Well it’s been a tough couple of weeks. I’m off to the coast in the morning for a road bike trip that I’ll tell you more about later.

In the mean time I’ll spare both you and myself from any reiteration of events during these last few weeks but I would like to take a moment to comment on this debacle of airline merger hell we now find ourselves in - that’s you and me. I say that because I work in it and you either do too or, you’re a customer of this industry.

We are in the process of watching the airline industry completely reshape itself. It’s profound, alarming, and quite honestly downright scary as an employee to watch. The current phase of that restructuring is the merger mania we’re in now. Everyone’s panicky to get merged as soon as possible both out of desperation over the price of oil and in wanting to take advantage of the current administration that’s still in office. Airline managements feel the democrats (if they should win) would be less favorable to anything which would make the American public suffer anymore.

Now a little about mergers: Airline mergers are never good. That’s just an opinion and I realize a strong one at that, but in my own experience that always seems to be the case. Airlines merge not because they want to, but because they have to. Some in the “know” would also argue that there are no such things as mergers- that there are only just ‘acquisitions’ where one airline (the stronger one) absorbs a less stronger one. I guess I’d have a hard time arguing against that.

So seeing that airlines merge because they have to, it might make you wonder why. Here’s a short answer- It’s because when the market turns downward the airlines are at the ‘tip of the stick’ so to speak. It’s just an industry which feels the market’s highs and lows much more sensitively then many other industries. When people’s discretionary income goes down they don’t travel as much, plain and simple.

In these situations the airlines find themselves overloaded with too many employees, routes, and equipment. That’s when they cut back and often times merge when cutting back alone is not enough. You could almost call this the “basic tenants” of airline operating principal- A sad but true reality. But what comes when merging isn’t enough? Many of my peers and I feel that with the price of oil only going up, we are in very scary, uncharted territory now.

It’s hard when these things happen for us pilots because along with our pay our lifestyles also suffer. Many of us have to transfer to another airplane, domicile, and/or sometimes even have to move out of state just to keep our jobs. But that’s all based on seniority- when you were hired versus every other pilot. The longer you’ve been with an airline, the better off you are. Think of it as a totem pole. Those pilots that have been with the airline the longest tend to suffer the least when it comes to reduced flying and cutbacks.

All one can do is be prepared. I do this by continual study of the industry, which by the way this site and podcast are great for. So, if I had to make a few (albeit bold) predictions now, I’d guess that we’re going to see the following in the coming weeks and months:

• American will merge with Continental and British Airways will have some kind of stake and/or alliance in the resulting combined company
• United and USAir will merge and should not face the same kind of government grief they did before- I think this administration will be kinder in light of today’s woes. The resulting company’s future in my opinion is very dark though. I can already feel the tectonic plates of pilot discontentment brewing beneath this one and to say it’s going to get ugly on the pilot side would be an understatement. Plus there’s heavy overlap on both company’s routes which will require dramatic restructuring/cutting of people and equipment at an equally dramatic cost to the pilots involved.

All and all we’ll end up with just a few major airlines in the United States when the dust settles. When this exactly is… is anyone’s guess. But here’s what it will mean to the flying public:

• Fewer choices in airlines
• Fewer choices in routes
• Higher fairs
• Longer waits
• Increased growth at the regional airlines which will equal increased utilization of smaller regional aircraft

So, with all this uncertainty I figure I need a little time to myself to regroup. Like I posted on Twitter, I purchased a road bike. I’ll be heading off to Cambria, California tomorrow for a ride along the Big Sur. I’m hoping to get all the way to Ragged Point and back (24.4 miles each way) but we’ll see. One of the cool things is that I’ve got a GPS (typical geek) and can plot my actual course on Google Maps. So I’ll do that and post it here when I get back. Also, I’ll get another podcast out this Thursday or Friday.

Thanks for your continued patronage!
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

There are few things in my ‘decades’ long life we’ll say that still surprise me. Isn’t that sad? Of course certain crimes are still shocking, but right now I’m talking about my ever growing and unacceptable insensitivity to governmental mismanagement and unaccountability. It used to be that I’d hear of a crooked politician and be at least a little shocked. Now we hear about stuff like this quite often.

But when it comes to the TSA, they seem to be held to a higher level of accountability. This is because they directly effect us - You, me and every other American who goes to the airport. Every time we travel we have to endure this governmental beast of a bureaucracy - For me, it’s every time I go to work.

So when I heard about this TSA story I was not only shocked, I was quite appalled and then plain irate.

In it, MyFoxColorado.Com is reporting on a screener who brought a gun through a security check point, was caught, and then did not face any charges as a result OR even loose his job. To talk about this double-standard on the scale required would take hours or even days, but that’s not my point and I don’t think you’d stay long enough anyway.

Rather, I’d prefer to take this discussion to a higher level. The was an excellent article on April 25, 2008 in The Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan entitled, “The View from Gate 14″. It’s a highly suggestible read. Noonan describes how as a country we have become desensitized to unacceptable pat downs, pokes, prods, and other violations of our rights at TSA checkpoints - while at the same time we seem to be harboring an ever growing anger towards our elected officials for this “guilty until proven innocent” attitude they have taken against us while at the airport.

As an American Citizen, I watch first hand as my right to be proven guilty turns into a ‘right’ to be proven innocent every time I go to work or otherwise fly on the airlines. In this case, here is a TSA agent who was proven guilty, and then made innocent through the same perverted sense of airport justice that assumes everyone is guilty no matter what… Except TSA agents, apparently.

It’s ridiculous. It’s insane… but it begs a few basic questions:

• What’s the real reason he got off?
• What would have been the real outcome for one of us “non TSA folks?”
• Why the double standard???

It’s questions like these that the American People are going to have to get answered, or else we’re all just going to be continual victims of our own ignorance.

‘Nuff said.
Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

Well this post isn’t as much of a post about THIS podcast as much as it is about podcasting in general. I just read that Podshow report-ably laid off one third of its staff. For those of us in this ‘biz’ such as myself, this comes as a bit of a shock I have to say.

Podshow was founded by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom a few years ago and for me anyway has always been the ship in the front of the pack heading face first into the ’storm’ if you will of this new frontier; So I (and I’m sure many others) have been keeping close watch on Podshow’s progress as a test of just how warm this water was to this new medium of content delivery.

Podshow’s (alleged) news and subsequent site changes come as a reminder that the number one user demanded content is online video that streams effortlessly. Even going to iTunes and subscribing for the majority of America is still too much of a chore. Hence we echo back to main stream’s ease of content delivery as a successful business model in this area.

It just should be that way with podcasting too.

Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

In my humble opinion, this old adage is true… most of the time. But as far as the airlines are concerned, it’s sort of true.

For deeper clarification, these counter-points demand another reference for the thought process I used to derive them. In order to do that and to expand on the premise of yesteryear I set in the previous post, Pan Am 707 Commercial - 1958, I’d like to direct you over to a well written article by TelStar Logistics.

It’s entitled, Small Comfort: The Sky-High Cost of Airline Travel in 1954. It’s a much more comprehensive piece on where I’m going with this topic (plus he’s a better writer). This article generates true insight for it’s reader into just what’s happened over the past 50 years to the price of airline tickets- In a nutshell, ticket prices have gone down.

So back to my counterpoints: Here’s the ‘you pay for what you get’ part. In the 1950’s, airline meals were 5 star and you dressed up to travel, but the cost of a San Francisco to New York round trip ticket was two thirds more expensive back then then it is today. Here’s the ‘it’s sort of true as far as the airlines are concerned’ part: It’s statistically safer to fly today, but you’re paying less for that. Based on the adage, wouldn’t you think you’d be paying more? The simple conclusion is that being safer is something that’s in everyone’s best interest- Yours, your flight crew’s, and the airline’s.

On a lot of domestic US carriers as far as the bottom line is concerned, providing you with a five star meal is not in their best interest- financially anyway. Personally, I’d like to see you eating like kings on my flights, but then again that might be why I’m your pilot, and not in airline management.

~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

Seeing as this is a video of a bygone era, I wanted to show just how stark a contrast it is to today’s industry. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought, what better way to do this then to find a photo of a Pan Am 707 that still existed today? After crawling the Internet looking for pictures of old Pan Am aircraft, I finally found something worth posting, and I think it captures the intent behind what I was after more then any other picture could have.

Telstar Logistics was kind of enough to let me use the thought provoking image below of what’s left from an old Pan Am 707 air frame. Her final resting ground is at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARG), in Pima County Arizona. They have tours available for those interested.

There are so many parallels to draw from the video and what’s left of this 707 that I don’t even know where to start. Actually I think the impact here is better left up to the individual viewer, so I will just leave you without words and let the contrast between the video and the photo speak for itself.

You can see the entire Telstar Logistics Jet Set Ruins photo set on Flickr by clicking here and I highly courage it!

In Sovereignty of Yesteryear!
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials, Videos | |