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Showing posts with label United Airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United Airlines. Show all posts
Friday, April 4, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
United Mechanics, Now Teamsters, Challenge Outsourcing of Jobs
From the International Brotherhood of Teamsters:
United Airlines mechanics overwhelmingly chose the Teamsters Union as their collective bargaining representative by a vote of 4,113-2,631, the National Mediation Board announced Monday. The 9,300 active and furloughed mechanics who comprise the bargaining unit will become Teamsters as soon as the NMB vote is certified. The board is expected to certify the vote by close of business Tuesday.
The Teamsters victory culminates a two-year effort by United mechanics and related personnel to gain strong representation. A key issue was the failure of their former bargaining representative, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, to hold United to its contractual obligation to limit outsourcing.
“We’re thrilled that United mechanics voted to join our union by such a large margin,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “United mechanics will now have the Teamsters strength behind them in their fight against outsourcing to foreign repair stations.”
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Continuing:
“United has cut more maintenance positions than any other U.S. airline,” Hoffa said, noting that United outsourced 45 percent of its aircraft maintenance expenses in 2006, three times the amount it outsourced in 1998. Hoffa also said the Teamsters would support the mechanics in their efforts to curb excessive executive compensation and restore their own retirement security.
“We’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with United mechanics as they try to rein in management greed and hold them accountable for foisting their pension obligations on U.S. taxpayers,” Hoffa said. “After two years of hard work, we now have the opportunity to work with the strength of a true union behind us to secure our futures,” said Rich Petrovsky, chairman of the Committee for Change, which spearheaded the organizing campaign.
The United victory is the latest in a series of organizing triumphs for the Teamsters. In the past three months, the Teamsters organized nearly 10,000 workers at UPS Freight since Jan. 16. ...There are 40,000 Teamsters airline employees, including more than 9,000 mechanics and related at 11 airlines.
The outsourcing issue as it pertains to aircraft maintenance reared its head earlier in the month as United was forced to ground seven of its Boeing 747 aircraft. Hoffa released a statement at the time, saying:
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said he is disturbed by reports that six United Airlines Boeing 747s were grounded on Thursday because of errors by a foreign repair station. The jumbo jets were grounded after it was discovered that improper pitot static testers—equipment used to test gauges that provide air data, such as the altimeter—were used by the facility to which United outsources its heavy maintenance in Busan, S. Korea.
“This just shows how risky it is to send airplanes offshore to be repaired,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Overseas repair stations simply don’t meet the same standards as U.S. repair stations. The FAA should no longer allow U.S. airlines to send their repairs overseas.”
Supervisors and inspectors who sign off on maintenance work at foreign repair stations are not required to hold either a Federal Aviation Administration repairman certificate or an Airframe and/or Powerplant certificate, nor are the mechanics working on the aircraft at these facilities. According to the FAA’s database, the South Korea repair station has only one certificated mechanic out of 38 employees.
The Transportation Department’s inspector general has reported that the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of foreign repair stations is uneven. Only 103 FAA inspectors (including management staff) are responsible for inspecting 692 foreign repair stations. Limited staff and travel budgets, and passport and visa controls, make unannounced inspections of these facilities virtually impossible.
“This incident is especially alarming, given that United has cut more maintenance positions than any other U.S. airline,” Hoffa said. ... United CEO Glenn Tilton proposed in August 2007 the sale of UAL’s maintenance division, including its heavy maintenance base in San Francisco, which employs more than 4,000 mechanics.
Even more bad news arrived for United today, as Andy Pasztor reports for the Wall Street Journal:
United Airlines has found wiring improperly connected to the main landing gear of three of its Airbus A320s, which company and government officials believe caused a pair of nonfatal runway accidents. ...
U.S. accident investigators and airline officials are focusing on test procedures developed years ago by the plane's manufacturer, the Airbus unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., to determine whether the landing gear is wired correctly. They are trying to determine whether the crossed wiring was missed because of mistakes by mechanics or because the test procedures are inadequate.
The debate also has raised questions about whether using outside mechanics contributed to United's troubles. United said it is cooperating with safety regulators. An Airbus spokesman said the company has no plans to change the test procedures.
The issue heated up after a United A320 skidded off the runway while landing at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, airport in late February, smashing into a snow bank but causing no injuries. United had a similar landing accident four months earlier, with two minor injuries, when one of its A320s briefly veered off a runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and destroyed some runway lights. The third miswired plane wasn't involved in an accident, company officials said.
The February accident sparked industry interest once investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board said that improperly connected wiring most likely caused the jetliner's antiskid system to malfunction, although no formal finding has been made. The plane slid off the runway the same month maintenance had been performed on its landing gear by outside mechanics, according to company officials. The airline has since done multiple inspections of its A320 landing-gear wiring, using methods that are more extensive than those developed previously by Airbus, according to people familiar with the details.
The incidents have prompted an industry debate over how the miswiring took place and whether tests to verify the wiring are sufficient.
More on the UAL outsourcing fight from Chicago Tribune:
[D]uring 2005 and 2006 the carrier exceeded by nearly $480 million its agreement to keep such work in-house. The UAL Corp. subsidiary's contract with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association contains a clause that establishes a cap on how much work UAL can outsource. The union said it had retained an auditor to review whether United has been complying with its limit.
A review by the auditor found that United during 2005 exceeded the agreed-to limit by nearly $200 million, the union contended, and in 2006 the airline spent $280 million more than the contract allowed on outsourced maintenance.
"UAL's continued insistence on ignoring their excessive outsourcing damages the already strained relationship with UAL maintenance employees," AMFA Local 9 President Joseph Prisco said in a statement.Prisco, whose union represents more than half of United's mechanics, said that since 2001 the number of "mechanics and related staff" at United has dropped to 5,600 from 15,000.
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Friday, March 21, 2008
FAA, Airlines Under the Gun
Reporters Christopher Conkey and Andy Pasztor over at the Wall Street Journal set the scene as we take the pulse of today's FAA and the airline industry it's charged with overseeing:
As it addresses concerns over airline inspections, the Federal Aviation Administration faces pressure from Congress and industry to change how it ensures the safety of air travel and how it overhauls the aging air-traffic-control system.
The agency was already dealing with a protracted labor battle, resistance to its congestion-relief initiatives and Democratic opposition to President Bush's nominee to head the FAA. Then, revelations surfaced this month that an FAA supervisor had let Southwest Airlines Co. keep flying older jets even though they had missed required inspections.
The FAA and airlines immediately afterward suggested the issue was a rare oversight. The FAA inspectors' union and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said a wider problem existed.
The agency changed course this week, initiating industry-wide maintenance audits at every airline.
In addition to Southwest, the article goes on to say that US Airways has since underperformed during an FAA spot check of its maintenance records. And, in related news, United announced the grounding of several of its 747s due to maintenance issues yesterday. Soaring fuel costs. Higher ticket prices. Cuts in service. Maintenance issues.
The difficulties mount for the airline industry -- and the FAA.
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
First, a look back at the scandal over improper FAA maintenance inspections at Southwest. Associated Press:
More background via Kim Zetter at Wired:
...[T]he FAA has fined Southwest $10.2 million for safety violations that include failing to conduct mandatory inspections and continuing to fly planes that the airline knew hadn't been inspected for fuselage cracks and fatigue. (After Southwest finally inspected the planes it discovered cracks in some of them, yet continued to fly them.) Investigators at the Federal Aviation Administration have also been accused by internal whistleblowers of being too cozy with the airline and failing to provide proper oversight of Southwest.
After the FAA announced its fine, Southwest grounded more than three dozen planes last week to conduct additional inspections -- these involved skin around the plane's windows that Boeing had suggested be inspected in a bulletin released back in 2002. ...
According to the FAA's findings, the airline had flown nearly four dozen jets on more than 59,000 flights before it realized that it hadn't conducted required safety inspections on the planes. Then, even after the airline became aware that it hadn't conducted inspections, it continued to fly 38 Boeing jets on a total of 1,451 flights without checking the planes.
When the airline finally got around to inspecting the planes, it found cracks in half a dozen of them -- including one crack that was nearly four inches long. ...[A] similar fracture caused an Aloha Airlines jet to rip apart in 1988.
Re: UAL, Julie Johnsson at Chicago Tribune reports:
United Airlines pulled aside seven Boeing 747s for reinspection on Thursday after discovering onboard technology that steers the giant aircraft clear of other planes in the air hadn't been maintained according to the Chicago-based airline's standards. ...
United acted after FAA inspectors discovered the Korean firm that handles heavy maintenance on United's jumbo jets had used improperly inspected equipment to test the systems that help the jets avoid midair collisions. The systems are critical given the recent push by regulators to reduce the amount of space between aircraft to help reduce overcrowding in the skies.
The test equipment at a facility operated by Korean Air in Busan, Korea, is used to calibrate the United 747s' altitude and air data computers to the precise level needed to let the planes fly within 1,000 feet vertically of other aircraft, instead of the 2,000-foot vertical separation that used to be the industry standard. ...
Airline maintenance is drawing fresh scrutiny from Congress and organized labor as carriers increasingly shift work to outside vendors, including maintenance shops based overseas. Critics contend that the quality of work is slipping because overtaxed FAA inspectors can't monitor work scattered across many repair stations as effectively as maintenance done in-house by airline workers.
The two unions vying to represent United's mechanics in a special election were quick to criticize the airline and federal inspectors for Wednesday's actions. "The issue is the FAA does not have the ability to monitor these facilities," said Joseph Prisco, president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Local 9 in San Francisco.
Picking it up again with the WSJ:
Attention now is focusing on the agency's process for conducting inspections, the Air Transportation Oversight System, which relies on data submitted by the airlines. The system calls for the agency's roughly 3,000 inspectors to spend more time analyzing industry-provided data than conducting physical inspections. The inspectors' union, passenger groups and some lawmakers say that has essentially abdicated a regulatory role to the industry.
They take information from the carriers, put them into formulas and do very focused inspections," said Linda Goodrich, a vice president of the union that represents most FAA inspectors. "The carrier knows when we're showing up and exactly what we're going after."
Dave Michaels and Terry Maxon of the Dallas Morning News offer a revealing look at the genesis of the Air Transport Oversight System. In the interest of education, I'll quote a healthy passage, but recommend your reading the entire detail-heavy piece:
The FAA began moving away from its confrontational, cop-on-the-beat approach to policing the airlines after the 1996 ValuJet crash in Florida that killed 110 people. Even then, the FAA took blame for going easy on airlines in order to promote commercial aviation.
The FAA was faulted for poor oversight of ValuJet, an airline that grew quickly and farmed out almost all of its maintenance. The agency admitted that it didn't have enough inspectors to monitor the airline. It later prohibited the shipment of oxygen generators in cargo holds, where a fire started that brought down the plane.
"In a system as large as ours, you can't inspect every individual part or flight or airplane," said Andrew Steinberg, a former U.S. assistant secretary of transportation who left the agency this year. "Clearly you need some spot-checking, like there are traffic cops on the highways," he said. "But the basic framework for safety is to make sure the airlines' programs are in place to ensure safety."
The post-ValuJet era introduced big changes.
FAA inspectors now file fewer "enforcements," as investigations bearing sanctions are known. Instead, they're supposed to focus on the most serious risks – ones that cause accidents – by analyzing data provided by the airlines. The airlines are encouraged to self-report regulatory violations. By doing so, the companies can avoid fines. But they also learn lessons that prevent accidents, FAA officials said.
Peggy Gilligan, the FAA's deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, said the approach strikes a balance between enforcement and information sharing, because "we have learned over the years that you can't enforce perfect safety." The equilibrium allows the FAA to "learn lessons before we see risk manifest itself as incidents or accidents," Ms. Gilligan said this week.
Even critics say that new approach, known as the Air Transportation Oversight System, makes sense. With ValuJet, a start-up airline that grew quickly, "it was impossible to get a handle on the enormous amount of stuff going on," Ms. Goodrich said. "We had no way to prioritize the risk."
Read the entire breathtaking piece.
[UPDATE Mar 26, 2008] Another airline, this time American, finds itself grounding its MD-80's for inspections today:
American Airlines canceled approximately 200 flights this morning to reinspect wiring on its fleet of MD-80 aircraft. Inspections take a few hours, and the company is rotating its MD-80 aircraft back into service as soon as they are cleared.
The need for the unscheduled inspections emerged during a Federal Aviation Administration audit of the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline's maintenance records. ... The FAA said today this was not a safety issue and explained that the inspection concerns a wiring bundle in the airplanes' wheel well. The airline is required to secure every one inch, and the aircraft in question may have had the bundles secured every 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inches.
The FAA is taking extra precautions on the heels of accusations that Southwest Airlines missed, or failed to document, airplane inspections. That prompted the FAA to announce it was proposing a $10.2 million fine against the carrier -- the largest fine ever imposed against a passenger airline.
Last week, the FAA announced a more far-reaching audit to ensure all airlines — more than 100 of them — are complying with maintenance requirements. ... American Airlines said "many inspections have already been completed and the aircraft are currently in service," according to its statement. "We are in the process of completing the inspections on the remaining airplanes and will return them to service on a rolling basis throughout the day."
The company operates 300 MD-80 aircraft, all of which are part of this reinspection. Congress plans to further examine airline inspection issues next month.
From the Associated Press:
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American, United Flight Attendants and Post-9/11 Trauma
American Airlines flight attendant note by Damien Stark.
I recently came across the photo above left near Ground Zero for one of the crew members lost that day. The text of the note:
Thank you, Karen Martin, for picking up my trip. I will never forget you and what you did to save my life. I pray you are in peace in the big arms of Jesus and I look forward to when I can thank you personally. With love always, Gerianne. American Airlines Boston flight attendant.
Even those physically clear from immediate danger can cope with survivor guilt. Crew members like Gerianne are not alone. In January, United Airlines settled a lawsuit filed by one of its flight attendants who suffered with post-traumatic stress following the attacks.
Jonathan Saltzman wrote in the Boston Globe:
A former United Airlines flight attendant who narrowly missed being on one of the hijacked jets that crashed into the World Trade Center has settled a federal lawsuit that accused the airline of wrongfully firing her after she was unable to work because of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Deborah Jackson of Plaistow, N.H., had worked for United Airlines out of Logan International Airport for 17 years when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred, according to the suit. ...Jackson was a regular flight attendant on United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles and won praise from her employer and passengers, according to the suit. She said in a brief interview last night that she was scheduled to work on that flight the day after the attacks.
After Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower, killing many close friends and colleagues, Jackson "suffered extreme guilt, grief, and stress" and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the suit said.
She accepted an offer of a furlough from the airline because it was too difficult to return to work, the suit said.
In August 2005, United notified Jackson that she could return to work and she began her flight attendant recertification process. (All crew members returning from extended leave or furlough are required to complete refresher FAA airplane evacuation and safety equipment training.) Unfortunately for Jackson, fear paralyzed her immediately and she was unable to complete this task. She was ineligible to return to the line.
Continuing:
Her conduct was "contrary to her outstanding performance" before Sept. 11 and illustrated how the disaster had affected her, according to the lawsuit. Jackson repeatedly asked United Airlines to continue her furlough or make other accommodations for her, but the airline refused and wrongfully fired her in November 2005, the suit said.
The following year, she recovered from post-traumatic stress disorder and asked the airline to rehire her, but it would not, said the suit.
In January, United and Jackson were able to reach a private settlement. Another United flight case appeared in 2003. David Shadovitz wrote of the case in Human Resource Executive:
A New Jersey appellate court recently ruled that a flight attendant whose co-workers died on the ill-fated United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001, was ineligible to collect workers' comp benefits because her resulting post-traumatic stress disorder occurred outside the workplace.
Flight attendant Kim Stroka was originally scheduled to work on Flight 93 from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco on Sept. 11, but decided to take the day off without pay. After learning of the plane crash while at a bowling alley, Stroka became emotionally distraught and was later diagnosed by her psychologist as suffering from PTSD. Stroka applied for workers' comp, but was denied benefits by United, which argued she was not entitled to them because her injury did not occur in the course of her work.
While recognizing the tragic nature of Stroka's injury, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court nonetheless emphasized that an employee must be working or furthering his or her employer's interests at the time of the injury to be eligible for compensation.
Because Stroka was not performing any activity that benefited her employer at the time of the crash and did not suffer any injury while working that led her to develop PTSD, the court concluded that her injury did not occur in the course of her employment. ... In issuing its decision, the three-judge appellate court overturned an earlier ruling of a workers' comp judge, who awarded to Stroka medical and disability payments.
The December 2003 Capehart Scatchard Workers’ Compensation Newsletter [pdf] offered up a few more details in an article written by John H. Geaney, Esq.:
Petitioner began psychiatric treatment on September 24,2001 with Dr. Stephen Clarfield for post-traumatic stress syndrome. She told her doctor that she felt guilty that she was alive, while someone else in her place had been killed.
Petitioner did not return to work and continued to treat on a biweekly basis. She filed a claim petition seeking medical and temporary disability benefits. Petitioner testified that her company provided her with training regarding hijackings. Flight attendants viewed a security video and read a Federal Aviation Administration handbook on how to deal with a hijacking crisis.
The Judge of Compensation found that the petitioner’s stress condition was work-related and awarded medical and temporary disability benefits to the petitioner. As of the time of trial, petitioner was still fearful and was having panic attacks when she would see a runway. United appealed the decision and argued that petitioner’s psychiatric condition did not arise from work. The Appellate Division agreed:Petitioner’s post-traumatic stress syndrome originated not while she was at work, but while she was taking a day off. Nothing happened while she was working which led to her current condition. She was not working at the time Flight 93 crashed, nor at the time she heard the news of the crash. In fact, her reaction to the event occurred because she was not working, not because she was working. If we were to accept petitioner’s argument, off-duty police officers, firefighters, and others whose jobs are inherently risky could seek compensation benefits when a fellow employee was injured or killed while taking that employee’s place. No authority exists to support that position.
This case is an important one because it delineates a line between compensable occupational stress and non-compensable occupational stress.
The newsletter contains a companion review of Supreme Court rulings on such PTSD cases, making it well worth a read [pdf].
Finally, a 20-year Pan Am flight attendant and current 15-year licensed marriage and family therapist, Helen Davey, PhD, wrote a brief Self Psychology paper offering empathetic advice to her former aviation colleagues in the wake of 9/11. In the interest of education and in the hopes that it may help others, I'm excerpting an extended portion of it:
Perhaps if you just pretend that we're sitting on a jumpseat together, doing what flight attendants do best -- jumpseat therapy -- I can offer some ideas about what you might be feeling and why.
Most people are not aware that Pan Am employees endured continuing terrorist attacks since the 1970's, and that we had to live with constant threats as well as the loss of friends. Add to that the pressure of management problems, financial turmoil, airplane crashes, layoffs, Lockerbie, and, finally, the fall of Pan Am, and it adds up to a traumatized work force. Aware of the turmoil that my beloved fellow employees endured, I decided to study trauma through the eyes and hearts of former Pan Am employees. I then wrote my doctoral dissertation on what I learned and titled it A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Fall of Pan Am. I hope that it might be of some benefit to you in these uncertain and scary times. ...
The symptoms of trauma can sneak up on you in subtle ways, until you finally feel overwhelmed and don't know what hit you. Symptoms vary widely from individual to individual, and can include feelings of hopelessness, indifference, and isolation. Insomnia is common, or the feeling of just wanting to stay in bed under the covers where it's safe. A loss of appetite or the inability to stop eating everything in sight can be experienced, as well as headaches, chest pains, and feelings of intense fear when recollecting the overwhelming event, or putting yourselves in the terrifying place of those who lost their lives, and imagining exactly what it was like for them. And, of course, wondering how you would have handled the same situation yourself. Persistent anxiety, jumpiness, fears, or feeling out of control, and excessive worry over loved ones' safety can be present.
Fundamental to the experience of trauma can be a devastating sense of helplessness. In my study of Pan Am employees, this feeling of powerlessness was a common theme. Sometimes this led to feelings of betrayal and painful disillusionment with Pan Am's management, who were seen as parental figures. However, such anger was not usually felt toward the Pan Am "family" as a whole.
I can see many parallels between the feelings and behaviors of Pan Am employees and those of American Airlines employees now. Are you feeling angry about not having been protected? Some employees turn to unusual behaviors to counteract their helpless feelings. For example, they may become obsessed with gaining as much knowledge as possible about what is happening. Or they may keep their lives "orderly," cleaning out and straightening every nook and cranny in their homes. There are some flight attendants who have not even been able to unpack their bags since September 11.
Others deal with the emotional trauma by a cutting off of emotion, and sometimes pushing those close to them away. Are you feeling numb or not very loving? A particularly traumatizing aspect of September 11 was the inability of so many flight attendants to get home. Many people state that they are less afraid of dying than of again being helplessly stranded so far from home. They are more terrified of feeling those feelings again than they are of actually dying. ...
A traumatized person can feel as if he or she is an alien to the "normal" people around them, a conviction which leads to a sense of alienation and aloneness, that an unbridgeable gulf separates him or her from the understanding of others. Anxiety slips into panic when it has to be born in isolation. Hence, there needs to be a place where painful feelings can be shared. I know that many of you feel that family and loved ones have a hard time understanding what you're going through since September 11, and perhaps you might even feel estranged from your fellow flight attendants, especially if they are not expressing feelings of fear. ...
Flight attendants, in my experience, seem to have a feeling that they should be emotionally invincible, impervious to fears having to do with flying. Many flight attendants have expressed feelings of humiliation to me about such fears, and this shame seems to be as painful as the fear itself. Several flight attendants have expressed thoughts such as "if I were strong or spiritually grounded, I wouldn't be feeling depressed or anxious." Thus, ordinary feelings that many people in a similar situation would experience are felt to be somehow shameful.
Some flight attendants may be feeling more traumatized than others, and this seems important to understand. Just because some people are frightened and unable to fly right now does not mean that they are weak or don't have strong character. The situation is made worse for some people because it represents a retraumatization, a feeling of repetition of a childhood history of trauma which leaves them more vulnerable. ...
People who have already had an experience with trauma while flying are more likely to be retraumatized by the events of September 11. Such trauma can take the form of a major illness on board the aircraft, an aircraft evacuation, an assault on a passenger or crew member, the death of a passenger, an airplane crash, or any perception of serious threat to self, other crew members, or passengers. Many of you may have "gotten right back on the horse" after other incidents, and never really understood its impact on you. So, September 11 may have just compounded an already existing but unrecognized traumatic state.
For example, a dangerous experience with turbulence could easily disturb one's background sense of safety, and revive old feelings about an earlier loss of a sense of control in life, such as the divorce of one's parents. Also, one might expect that any disaster that happens subsequent to September 11 will have a similar retraumatizing impact, as did the crash of Flight 587.
Your most important function at work besides safety has always been to provide passengers with a sense of comfort and reassurance, and a denial of the possibility of death. I am imagining you offering "coffee, tea, or immortality," and that's an extremely difficult task when you're feeling at risk yourself. It's important that each one of you be able to find a place within a relationship for your disturbing experiences and feelings, rather than having to bear them alone, and to recognize that there is nothing inherently shameful about these painful experiences and fears. Shame only contributes to keeping feelings hidden and makes you emotionally isolated. I urge you to tell each other how you're really feeling.
Getting together in small groups to talk can be extremely helpful. Leaning on your religious or spiritual faith can be of great comfort. Symptoms of trauma do improve with time and talking about it. If, however, you continue to experience symptoms after reaching out to family or friends or faith, then it's time to seek out the help of a professional therapist.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Record Fuel Prices Inching Ticket Prices Skyward
For an industry with razor-thin margins, rising fuel costs can and do further pressurize current airline-labor negotiations.
Labor took large wage and benefit cuts during the state-of-emergency days following 9/11; many labor groups undoubtedly feel they deserve richer contracts this time around to make up for those difficult, but necessary, "pull together for the team" losses.
But air travelers are feeling their own pump pinch.
While airline employees can expect to see a more forceful pushback from management as the cost of fuel soars, customers will have to make peace with more expensive ticket prices and fewer air service options.
Ellen Creager says it best over at the Detroit Free Press:
More pain.
Northwest Airlines hiked its fares as much as $50 on Sunday, matching last week's hikes at five other U.S. carriers, Bloomberg News reports.
The cause, of course, is high jet fuel prices.
United Airlines hiked its fares Friday, followed by American, Delta, US Airways and Continental. Now, Northwest joins the crowd.
Sadly, the hike is just more pressure on Americans to vacation near home this summer. With high-season airfares between the U.S. and Europe running about $1,200 to $1,500 round trip this year, the dollar in free-fall against world currencies and gasoline headed for $4 a gallon, the backyard is looking better all the time.
And I'm the travel writer.
Bleak news. Witty messenger.
Priceless...
[UPDATE Mar 21, 2008]: More bad news on the upcoming travel season from Adrian Schofield at Aviation Week:
The latest FAA Aerospace Forecast proves once again how quickly fortunes can change in the U.S. airline industry. A year ago, the FAA's prognosticators foresaw healthy growth in airline demand in Fiscal 2008. Now they believe domestic traffic growth will sputter almost to a standstill as weakening market conditions hit home.
"We're seeing a definite pause in growth," FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell says. "We didn't see [the pause] in last year's forecast, . . . but this year it's pretty clear - we're talking flat growth in operations and slow growth in passengers." Sturgell does stress, however, that while the near term looks bleaker, the longer-term outlook remains "vibrant."
The headline numbers from the FAA's annual forecast - which extends to 2025 - support Sturgell's comments. Overall traffic on U.S. carriers is expected to rise by 2.9% in Fiscal 2008, down markedly from earlier projections of a 4.2% increase. Domestic traffic will be hurt particularly badly: Last year's forecast predicted growth of 3.4% for 2008, but the new forecast sees growth slowing to just 0.6%.
Sturgell points to a "series of cascading events" as the cause of the forecast downgrade. Chief among these are oil prices continuing their climb past $100 a barrel, coupled with the U.S. economy's apparent slide into recession.
The FAA is hardly alone in revising its projections. The International Air Transport Assn. in December slashed its global airline profit forecast due to the expected economic slowdown, and another downward revision is anticipated in the next few months. U.S. airlines - even traditional growth engines like Southwest Airlines - have also begun scaling back their capacity plans for this year.
Ah, the days of breezy $200 fares to Europe. AA ad from '87:
Friday, March 14, 2008
Welcome to Airline 911
Welcome to my new research project, Airline 911: The Business and Psychology of Aviation, Labor, and Travel in Times of Change.
Why this blog?
Let me explain what I aim to do with this space in the days and weeks ahead. While Airline Biz Blog, Airline World, and The Airline Blog offer great coverage of industry news from a variety of angles, and while there are flight attendant (the always top notch Cabin Crew News) and pilot (now that's an office!) blogs aplenty, Airline 911 will focus on the changes taking place in the field following the events of September 11.
The focus will be on the human side of things, as well as the business side. I'll dip into some of the more personal aspects of post-9/11 airline life while weaving together a broader narrative of the effect so much change (much of it out of their control) has on the people and companies that are doing their best to survive and thrive in this new normal.
As a former 15-year flight attendant I care a lot about the airline industry (that's me to the right on my final work trip in October 2001). As the wife of a pilot, and one whose best friends are still flying to this day, I'm still very much a part of the airline family.
After September 11, with the support of my husband, I decided it was time to unpack my suitcase for good and turn in my crew badge and cockpit keys.
My choice wasn't made out of fear.
It was a moment to branch out for me personally and professionally. I haven't yet regretted the decision, although I do miss certain elements of being a line holder based out of places like Chicago-O'Hare, Miami-International, and JFK-International (ah...the days where I easily knew what books were the bestsellers and what were the latest fashion trends!).
In the face of 6,000 flight attendant layoffs (at AA alone), it gave my husband and me some comfort to know that we helped save one more junior crew mate's job.
On September 11th, we changed and America changed.
Even more so, every airline employee's life changed that day. And I dare say the events of that day hurt even more especially at United Airlines and American Airlines. How does anyone move on after seeing their "office" (our airplanes) used in such traumatic ways to such destructive ends?
And yet, we stand...and so many still soar.
Since that last day in uniform, I've branched out into new media development. Along the way, I've become a seasoned online writer (blogging at Daily Kos since 2004 and at my own PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within journal since 2006) as well as author of the book Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops.
After 2 1/2 years of advocating for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the issues that they face when returning home, I'm excited to begin this new project.
Getting my airline wings on graduation day fulfilled a dream of mine that began after my first cross-Atlantic flight in 1972.
My next dream encompasses a return to my roots, again; this time writing about the rapid changes that have taken place in the industry I love so much.
The coming years are going to be pivotal years for customers, crew, airlines and unions -- in some ways even more so than those faced in the immediate period following 9/11.
I'm looking forward to sharing the ride with you.
Pillow, anyone?
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