Plane Conversations

In a recent post I commented on the study that claims delays in the airline industry costs US travelers 33 billion dollars a year in lost productivity.

Yesterday I made a small contribution to the 33 billion of lost productivity on a flight from New York back home to Nashville.

One of my business partners and I had business in Danbury and Norwalk Connecticut over a two day period. In putting the trip itinerary together it made sense to fly into New York (LGA) on Southwest, rent a car, do the multiple meetings, and then fly home the morning of the third day.

The day started with a 7am departure from the hotel in Norwalk with about a 50 mile drive to LaGuardia. We left early to avoid the worst of traffic coming into the city. The traffic was not too bad so we got to the rental car drop off at 9am and ended up at the terminal and clearing through security by 945am.   

The flight, scheduled to depart at 1135, ended up being 30 minutes late on the inbound arrival due to weather in the NY area. The weather was just some light rain and cloud cover. Nothing major, but IFR conditions nonetheless.

After boarding, the aircraft pulled way from the gate and got in line for a 45 minute wait for departure. More delay due to IFR spacing issues for landing and departing traffic.

We had to connect in Baltimore with a plane change but missed the connection due to late arrival. There was another flight to Nashville departing 40 minutes after our arrival so we rushed over to that departure gate to find out the flight was oversold. We were then put on standby for a fully booked flight 2 hours later. Reduced capacity in the airline system translates to high load factors and profit for the airlines but major inconvenience for the passenger when connections get missed.

During this process we found out that 15 of the New York passengers on the first leg were Nashville bound and all of them, like us, missed their connection in BWI.

Fortunately we were the last two passengers to get on the flight to Nashville. It was about 30 minutes late departing because it had arrived late into BWI due to weather in the Northeast.  

While boarding we walked by several very frustrated Nashville bound New Yorkers who were not so lucky.

Arriving into Nashville and retrieving bags, we were out of the Nashville Airport about 630pm. The drive home from BNA is about an hour for me so the door to door travel time from the hotel in Norwalk to the house was 13.5 hours.

On the GPS navigator that trip door to door is about 900 miles driving. Based on the drive miles we averaged 70 miles per hour door to door.

I have no complaints about Southwest Airlines. Their service was good as always. They don’t control weather and air traffic flow. The gate agents did an excellent job handling the passengers, some who were not so pleasant.  

My story could be told by millions of travelers. It happens every day in the system. All you need is a little rain and low cloud ceilings in the Northeast  and the log jam begins. It doesn’t unwind until the last aircraft hit their overnight destinations.

We have a Cirrus SR-22 available to us to fly for business. Had we taken the Cirrus we could have reduced that hotel to home travel time down to about 6.5 hours. This doesn’t account for the fact that we could have done the whole trip in two days instead of three by flying on our own schedule.

Next time I think I will fly myself and spend a few dollars more on using the Cirrus than the cost of airline tickets and the exrta hotel.

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Johnny Paycheck has lost his position as Poster Child for the disgruntled worker.  The country singer has been replaced by former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater whose antics would have been really funny – in a movie.

As my boss, Allen Howell said, “I personally find it pitiful that a flight attendant who can’t take it anymore thinks it is OK to pull the emergency exit slide to leave the aircraft and his job all at the same time. It is even more frustrating that he is made out to be some kind of hero for doing what he did.  Everyday flight attendants get rude and sometimes extreme hostile treatment from frustrated passengers but two wrongs don’t make it right. What does it say for the state of the airline industry when it gets to this?  The stunt will cost the airline, JetBlue, thousands of dollars in damage and more importantly it was a reckless and unprofessional act that does not need to be glamorized. This could have easily turned bad and someone could have gotten hurt.”

Anyone who has worked in customer service for more than 20 minutes has had a fantasy of creating just such a scene as the one Slater did – publicly humiliating an adult for poor behavior, grabbing a cold beer and disappearing into the mist, fog or just plain slamming the door.  As a responsible, professional adult you leave it in the realm of fantasy.  Slater caused thousands of dollars in expenses when he deployed that slide.  Mechanics at JetBlue will have to repack the slide, which is a great deal more complicated than folding up a map and stowing in your glove compartment.  There are explosives and inspections involved.  That aircraft is now out of service until it can be made airworthy again. 

It’s not that I don’t understand his frustration and his anger at these passengers who, by some accounts, acted like spoiled children.  I experienced it first-hand when passengers threw credit cards, briefcases, garment bags and even a bag of brick samples at me; however, there are methods to handle this situation – specifically airport police.  For instance, when the passenger hit Slater with her luggage, she interfered with the ability of a crew member to perform his job function.  This is a federal offense, folks.  Rather than throwing a hissy fit, he could have had her arrested upon arrival in New York, or he could have had her removed from the aircraft in Pittsburgh, where the incident occurred.  He chose not to do that.  He chose to wait until the aircraft arrived at JFK and create a public scene and a potentially deadly situation.  His behavior could very well have injured someone on the ground. 

Even if he looked out of the window and didn’t see anyone before he deployed the slide, he couldn’t possibly have had a clear view of the whole area involved.  Stand at a third storey window and look down.  Can you see the foundation of the building?  No, you can’t.  And he couldn’t see anyone standing in the area where he was about to launch an emergency slide.  His behavior was impulsive and reckless, not professional.

Yet, as I write this, Slater’s childish temper tantrum has earned him over 150,000 fans on Facebook.  The number will likely be mind-boggling by the time you read this. 

As Allen said, “If  Mr. Slater wanted to quit he should have walked off the flight and turned in his notice and gone home.  Something is wrong with this society when we glorify this type behaviour with media fanfare  and a social media frenzy.  Whatever happened to professionalism even in the face of adverse conditions?”

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Tom Belden, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, in a July 12 article, argues that the country’s airlines should be considered a “public good” and thus be subjected to regulation by the federal government for issues concerning customer service and pricing policies.

MIT Research Engineer and Aviation Consultant Bill Swelbar, in his blog post responding to that article, states that the airline industry is not a “public good.”

Quoting from Swelbar’s blog post:

“The airline industry does not fit the economist definition of a “public good”.  But they do bring a lot of good to publics of all sizes.  More taxes, fees and regulation will only ensure that communities will suffer a death by a thousand paper cuts because increased airline costs have to eventually mean fewer airports served.”

Both of these positions deserve consideration, and it is worth your time to read their stated positions. I will lean heavily to the side of Bill Swelbar on this issue.

All of us would agree that regulating safety and security in the aviation industry is good for both the industry and the traveling public. However, when it comes to regulating customer service, the federal government has gone too far.

I understand a “public good” definition when it comes to the electricity flowing to my house because I don’t have a choice about which electric company to use. I don’t see how that applies to airlines when the consumers do have a choice.

The consumer can choose which airline they fly with, or they can choose to not fly the airlines at all.

This country is fortunate to have one of the most developed road systems in the world and most of us can get in our automobiles and safely and quickly go anywhere in the country. In the densely populated areas of the country the developed rail systems provide an additional mass transit alternative to air travel. All these are options for travel if we don’t want to fly on a bad airline.

Social technology has provided an excellent vetting system for rewarding and punishing companies based on the markets perception of their service. Feedback is now instantaneous. Look at how social media savvy airlines like JetBlue use twitter to respond to customer service issues.

By having a choice, and allowing the free market to work it out, the good actors will be rewarded and the bad actors will be punished.

The free market will drive better airline customer service, and more efficient solutions to travel, not the government.

Last but not least, business and private aviation offers the choice for us to fly on our own schedule directly to the destination.  With over 5,000 airports to choose from, the travelers get ten times more destination choices than they get with the airlines

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If you do then something is wrong with the airline system or your employees.

I will vote for a broken airline system.

Thinking about a recent NY Times article by Lisa Galst entitled “Rewarded for Flying Coach” makes me smile as I write this.

What is the world coming to when you have to pay your employees extra for the misery of riding in the back of the aircraft in the cheap seats as opposed to booking the more comfy seats up front? Sounds like hazardous duty pay to me.

I have never heard any of our clients having to incentivize their employees to take a flight on a private aircraft. In fact it is sometimes the other way around. Last week when talking to one of our good clients he was telling me that he uses the flights he books to see his clients as a morale booster for his employees. Those who travel with him are excited about the experience and when they get back to the office everyone else hears about how cool it was.

With all that is happening in the airline industry:

• reduced capacity resulting in high load factors which equals crowded airplanes
• oversold flights and increases in denied boarding
• cancellations due to the new tarmac rules
• a la carte fees for everything the ticket no longer buys you

Is it any surprise that people just don’t want to do this anymore?

And the federal government has the idea that they can step in and solve the problem with legislation to make it against the law to provide bad service.

Private aviation and business aviation are sitting on a gold mine of opportunity.

What if these companies took the money they are spending to incentivize their employees to fly coach and used it to fly more in private aircraft?  They would get happier employees and gain a lot of productivity by not sending them through a hub that is cheaper to save a buck. Besides, with business aviation there is no such thing as routing through a hub. Its all point to point.

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