-10 years ago, in spite of increases in inflation

Complicated, and worsened by:

• Stronger and more severe weather patterns
• A higher demand for air travel from the flying public
• Fewer & more compacted flights which are almost always overbooked; intentionally in a lot of cases

Notice I didn’t mention general aviation once as a culprit for the national airline delay debacle. For the airline’s part, it’s an industry that, in order to survive, did what it knows to do best in hard times- Cut back, cut back, and cut back… Trim the farm- Lean out in the hard times post 9/11. I can only think of 2 airlines that did not use that card to it’s fullest- Southwest and SkyWest, to the much needed benefit of their employees.

See:
Southwest braces for turbulence as it turns 30 - Reuters.Com

But now we’re back to profitability- all but slightly compared to pre-9/11 levels, but as an industry, for the most part, we are. So the airlines are going to have to beef up resources and start spending money again or eventually Congress will act- Any industry can only take so many negatives in the public eye before the government is forced to intervene.

And the end of the summer may bring any news of what (if anything) is going to change on the scale of this

BIG PICTURE.

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