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EUROPE FAR BEHIND WITH UNITED “OPEN SKIES”
It seems that European countries are closer to reaching Open Skies agreements with other continents, but cannot get their stuff together when it comes to their own backyard, Europe. It was at the end of November that European Union Transport Commissioner Slim Kallas made a harsh, critical and outright speech which was more a warning than just a statement.
He said there was no way that under the present tempo Europe could have any significant accomplishment, let alone promised savings of E1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) and a Single European Sky by 2030 is nothing but a dream. Only five of the 27 European Union countries are on track of fulfilling the goal, and of those five, who work on it, only two – Denmark and Lithuania – meet all criteria.
Surprisingly, the “most industrial” countries, such as France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain (they are also the Airbus countries, incidentally) have shown very little accomplishments. None of those countries released any comments to this criticism. Kallas made it clear that “corrective measures” will be taken if all European countries don’t get on the wagon. He was not specific, but fines are most certainly in the making.
RUSSIAN PILOTS DID NOT KNOW HOW TO FLY THE PLANE
Just when we heard encouraging news from Africa about the improving quality of control over the aviation industry, Russia’s accident last month wiped out an entire top professional hockey team because the pilots did not know how to fly the Yak-42 plane, among other things. Impossible? Not quite, when you look at the accident report from the Russian authorities.
The September crash of the Yak-42 that killed 44 people, the latest in a series of tragedies has made Russia the deadliest place in the world to fly. The report (by International Aviation Transport Association – IATA-equivalent of the FAA in the U.S.) that was released on November 2 says that aviation-safety problems in Russia go far beyond aircraft and involve poor regulation, corruption during enforcement, and poor training.
When going over the Yak-42 accident, IATA found a number of violations by the Yak Service airline that was missed by government inspectors. The only thing that was apparently OK, was the airworthiness of the aircraft.
Falsified training records, lack of safety procedures, lax discipline and the co-pilot’s hidden medical problems all contributed to the crash. The co-pilot suffered from a chronic condition that had profound effect on his nervous system, resulting in loss of sensitivity in hands and feet and should have never passed the medical. Yet, he passed it with flying colors not long ago. He also showed a significant level of Phenobarbital on autopsy. Phenobarbital, which is indicated for seizures, can be a potent sedative if taken in higher doses.
The whole chain of events that led to the tragedy started with throttles below maximum on take-off, as the captain wanted to save fuel. While it has not been ascertained yet if the co-pilot with the neurological deficit was the one flying the plane on take-off, it became clear that the pilot who flew it was braking on the take-off rollout.
Some investigators feel that the pilots may have confused this plane model with a Yak-40, which has a different, rather unusual set up for pedals. Normally with most aircraft, on take-off you keep your heels on the floor and your toes off the pedals. The Yak-40, on which they were previously trained, is set up so pilots can keep their feet on the pedals without affecting the braking power.
According to investigators, one of the pilots apparent “jammed his feet into the pedals” braking the plane while trying to apply more power. One of the pilots and a flight engineer wanted to abort the take-off, but the captain pushed for more power. The plane apparently nosed-up suddenly, but the steep angle caused the stall and crash.
The following is a part of the cockpit black box transcript:
Start of rollout: 11:58:36 – Plane starts take off about 450 meters (roughly 1,500 feet) down runway.
+43 seconds: With plane moving about 100 miles per hour, one pilot inadvertently applies brakes.
+48 seconds: Captain begins pulling harder on the stick.
+55 seconds: Plane reaches 130 miles per second, braking force increasing.
+61 seconds: Co-pilot says, “We probably don’t have enough stabilizer for take-off.”
+71 seconds: End of runway. Control stick is pushed forward in an apparent effort to abort take-off. Co-pilot says, “What are you doing?”
+72 seconds: Stick pulled back to trice the usual take-off level.
+73 seconds: Flight engineer pulls throttles back to abort take-off. Captain curses, orders full power.
+76 seconds: Plane takes off, stalls.
+78 seconds: Plane strikes antenna of navigation beacon about 8 feet off the ground.
+81 seconds: Pilot says, “That’s it [expletive].” Leaning sharply left, plane hits ground and crashes on the bank of Volga.
Yak-42 crash site on Volga River
Investigators said the pilots’ fatal mistake resulted from their experience on Yak-40 and inadequate retraining on the Yak-42. They cannot prove it 100%, as the brakes and their function are not a part of the data collected by the black box. The fact that one of the pilots had a neurological problem with his feet could also contributed to applying pressure on the pedals, perhaps inadvertently.
If more news comes out, we’ll keep you posted.
SINCE THIS NATION STILL BELIEVES IN GOD, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
It sounds strange, almost funny, that the Congress should vote on something we have grown up with – whether to keep the words “In God We Trust” as the nation’s motto. Although not unanimous, it was a strong majority that asked to keep it in, though a motto such as “In Gold We Trust” might be more precise. But if you ask the average American where “In God We Trust” comes from, the most you get out of people is that it comes from the coins. But how did it get there?
Very few people actually know that it is a part of our national anthem, only because on most occasions just the first verse of the anthem is sung. Maybe it is time to look at the anthem a little closer and have a little history lesson. Since you do not get it at school any more, Midnight Flight might as well fill the void.
The U.S. anthem – affectionately known as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” has been around for more than a hundred years before it started to be played at military gatherings. The lyrics for the anthem were written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, who had been inspired by the sight of the American flag still flying over Ft. McHenry after a night of heavy British bombardment. The words were immediately set to a popular melody of that time, “To Anacreon in Heaven.”
It was not until 1916 that Woodrow Wilson, then our President, ordered it played at military occasions, but it was not designated as national anthem until 1931 by an Act of Congress. It has actually four verses – but as mentioned above, only the first one is sung at current social and military gatherings. The full version goes like this:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does the star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out of their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave’
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us as a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Now, that you know how it came about that “In God We Trust,” you may pass it on. And “Merry Christmas to all…”
RECENT TORONTO NEAR MISS WAS ONLY ABOUT 50 FEET
A November 18 incident at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport was more than a hair-raiser, it was a warning that we continue having problems. Pilots from American Eagle Embraer 145, which just arrived from Chicago, simply failed to follow air traffic instructions. The plane was supposed to stop short of an active runway, where an Air Canada Airbus A319 was given OK for take-off.
Instead, the Embraer 145 just kept on rolling across the runway, despite panicky yelling from the air traffic controller. The pilots in the A319 were fortunate enough to have their wits about them, and knowing exactly what was happening. They could not abort the take-off any more, but they were able to pull up to avoid the collision. They cleared the American Eagle plane by about 50 feet, if that. Aviation safety experts called it one of the worst near-collisions in North America in years.
Canadians are doing their own investigation, and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle, is making its own internal investigation as well. It is hard to accept this at a time when we are experiencing the safest decade in our aviation history.
QANTAS SLOWLY RETURNING TO NORMAL AFTER A COURT ORDER
It took about four days for Qantas to get operations running the full complement of flights, but the company admitted it will be a lot longer to clear the backlog of about 70,000 stranded passengers around the world. While the company sprang back fairly quickly and its stock stabilized at an even higher speed in anticipation of better things to come, the company admitted that it will cost millions to bring travelers’ confidence back and truly restore business “as usual.”
Credit rating companies dropped Qantas’ ratings a notch from “stable” to “negative,” but that also is only a speculative move and Qantas most certainly will regain its ratings from before the staff lockout shortly.
While Qantas continues doing well with domestic flights, it is bleeding money on international routes. The unions should have realized (before they started the “job actions”) that Qantas lost nearly $100 million (Australian) overall since the beginning of the year and that this may not have been a good time to start labor unrest.
Alan Joyce, CEO, Qantas, has his job cut out for him because United/Continental Holdings, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Australia are already starting a huge campaign to get Qantas’ frequent flyers. Qantas has only 21 days to resolve the issue with the unions, and if it is not resolved, then the government will resolve it for both parties in a binding arbitration decision.
SIX DEAD IN ARIZONA PLANE CRASH
On November 23, campers in the hills near Phoenix, AZ, saw just two pieces of debris falling from the skies and a fireball that lit the skies almost simultaneously, followed by a huge bang. The plane crash started a large brush fire in the Superstition Mountains, some 40 miles east of Phoenix. The campers alerted authorities about the accident and a Search & Rescue team was sent out.
Rescue efforts were hampered by rugged mountain terrain with jagged peaks and deep crevices. The final portion of the rescue, which actually turned into recovery only, was done by people suspended from a chopper. The wreckage of the plane was wedged between rocks.
The Sherriff’s Department from Pinal County held a news conference after the rescue mission reached the crash site and the plane was identified.
It was a private twin-engine Rockwell AC-69 aircraft, which started the trip in Safford, AZ, and picked up three children at Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ, where the plane was refueled. The filled-up plane left Mesa with three kids that were picked up for Thanksgiving with their father piloting the plane. Two other adults were also on board. The plane was registered to Ponderosa Aviation, Inc, based in Safford.
The plane headed back to Safford, about 150 miles from Phoenix. According to the statement by the campers who alerted authorities first, there was actually first a fireball in the sky before the debris started falling down. The crash was much worse because of the full tanks and crosswinds that fuelled the brush fire that ensued.
The dead were identified as the pilot, Shawn Perry, and his three children, ages 5 to 9. Perry owned a small aviation business in southeastern Arizona and had flown with another pilot and a company mechanic to pick up his children for Thanksgiving. There was no prior indication from the pilots that the plane was in trouble.
THEY PUT MOST OF THEIR EGGS IN THE “WAR” BASKET
Most of the companies that once made airplanes put most of their eggs in the “war” basket. They probably never heard of the old European proverb saying that “A shoemaker should hang onto his craft instead of greed, and he will live happily into ripe age.” That’s what one thinks about when one looks at the current state of all those aircraft companies that gave up on making passenger planes or planes that were useful in times of peace, and based their production on military weaponry and government contracts.
We’ve seen the results of this trend gradually over the past thirty years, and the biggest blow to companies such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing’s section of what was McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed Martin (formerly two separate companies making superb commercial aircraft), and the section of Pratt & Whitney that once was Hughes Aircraft Corporation. This is just to name a handful of companies of the hundreds that came and went or were absorbed by aerospace giants.
They all have one thing in common – they were all based in Southern California and together employed the largest section of California population, bringing prosperity to the region. Lobbying on Capitol Hill indirectly caused merger of some of these companies and demise of others. The greed that drove this change sparked other changes inevitably as the resulting aviation-turned-defense companies got cozier with Congress.
Against the advice of the European proverb, these companies dropped their “craft” - making passenger and cargo planes – and got into making weapons and other military gadgets, always relying on the government’s ingenuity in developing a new war around the world as soon as money made on making war materials on the previous war started getting low.
What the war materials suppliers did not quite count on were two things: the end of the Cold War and the associated insane race in weapons development. Computer-based killing machines have replaced those that were used in previous wars. Older weaponry has become too expensive, obsolete and not needed.
An example is the F-22 Raptor, at one time Pentagon’s pride. The Raptor was conceived as a superior fighter plane as early as 1960s at Lockheed Corporation, which at that time was based in Burbank, CA, with hangars also in Palmdale, CA. Raptor was “sold” to Pentagon as a “must have” weapon in 1991. The price tag on one of these planes was $139 million at that time. Today the “sale” price has gone up to $412 million each, and that does not include maintenance. And talking about Maintenance – for every hour in the air, the plane requires about 45 minutes of maintenance. It takes about 3,000 aviation people to perform.
It is not cheap, and even today the plane has problems that have not been weeded out in 20 years. It comes as a joke to some people, but a few years ago a pilot had to be cut out of the cockpit because his canopy would not open. After 5 hours he really needed to get out and was extricated from it. The new canopy was $71,000.
A few months later a glitch in the navigational equipment almost sent a group of F-22s across the Pacific. That glitch cost $300,000 to fix. The most recent glitch in oxygen delivery system cost two lives and seriously endangered ten others. On paper, the plane had got some incredible features no one else has got even now on their planes. The fact is, no one has even come close to building a plane that the F-22 was supposed to counteract. No one probably will, because today’s wars do not need it. The F-22 has not seen a single combat mission in its 20 years of existence. Yet, it is still being manufactured despite the fact that here is a more practical plane available – the F-35.
F-35 is a cheaper alternative –
but not cheap
In the meantime, while this plane saw only training missions, Lockheed, and Lockheed Martin later on, has taken billions of taxpayer money through lobbying on “the Hill,” and gave incentives to the right pockets.
The F-22 is only a single example of what is going on with hundreds of other military contracts, whether we need it or not, whether we can afford it or not. When push comes to shove during the creating of the last big budget, unless this country wants to go the way the Soviet Union went, it is time to cut back on the billions-guzzling contracts and concentrate on the real necessities. The Pentagon “pie” shared by the military contractors shrank and will be getting even smaller as President Obama hopes to gain back popularity by bringing some U.S. troops from abroad back home. It’s time to put those troops on our borders to really protect this country, rather than sending them overseas to protect the interests of the rich in this country.
Just a few numbers will put all of this into a better perspective. Defense contractors are the last ones to root for peace around the world. This is not to pick on Lockheed
Martin, but it is a prime example that illustrates what is happening. Both Lockheed and Martin started as companies that made planes for peaceful purposes. Lockheed’s Constellation commissioned by Howard Hughes is a classic and so are some of the Martin’s flying boats that helped PanAm grow.
Now being a single combined force, the company is still very profitable, but that may not last long. Currently, 60% of its income comes directly from Department of Defense sales and an additional 25% comes from the Department of Homeland Security. All in all, 85% of the company’s income is from the U.S. government on war-related stuff. It’s no wonder the company made over $45 billion last year.
No wonder it is now letting almost 7,000 employees go in anticipation of government contracts drying up. The government budget calls for cuts of about $350 billion in defense (or war, however you want to translate it) spending. Obviously, Pentagon’s pie is much smaller now and will be shrinking further.
Northrop, which cut its workforce by nearly 10,000 over the past ten years, moved its headquarters to Virginia where most of the government and Pentagon offices are, closer to contract decision makers. They, too, realized that the pie is smaller, but they may not realize that even if you get a bigger part of a smaller pie, you may not get as much as you used to. While the management will be lobbying in Virginia and Washington, DC, most of its workforce is still staying in California.
It would be interesting to know what Jack Northrop, who founded the company in 1939 just in time to benefit from manufacturing warplanes, would feel about the management shuffle in the company and its move across the country.
United States is not the only place where the war money is drying up. BAE Systems, based in Great Britain and with several plants in the United States, recently announced that it, too, will be laying off nearly 3,000 employees system-wide. It hopes to cut production costs on jet fighter programs as production is slowing down. It is, indirectly, affected by the expected drop in sales of the F-35 fighters, and more markedly by the decreased demand for the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.
BEA manufactures nearly 18% of the F-35 plane and 33% of the Typhoon. The Typhoon plane is manufactured in cooperation with the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company (EADS – the parent company of Airbus Industrie). Both union leaders and politicians have strongly opposed the proposed cut, but BAE says it has no choice when demand is dropping and money is tight.
It all comes down to the saying, ”Who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” When the growth of manufacturers is based on wars that are needlessly started around the globe, it is when finally people who pay for the war materials run out cash, that the growth stops and is followed by slow, painful death – unless someone drums up more money to start yet another war.
Although putting a limit on weapons production may mean growing unemployment in this country, it is one measure that should gain support of masses that – instead of following blindly people you normally would not even buy a used car from – will finally engage their brains and see how much damage governments have done around the world already. Sadly, we experience most problems only because greed and hatred are the primary forces behind most
European Typhoon assembly
world governments. Learning to live together in peace is a much cheaper, a more deserving way to personal enrichment.
AIRLINES BEGINING TO FEEL THE PAIN WORLD-WIDE
November brought some sobering news to airlines around the globe – profits dropped sharply even for the best companies, while oil companies efficiently siphoned more cash. It’s definitely not just thanks to prices of crude oil nearing again $100/barrel, but also refineries choking off supply in order to jack up prices. You’d say, well, nothing new there, it’s just more of the same crap… and in a way it is. The new thing about this whole thing it that the airlines are slowly exhausting their armamentarium of things they can charge extras for, and consequently profits will go down - not just in the U.S. but all over the world.
The lousy economy around the world has finally caught up with even the most prestigious airlines such as Singapore and
the Emirates
Singapore Airlines’ weakened bookings to Europe and the U.S. has caused a drop of 49% in profit. To put it in actual numbers, passenger traffic profit of $380 million for the third quarter last year zoomed down to $194 million for the third quarter this year. When it comes to cargo, Singapore actually lost $31 million on cargo, where last year – for the same period – it made a handsome $102 million.
Emirates did not fare any better. In the first semester of this year the airline made a profit of $225 million, down from about $825 million last year for the same period. Emirates – unlike other world airlines – is not reducing capacity though. It is increasing its capacity by 8.2%, being by far the biggest international airline in the world by traffic. The company restarted its growth after sitting put for the past 6 months. They can afford it, they are heavily government-subsidized like its two cousins, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways.
Even Singapore Airlines feels the pinch
U.S. airlines are not as fortunate, and it is beginning to show – Thanksgiving traffic is slightly down by 2% - while prices are beginning to climb as much as 10% for the holidays. Capacity at most airlines is further reduced in order to make the buck.
That’s all fine and well if the airlines can make some money. But let’s keep in mind two things that will eventually keep up with present policies of most U.S. airlines: (1) you can drop capacity only so low till you come to the point that you stop making money; and, (2) you will eventually run out of things to charge extra fees to passengers.
That’s when the U.S. government will realize that “open skies” treaties with certain governments may have been a suicidal move – because those government-subsidized airlines will move into our domestic and international markets, shutting the doors on our airlines. Happy holidays!
SMALL PLANES AND SMALL AIRPORTS WILL BE GONE
The number of small planes that at one time connected small communities with large airports are dwindling down to an alarming point. Delta, United and American, as well as a number of other airlines are dumping the propeller and turboprop planes with less than 50 seats because they are not profitable. After all, business is all about money, is it not?
The reduction in those planes left at least 27 smaller U.S. airports without any commercial connections in the past two years, and the trend will only continue. The small planes will either be sold for cargo operations or they will eventually be scrapped, many of them sitting in the desert for years before that.
That will lead to an unprecedented demise of several airlines that currently operate as major airlines’ regional connectors. Comair, at one time Delta’s regional powerhouse with a huge number of planes, is on the verge of disappearing, American Eagle cannot find a buyer, and many smaller regionals have been swallowed by stronger regionals in the last few years already.
You need to keep that in mind when you are applying for your flight attendant job – you do not want to apply and be accepted by an airline that might be out of business in a year or two.
FIRST RENO AIR RACE CRASH-RELATED LAWSUIT FILED
On November 1, a Texas law firm filed a lawsuit against the Reno Air Racing Association and several other parties for the wrongful death of Craig Salerno, one of ten people who died in the September 16 P-51 Mustang crash.
Salerno’s family is asking for $25 million and accuses the organizers of recklessness. We quote: “The accident was a predictable result of a reckless drive for speed by risk-taking pilot and crew, coupled with insatiable drive for profit by those who stood to profit from the show.”
No one seems to take into account that each spectator is also responsible for his own safety during fast-paced events like the air races.
SORTING OUT THE “DOs AND DON’Ts WHEN YOU APPLY WITH AN AIRLINE
In the last issue of Update we wrote about more than half a dozen airlines that have been hiring (and will keep on after New Year’s). It is time to brush up on some of the things that you should or should not do when you apply in order to increase you chances of success (of course, aside from getting assistance from us… just kidding, but it can’t hurt you).
The fact remains that a lot of people who would love to work as flight attendants, are looking for tips in the wrong places, and a good number of those places are on the Internet. Some people give bad advice because they do not know any better; and others do it to get a kick out of steering someone wrong. Before you take any advice seriously, see that it comes from a qualified source.
Airlines have just about given up on holding Open Houses in the old sense of the word – the kind where you made the first contact with the airline. It was expensive, time consuming and very impractical. Most airlines realized that using the Internet and the company’s website is a lot more efficient and almost assures that the applicant has at least the basic computer skills. Computer skills is no longer an option, it is a must. Ten years ago one could say that airlines discriminated against people who were not computer literate, today it is understood perfectly well that basic computer skills are a “must” because, if you make it, you will be using computers in your training and on the job.
Applying for a flight attendant job – no matter how bad the airline you are applying with is– is always a highly competitive task. The most recent interview session with Allegiant Air – certainly hardly a sterling airline by any standard – attracted over 400 applicants (that was after initial e-mail process that weeded out those who did not qualify). You need to know this because we have come across several people who could not get a job and thought that if worst comes to worst, they’d become flight attendants. In general, only the better folks make it past the initial Internet process.
But, you need to make sure that the airline you are applying with is the one you want to work for. Go over its website thoroughly because it will tell you a lot about the company, and at time you might find enough information that will help you decide if you want to work for it. Keep in mind that you would be spending a good half of your life working for that outfit. You should be happy at work. No use being a flight attendant if you are miserable because of the way the company treats its personnel.
Besides, the information you find by going through the website thoroughly will pay dividends when you get to your interview. People ask: why are the airlines so picky? Simply said, it’s because they can be. They have plenty of candidates to choose from.
Some airlines ask you to fill out the entire job application on-line and take it from there. Others ask you to fill out an abbreviated application to get an initial impression, and you fill out the actual application later. And others ask you not only to fill out an application, but also answer a questionnaire. The scope of questions may vary, but almost all of them will ask questions to find out if you meet the basic requirements, and some ask a little extra beyond that.
Even if you do meet all of the basics, you still may not be invited to continue the application process. There are several things that almost always raise a red flag with the airline, and they will mean the end of your endeavors right there. Some of them are:
Currently unemployed – that goes double if your unemployment was longer than 6 months (you are not much of a go-getter if you can’t get even a part-time job anywhere)
Suspiciously-sounding e-mail address (i.e. sexy@hotmail.com, addresses dealing with religion and politics)
Revealing your age (i.e. your high school graduation date – leave it out of your resume)
If you are attaching a résumé, make sure the font is not less than “9” and that the font is readable
If you are asked to attach a résumé, make sure it contains “key words” from the job description (each airline posts the job description on-line, so print it out and match your résumé to key words)
If you come to a questionnaire that covers not just the basic requirements, but goes more into situational questions, and you are not sure how to answer, stop right there. Rather than make mistakes, it is better to bend the rules a little.
Mark Thomson and his helpful office staff
You are allowed to come back to it and finish it. Log out of the site and log back in under a different name, with a different social security number, and then do the whole thing, print out the questions (or write them down), and then talk to an experienced person so you can come up with best answers. Though it’s not perfectly honest, it beats screwing up and having to wait another 6 months or a year for another chance.
Pay attention to detail. That goes both for the application form, understanding the questions, answering questions completely, and checking to see if the airline expects a cover letter or not. Some do and some don’t. Some do all the time, and then there are some who ask for it only some times. Why do you need a cover letter? It is the airline’s way how to assess as best as it can indirectly how good your English is. That goes double if English is not your first language.
If you need to attach it, pay attention to the following:
Don’t waste the “Subject” line. Don’t just put in the “competition number,” because the person looking at it on the other side may not be familiar with it and will not take time to look. So, if you are a Mandarin-speaking Chinese looking for a job with an airline that is looking for bilingual Chinese speakers, put it in the subject line: “Chinese-English speaking flight attendant applicant.”
Follow regular letter writing protocol but also make sure you follow the rules of the company. Address the recipient (use the name if you know it, if not, it’s “Dear Recruiter”). Make sure you make spaces between paragraphs, and sign off with “Sincerely.” Under your name, put all your contact information, which includes your phone, e-mail and postal addresses.
Keep the email message short and succinct, using some of the key words to get the reader’s attention. Most airlines use the “applicant tracking system” (ATS) to find applicants. The system is based on key words.
Be specific and keep your letter simple, no flowery stuff, but “sell” what you bring to the airline. Keep in mind that you need to focus on your assets, not your liabilities.
Go carefully over your completed draft and do not rely totally on spell-check. If you are not sure about spelling, use a dictionary or Google. You can get a dictionary real cheap at any Goodwill.Now you are ready to submit your résumé and application along with the cover letter (if needed), and you already can see yourself wearing those nice little shiny wings.
You know that you have to wait and see what happens. The thing is, nothing happens. What may have gone wrong? Plenty.
Aside from that period of unemployment (and being still unemployed), there are still other things that may have made the recruiters skip your application and go to the next, “more suitable” applicant. Some of those are the mistakes that you could have avoided. Some are mistakes showing that you simply don’t have “the right stuff.”
Using the wrong company name on the cover letter is one of the mistakes people make when they are applying to several airlines at a time and forget which they are writing to at that right time. That is “failure to pay attention to detail.”
Poorly executed résumé is another reason – that includes grammar mistakes, typos and poor layout. You are out at first sight.
Do not use a résumé you had for the job of a secretary for the job of a flight attendant. Both jobs are distinctly different and you need a focused résumé for each job application.
Never forget to include your accomplishments – always quantify them if you can. And remember that a unique experience can give you the edge, while too much experience may make you “overqualified,” and, as at times is the case, you might be a threat to some of those people who review your application.
At any rate, let’s hope that your application won’t get stuck in cyberspace, and you will make it to the next round, an email asking you to come to an “Open House” or you may get a phone call. That phone call may be directly from the airline or from a contractor who does preliminary selections for the airline.
You will go through a mini-interview that will review essentially most of the stuff you entered in your application (to make sure you meet the basic requirements), and in some cases you may get some more tricky questions, all of which are in our publication “170 Real Flight Attendant Interview Questions and Answers.”
Depending on whom you may talk to – either an employee of a contracted company to do the preliminary work, or it may be already someone from the Human Resources or Inflight. They may be friendly or not so friendly, and some may even joke. Don’t take any of that as a sign of their attitude to you personally. You are only one of “the calls.” Don’t let your guard down at any time either. Never reveal anything that might hurt you just because you thought it was small talk. Nothing is ever small talk with the airlines.
At any rate, that is the second preliminary round aimed at weeding out those who would not make good flight attendants, period. Is it really accomplished? No. They weed out mostly those, who do not know how to play the “hiring game.” Some of those who end up being hired may be the nasty flight attendants you encounter on the plane because they learned how to play the game. On the other hand, honest and caring people will not make it because they say the wrong things. That’s why it is so important to be prepared for your hiring process.
Let’s assume you prepared and made it through all this. The next thing that happens is that you are invited to what I call an “Open House by Invitation.” You will be invited – with many others – to attend a group session either in the airline headquarters or at some hotel close to an airport for a closer look at you.
This process may take a day or two days, but almost always consists of either two or three elimination stages. Never forget that all this is a process of elimination – the airline is not looking at “why it should hire you,” they are looking at “why they should not hire you.” That’s why it is so important to say just the “right things.”
Since there is a certain degree of variation in this process among different airlines, I will not go into any details. Suffice it that if you have gone through all those questions and answers we have and stayed in touch when things were not entirely clear, you will not be caught off guard and you’ll stay on your toes during the entire process and make it through.
Then comes the “conditional invitation.” Why conditional? Because not everyone is entirely honest and certain unfavorable things may pop up in the background check. You will be checked like you have not been checked before. The ten year background check is mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is the aviation governing body in the U.S. (in other countries the group may have a different title, but they do the same thing as the FAA does in the U.S.).
Some airlines make it now fashionable to threaten people with a 20-year check, which is absolutely ridiculous, since a lot of applicants were barely out of diapers twenty years ago. But the airline recruiters are not exactly the smartest or most gifted people, and so you have to allow for a certain amount of forgiveness. I’ll say just one thing – a twenty-year background check would take so long to conduct that the airline would have to hire now for classes in the years to come, not for classes that start in a couple of months or even sooner.
Having said that, I would like to say that in most instances the ten-year background check is quite thorough. There are times when an applicant actually is in a class already and the check is still under way; and there are times when things pop up that you were not too proud of and tried to hide. That is grounds for immediate dismissal, and you will be on the next flight out so fast that you can barely pack up your stuff.
While verification of previous employment and criminal record is a given, there are a few other things the airline may want to check on to protect itself. Criminal records can be done on several levels. While juvenile records cannot be accessed, when you are past the juvenile court protection, you can be checked on the county, state or federal level, or on all of them depending what the airline has contracted for.
Although it is not often specifically requested, some airlines may be extra cautious and will want to know if there is a “warrant” on you. If you are “wanted” – for whatever reason – it would come up in the NCIC system.
Then there is the Civil Court history, where the airline can verify whether you were a plaintiff or defendant in the civil court.
What used to be a norm some 20 years is slowly making its way back is your credit report. It shows your financial stability and it may be a significant (and accurate) indicator if you stay in your job long enough for the airline to get back the money it invested in your training.
It is no secret that the starting salary for flight attendants is no “mint.” You will barely make it on the salary at the best of times. If you have a lot of debt, missed payments and other problems affecting your rating, chances are that you cannot make it on the flight attendant salary and will leave the company a few months after graduation. That’s thousands of dollars down the drain for the airline. Bankruptcies older than 7 years will not show, but if you went bankrupt more than 7 years ago and are in financial trouble again, it only shows that you have not learned much about handling your finances.
Employment verification should be a breeze if you have all your dates right and you were a good worker. But not everyone falls into that category. Officially, most companies will limit their verification only to employment dates. Smaller companies, however, may get a bit “chatty” and may say more than is good for you. Certainly, you can turn around and sue them, but that will not get you the job. If you are not sure what your employer(s) might say, ask a friend to call and ask for your references. Then you know for certain where you stand.
Drug testing is mandatory, and you need to be aware that you can be tested when you get your conditional acceptance immediately after the interview. Different drugs stay in the system different lengths of time, and it all depends on what is medically known as drug “half-life.” It is the amount of time when the drug level in your blood drops to half, then to another half, etc. – you got the picture.
Whether you have been on street drugs or taken any prescription narcotics (pain killers are the most common), be aware that most of the prescription stuff stays in the system for about 72 hours, while marijuana may take six weeks. So, if you experimented with a joint a month ago, it will be detected. Concerning your airline employment, you’ll be history. And speaking of history, your positive drug test will be forever in the records of the Department of Transportation and you will have to explain it every time in the future when you apply with an airline.
Alcohol can also be easily detected, and usually it is an hour for each drink (a high ball, a glass of beer, a glass of wine). Stay away from booze the full day before your interview – that’s the best rule of thumb. In fact, the best rule of thumb is to stay away form any of that stuff, period.
Personal references usually concern your personality, and should be from someone who has known you for at least 5 years. You should let that person know what you are doing, so they are not surprised by getting a call about you. It will be mostly a “character” reference to see if you are an honest person.
Your education verification is usually skipped. All the airlines ask for is that you have completed a high school diploma. So, it may be a good thing to have a copy of it with at your interview, but most will take your word for it.
And then there is verification of your driving record. Most non-moving violations such as parking tickets are not going to hurt you (unless you have not paid them), but moving violations involving driving under the influence (DUIs) or reckless driving will almost certainly disqualify you, despite the airline saying that it will give you a chance. Just think – of those thousands of people with clean record who are as qualified as you, why should they pick you instead of one of the others?
If your background check is clean, you get that e-mail or phone call congratulating being accepted into training. You feel so great – best you have ever felt. Enjoy that feeling because once you get into training, it goes away pretty quickly when you realize how much work is ahead of you and how hard you need to work at it. But that’s another, all together a different story…
THE GOLD TICKER
The yellow stuff keeps going down, but ever so slowly, often only one percent a week. It started November countdown at $1,711, recovering from a low on November 1 of $1,681. While it has stabilized a little, the dollar value, both gold and the dollar are fairly volatile, and bankers agree on one thing – it all depends on what happens in Europe, particularly in Greece.
A few bricks like these could make your day…
If things keep going south in Europe, the price of gold will start climbing again. If the situation is somewhat stabilized in a credible fashion, it may hover around $1,600 or even keep dropping until a new buying frenzy starts.
I SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO SIR RICHARD AND THE VIRGIN AIRWAYS FOR WHICH HE STANDS…
By Dixie LaPierre, Dallas, Texas
I recently had the chance to fly Virgin Airways (VA). I was excited as I had heard a lot of good things about the airline.
Arriving at the airport, sitting in the VA seating area for a moment was really nice. The chairs were comfortable and some of the seats even had a built in footrest.
Boarding the plane was a pleasure. Boarding was done First Class first, then handicapped people and unaccompanied children (children traveling alone), and then the remaining classes.
After I arrived on the plane (seat 1C, my absolute favorite seat assignment) I was warmly greeted by Vicky, a new flight attendant who was on her first “solo” flight. She was a delight as she showed me to my seat, and showed me how the features on the seat worked.
I settled into the seat, which was very nice, and was asked what I would like to have as my beverage of choice. Others boarded the plane, and we all commented on how pretty the plane was, and how nice everything on the plane was.
The lighting on the plane is so very nice and refreshing from everything else that is out there right now. Soft colors, with wall and ceiling hidden lights that gently change while you are en route to your final destination.
Thank you, Sir Richard…
Let me explain to you the key differences between VA flights and flights by other airlines currently operating:
Attitude
Everyone on the plane, at the gate, and all other areas I went through, seemed genuinely happy to be there. There was none of the attitude of complete exhaustion one sees oh-so-often at other airlines, nor was there the
attitude of hating every passenger and fellow crew member.
Service
Not only was the attitude pleasant, but the service that all passengers received, regardless of the seat that they were sitting in, was prompt and pleasant. The man that was seated across the aisle from me was inquiring about the different types of sugar-free beverages that were on the plane, and the flight attendant pointed them all out in a very caring way.
Appearance
All of the flight crew was very put together, with no dated hair styles or makeup. They all looked fresh, and everyone's uniform was spotless and presentable. I would go as far as to say that even though not every person was a beauty, they all came across as very attractive people who can be easily approached by anyone.
Inter-Crew Relations
The crew worked really well together. A gate agent even came on board the plane to make sure that catering had made the flight in time as they had been notified that catering was running late. Flight attendants dealt with the gate people in a very cordial, friendly way. The same can be said about the attitude of the pilots and how they treated the ground people and flight attendants.
Cabin Appearance
I have heard some people refer to VA interiors as being “retro” and flashback. This is not the case at all. The cabin looks modern and up to date, with so many considerations in place for the passengers and crew that it is outright amazing when you have a chance to see it on the plane. The lights for reading are much better designed, with First Class having an overhead lamp as well as a reading lamp at the desk level.
The galley is neat and tidy with VA pressed into everything on the aluminum carts, and red anodized aluminum for the clasps. Ambient music is pleasant - unidentifiable, but very pleasant to listen to. Cabin noise is about the same as any other plane out there, but the ambient music does cover it a great deal.
And then there is the red entertainment device. At the seat, there is a small liquid-crystal display (LCD) television with all sorts of entertainment options on it. I did not make use of it as I was using my laptop. Even during the flight I did not have a chance to use it, as I was completing a Skype call during a good portion of the flight.
That brings me to another point. There is onboard Internet on the plane. $9.99 bought me Internet access for the duration of the flight. Not the fastest that you will ever encounter, but good enough to make a Skype call, including video.
Seat comfort beats everything I have flown to this moment. The ability to adjust the seat and get a seat massage for the duration of the flight has forever spoiled me to flying. I wish that I had a chair like this back home.
The Meal Service
The meal I selected was stuffed ravioli in mushroom sauce. The appetizer was bamboo shoots with a tasty sauce, tomatoes covered in a lovely sauce and cheese. It was very good. It was nice to get a linen napkin. After that, there was desert: two small bars, one small dessert cup and one red napkin.
The bars were a lemon bar and a chocolate bar with fruit in it. They were so very good. And the dessert cup? A chilled dark chocolate cup filled with a mousse, which was topped with small air-puffed crisps that were rolled in chocolate. Very nice.
A snack came an hour later. Flight attendants come around with a snack selection. I opted for chocolate chip cookies and a package of sea-salted cashews sprinkled with ground pepper. Very nice. Drinks are very generous. Even the glasses were really pretty.
The headphones that VA is giving out are pretty awesome. They have leatherette cups on them and they come in 4 colors. Pink, green, red and silver. They sound really good, too!
All in all, VA is now my new favorite airline. I cannot wait for my flight home to enjoy some more features as I now have a list of things to look for. Thank you for coming to America, Sir Richard!
I have enjoyed my flight so much, that somehow an unusual thought came to my mind: wouldn’t it be something if Virgin does to U.SD. airlines in the quality of service what Southwest is doing to ticket prices after it starts service to a new airport? Southwest’s entry to a new market almost always introduces much lower fares than what people have been used to paying there.
Maybe the entry of Virgin into new markets might improve the level of service on its competitors.
BOEING CFO WILL BE RETIRING
The man who became temporary CEO of Boeing when the planemaker re-organized its management due to scandals smelling of corruption, industrial espionage and sex-for-favors a few years ago, will be retiring.
Born in the Los Angeles black ghetto, now the Chief Financial Officer, James Bell has become the highest ranked African-American at the company. He has an impeccable employment and moral record. Bell celebrated his 63rd birthday and announced that he would retire early next year.
Bell became a part of the Boeing organization in 1972 under Rockwell, which at that time was acquired by Boeing. He has always worked in the aerospace division of Boeing. It was not till 2003 that he became the CFO of the company. He will step down in April 2012.
Undoubtedly, it will be a significant loss for Boeing, but he will be replaced by a very promising talent, Greg Smith, 45, currently Boeing’s corporate controller.
James Bell, 63, Boeing's CFO is retiring
POLISH LOT B767 BELLY-LANDING WITHOUT A GLITCH
On November 1 – for a change – the world was glued to the TV screens because of something that was not “Made in U.S.A.” – be it a war or a disaster. The picture was coming to us via satellite “live” from Warsaw, Poland, where a lot of people hang around their TV sets with white knuckles, watching how LOT Polish Airlines Boeing B767 was attempting to dump excess fuel in preparation for a belly-landing at the Frederick Chopin International Airport.
The flight originated seven hours before that in Newark, New Jersey at the Liberty International Airport. It was about half an hour into the flight when the pilots noticed there was a problem with the hydraulics and that meant consequently that the landing gear would be affected. They were counting on the backup system, but that also failed. Failure of the entire undercarriage is extremely rare, and almost unheard of when coupled with the failure of the backup.
The cockpit crew notified LOT in Warsaw and they were asked to continue the flight and started preparations for crash landing. The pilots managed to dump as much fuel they could get rid of, and finally sat the plane very slowly and gently onto the runway covered with the fire-retardant foam.
Polish LOT B767” perfect” landing in Warsaw (top), and pilots Jerzy Szwarcz (left) and Tadeusz Wrona at press conference
Captain, Tadeusz Wrona (last name translated into English means “crow”), the pilot in command, 54, kept the plane under total control with co-pilot, Jerzy Szwarcz running the cockpit check. All passengers and crew evacuated safely without any injuries within those IATA-mandated 90 seconds.
Immediately, being compared to Capt. Sullenberger’s “Miracle on the Hudson,” Wrona denied that he did anything special, saying that any LOT pilot would have done it just as smoothly. When asked if any of the passengers complained about the landing, he said jokingly, “Well, I heard there was someone in the back complaining of a bump…” and he laughed. He added he felt a lot of relief when he got a call from the purser that everyone was out of the plane and the plane was empty.
A page on Facebook went up immediately with a play-on words using his name, “crow,” headlining “Fly Like an Eagle, Land Like a Crow.” Wrona was scheduled to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam next, and he said he was hoping that LOT would not ask him to take time off (which is customary after an incident of this nature), as he was looking forward to that flight.
The runway was closed until the aircraft was removed, and Boeing sent a team of specialists to provide assistance both with moving the plane and investigating the hydraulic failure. Other Polish airports in Krakow, Lodz, Katowice Gdansk and Poznan were to take over the extra load off Warsaw’s airport. However, because of significant fog, planes destined for Warsaw had to be diverted to other European airports.
Current Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski praised the pilots, and said
that they have cleared the dubious reputation of Polish aviation after the 2010 crash in Smolensk, Russia. His predecessor Lech Kaczynski and 95 others perished in that crash.
INDIAN MILTARY CHOPPER CROSSED TO PAKISTAN
A crew of an Indian Cheetah military helicopter strayed into Pakistani airspace due to pilot navigational error, and was intercepted by Pakistani Air Force at the end of October. The crew of four flew into Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region. Both India and Pakistan claim jurisdiction over the territory, but currently the border between the two countries is running right through Kashmir.
The crew was detained for several hours, but clearly Pakistan did not want to make a big deal out of it because of high tensions between the two countries. It settled for just a little slap over the Indian hand.
India and Pakistan have fought over Kashmir in three separate conflicts – in 1947 and 1965, and most recently in 1999 (Kargil conflict).
DELTA’S FLIGHT ATENDANTS REFUSE UNIONIZATION AGAIN
It was around 2004 that the unions tried to muscle into Delta’s territory. The initial vote way “nay” and another vote had to be held to satisfy the labor law. And again, Delta flight attendants voted overwhelmingly “no, we don’t want any unions.” At that time the going got really ugly, as the pro-union people did not hesitate to get into their co-worker’s computers, steal phone and address lists from the executive offices, and did everything else that’s underhanded you could think of.
It was now after the merger with unionized Northwest Airlines, that someone started organizing a new vote on unionization. Northwest has been unionized for many years and paid dearly for it when they had to pay the membership fees, and when push came to shove, the unions gave into Northwest leadership, and the flight attendants lost a lot of money, some living barely above poverty level. They just never learned from that experience. Northwest flight attendants were getting royally screwed up while Delta has treated us, flight attendants, very well – better than any unionized airline.
At any rate, for some unknown reason to the flight attendants, the unions tried to break into Delta’s ranks again this year, and succeeded in getting the 30+% signatures to organize an official vote. That vote failed again, and again, was appealed.
It was around the middle of November, when the repeated vote failed to bring the unions in. It is about time that the government looked into the ways unions use to get into companies.
SOME AIRLINES MAY WISH THEY WERE ALL-CARGO AIRLINES
If one wanted to start an airline in our tough economic times, people would laugh. But if he or she wanted to start an airline that handles only cargo, the laugh would stop. Why? United Parcel Service (UPS), the package-shipping company that has been around for much longer than airplanes, can provide the answer, as its planes are busy at work. While a lot of other airlines are getting ready for “adjustments in manpower,” UPS is not letting people go.
Why should it? In the last quarter ending September 30, the shipping giant posted a profit of $1.04 billion. That’s not revenue, from which expenses have to be deducted. That is clear profit and only for one quarter. How many passenger airlines can show off with the same numbers?
FedEx is not doing badly either, and predicts it will be shipping 12% more packages this holiday season than last year. But it admits one thing that is at least interesting, and perhaps even helpful to our national debt – the flow of merchandise from Asia is decreasing. In fact, the international package business is doing much less than domestic shipping while in the past it was the main money makers. UPS was forced to decrease the number of international flights until further notice (limiting capacity like passenger airlines do).
Perhaps UPS is worried it might not make another cool billion by December. Tell it to the folks who are on unemployment.
WITH ALL THE B787s WAITING, WHERE IS THE LOGIC OF STARTING TRAINING ONLY NOW?
All Nippon Airways (ANA) had a good reason to be upset and demand some sort of compensation from Boeing for the 3-year delay in delivering the first B787 Dreamliners. But, despite all this 3 years of waiting, ANA seems to have missed on something somewhere--it is now starting the 5-week cross-training course for the pilots who have been selected to fly the “new generation” jet. What were they doing during the three years of delays? Just looking at pictures?
News media missed it as well, but picked up very quickly on a different thing - Airbus taking advantage of this long cross-training period. Pilots need typically 7-10 days for cross training on new Airbus models, which is acceptable. Boeing actually promised ANA that it should not take more than a week.
But when ANA pilots saw the plane, they changed their mind and asked for at least 5 weeks to get used to the plane. For most of them it was supposed to be a cinch, because the cockpit has a lot of similarities to the B777 cockpit (in fact, the cockpit is almost identical, like the B757 and B767 cockpits are similar), and most of the flight characteristics are identical with the B777. The pilots seem to have the biggest problem handling the “HUD” – or Heads Up Display, which has been employed in military jets four decades.
The HUD actually is nothing new even in commercial jets – some ten years ago Delta had retrofitted several B737s with HUDs and had hoped to do it to the entire fleet. It has the tremendous advantage of being able to see the instrument display while looking ahead and seeing the same thing instead of having to look down at the instruments on the dash.
Airbus used this as propaganda, reminding airlines how much money goes down the drain training pilots for 5 weeks instead of one, not seeing that all airlines will follow ANA but would use their head. Some airlines that have ordered the B787s have been getting ready for the delivery by training their pilots on simulators now. It’s very much like what we do at Midnight Flight – if you want to be 100% ready for your flight attendant training, you would do well by taking our flight attendant course, including the hands-on training. It’s a little too late to start when you have been accepted.
Continental, the launch customer in the U.S., which is not getting the plane till next summer (if that soon), has a CAE, Inc. [Canada] B787simulator already in its Houston training center and has begun cross-training. That’s thinking. Continental, actually, may have more problems settling the seniority issue as to who will get to fly the B787. The fight for qualification was so nasty among the unionized pilots at Delta when the airline was considering the initial purchase of B777, that Delta cancelled the order.
But, back to the initial stuff – Airbus can say all it wants about the length of training – most airlines can solve it the way Continental has and get their own simulator. We are sure Boeing would be happy to pitch in for it. That leaves only one question: why is the simulator made in Canada and not in the U.S.?
ANA pilots waited 3 years...
DIXIE'S CORNER
Dixie graduated from our
flight attendant course
DELTA BLOWS AN ENGINE DURING CLIMB
Delta’s Flight 1442 took off from Atlanta Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport at 9pm on November 10 on what was to be initially an easy flight. It was still while the single aisle plane was still in climb that the cockpit indicators showed a problem with the engine on the right side, and the pilots shut it down immediately and returned to Atlanta without any problems.
The passengers’ perception of the event was a little different, as they heard a loud explosion and flames shot out of the No. 2 engine. Almost simultaneously smoke entered the cabin, which did not help much.
After the captain announced calmly, “We have lost and engine,” flight attendants tried to calm the not-so-calm passengers. There were 141 passengers on board, three flight attendants and two pilots. The plane was shaking occasionally as it flew on the single engine, but landed uneventfully back in Atlanta and the passengers were flown on another aircraft to Charlotte, NC, where they arrived at 1am.
Delta said it might take up to several weeks after the engine is dismantled to find out what was the cause of the power plant failure.
FAULTY TOILET LATCH SPARKS THOUGHTS OF TERROR
Horror of horrors… the captain nowhere in sight, the co-pilot handling the plane while the flight attendant sits in the left seat as dictated by the FAA (every time a pilot leaves the cockpit, he has to be replaced by another person – either a pilot or a flight attendant - and that’s how it was on Delta Connection Flight 6132, operated by Chautauqua Airlines, as the plane was only about 30 minutes away from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
As the co-pilot awaited the return of his captain from the lavatory, there came loud bangs on the cockpit door, and a person with a heavy foreign accent was saying something hardly discernible to the cockpit. The only thing the co-pilot could make out was that the pilot was locked up in the lavatory.
This is a hijack, flashed through the co-pilot’s mind, as he started to break up in cold sweat. He asked for the person outside for the code-word, and the voice gave him the correct one. It looked like a rather precarious situation.
“The captain “disappeared” in the back, went to use the restroom. By all indications, what I’m told is he’s stuck in the lav and someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit and I’m not about to let him in,” the co-pilot told the air traffic control.
“You guys ought to declare an emergency and just get on the ground,” suggested the tower.
In the meantime, the captain resolved the issue with the faulty toilet latch and got back into his seat, announcing the malfunction and that there was nothing to worry about. The plane landed shortly under “emergency” landing protocol after at La Guardia International. There were 14 passengers on board.
The airline commended the co-pilot and the passenger with the “thick accent” for doing their part in following rules and trying to help.
A CHICAGO MAN SUES SOUTHWEEST FOR 45 FREE DRINKS
Adam Lewitt from Chicago, IL, is a lawyer, and you know what they say about lawyers in this country… Obviously, what he tried to do with his law-suit against Southwest, though, was to raise awareness about some tricks airlines like to play. In plain legal language, it constitutes “breach of contract” and it also smells of “false advertising.”
Some time ago, Southwest Airlines made an offer to its premium flyers that most of them could not refuse – with the purchase of “Business Select” tickets at premium prices, SWA offered vouchers for free drinks. Lewitt accumulated 45 of them, and recently wanted to cash some of the drink free-bees in, to no avail. Southwest personnel simply refused to honor the coupons despite the fact that there was no expiration date on them. They were advertised at the time Lewitt bought his tickets as coupons that never expire.
But since the time Lewitt got his coupons, Southwest realized that the free drinks were cutting deeper in its bottom line than it had anticipated. So, very quietly, the coupons were rendered useless, and Southwest personnel were asked not to honor them. Most people just shrugged their shoulders and paid for their drink, but Lewitt, an attorney, sensed a very distinct rip-off scheme and filed his suit in Chicago federal court against Southwest. After all, his coupons were worth $225 at the nominal Southwest drink price.
The suit is seeking a “class-action status” which would be a fairly expensive thing for Southwest. Lewitt also asks fro compensatory damages and other remedies.
Mike Hafner, VP of SWA Cabin Service, said the policy was changed on August 1 with an announcement on SWA’s blog (forget the fact that not everyone goes on SWA blog):
“In an industry where the competition is always knocking (or banging) on the door and where the bottom line is more important than ever, we owe it to our Employees, Customers, and Shareholders to find ways to operate smarter, We’ve reached a point where being so flexible with drink coupons has put us in apposition of having far too many in circulation. To help purge the system of these excess coupons, we will start enforcing expiration dates on coupons on the course of the next year.”
That’s all nice and well, but that is not going to soothe owners of the coupons that have no expiration dates on them, period.
PASSENGERS HAD TO FORK OUT ADDITIONAL $37,800
Was it a new way to make some money, or is the airline broke, or is it a rip off scheme? This story is about a low-price airline suddenly became a pretty expensive proposition. It happened in Vienna, Austria, but the honest and fair Austrians had a little to do wit it, except perhaps asking for what was rightfully theirs, and – just a rightfully – not trusting the airline.
Comtel Air, apparently, does not have a sterling credit rating in Vienna. Vienna is a refueling stop for the low-fare airline, and this time the plane – almost full of penny-pinching passengers – went from Amritsar, India, to Birmingham, UK. As usual, the plane stopped in Vienna, but something unusual happened there.
Viennese authorities said they won’t comply with Comtel Air wishes for a fill-up until the airline pays up front, and in cash. Even the TWA hijacked plane decades ago was allowed to pay with anyone’s credit card. But Comtel is much worse off than TWA ever was, it seems.
Each passenger was asked to shell out $200 in order to put together the $37,800 for refueling. The passengers were promised the money would be returned to them in Birmingham. And if you do not have any cash on you, the flight attendants said, you hurry out to the concourse and raid the ATM machines. In short, they said, “If you want to get to Birmingham, you better come up with $200 each.”
The ordeal took 6 hours to sort out and settle, and the plane finally took off. We never heard if Comtel paid the passengers back, but news about stuff like this temporary blackmail spread out fast. Comtel may have landed okay in Birmingham, but it may have a darn hard time filling another airplane in Vienna.
AIR LEASE MAKES $18 MILLION PROFIT IN THE THIRD QUARTER
Air Lease Corporation, founded in recent years by Steven Udvar-Hazy, the same man, who started decades ago International Lease Financial Corporation, the company he now competes against, has announced its 3rd quarter financial performance. Because of rising demand in third world countries and Asia, the company was able to purchase 14 new planes and lease most of them, making $18 million in the last quarter.
The company now owns 79 planes.
IT WAS NOT YOUR “WEEKEND AS USUAL…”
Text and photos by Martin Novak, Prague, Czech Republic
It was a beautiful Indian Summer weekend on October 1st and 2nd, but it was not the unseasonally warm temperatures or the beautiful blue skies for Central Europe at this time that made it so special; for aviation enthusiasts this weekend was special because of several events taking place.
The first thing that took place was the Model-Hobby Fair, an exhibition and sales fair which attracted huge crowds not only from Prague, Czech Republic, but from elsewhere as well. One could see models of “planes, trains and automobiles,” with ships being thrown in as well, but we were interested especially in the planes. There were a number of plastic kits, and the radio-controlled models, but for me and my friends the die-cast models were the biggest attraction.
Until recently, die-cast models that came in the 1/400 and 1/500 scale were the ones sought after the most in Europe; however, in the last two years the collectors’ interest shifted to larger models in the 1/200 scale. Thanks to the “tampo print” technology, the quality of the models is outstanding. It is not surprising that all of these models – with one exception – are manufactured in China.
Herpa, a German company, is the exception (at least the boxes say “Made in Germany”). Herpa has been making the die cast models for decades and for the longest time they have been recognized as the best in the world. But China is becoming a tough competitor to Herpa, and it is also becoming a problem to collectors. With the high quality and larger size of models, prices that at one time were quite reasonable, are climbing. Weak dollar, which is still the major global trading currency, does not help.
It is hard to say which model looked the best. Undoubtedly, collectors around the world prefer the “classic” airlines, most of which are not around any more. Models of planes with markings of PanAm, TWA, BOAC or BEA always sell out very fast.
There was another contender there this year – a 1/72 scale model of Apollo 11 space ship set, which included “Columbia “ command and service modules, “Eagle” LEM, two astronaut figures,
Martin Novak
an American flag and Moon surface – manufactured by Dragon Space. I could not resist and make my childhood dream come true from the day when I watched the 1969 TV coverage of the lunar landing. The TV commentators at that time had a small model of Apollo 11, and I wished so much I could have one. Finally, decades later, I was able to get this model, too. I started this great weekend on a high note.
Then, still in the morning, we had to rush to the Airport Holiday Inn to attend the airliner enthusiasts’ convention. It is best compared to what people in the United States know as the “Aviation Expo,” where you not only can buy, sell or swap aviation-related stuff, but also have an opportunity to meet some good friends you have not seen for a while. People, again, come from abroad as well, and this time there was even a visitor from Istanbul, Turkey.
Internet is slowly “killing” the old collectors’ items such as picture postcards, and especially slides. People’s interest have shifted to things that are rapidly disappearing, such as safety cards (Virgin America, for instance, has them now chained down so people would not take them off the planes), and items that are no longer produced, such as the pocket-sized time table books. Those were at one time the most common sight at airline counters around the world. They are not printed any more, because it is expensive for the airlines, and one can easily look up flight schedules on the Internet.
You may find also some real gems, such as uniform pieces, airline silverware from the “good old days,” and this year’s highlight was something I haven’t seen for a long time – Air India ashtray with the figure of a maharaja, which used to be Air India’s symbol in 1960s.
As soon as the convention was over, it was time to have a quick bite to eat, check the wallet how much cash was left and then hurry to yet another affair – an “E-Day” at a nearby shopping mall.
E-Day is an annual Czech national championship opened to all plastic kit modelers, which is organized every year by the Eduard Company, a Czech manufacturer of top quality airplane model kits and accessories. The ticket to the championships is only 100 Czech Crowns, which is about $5, and the entrance includes a 1/144 kit of a Mig-21, which makes it a real good deal.
There were dozens of vendors carrying just about anything a modeler could think and dream of, again at special, reasonable, affordable championship prices. And then there were the models…
Hundreds of models built from kits were on display, demonstrating absolutely breathtaking attention to detail and quality workmanship. I am saying this as a sort-of-expert on modeling because when I was in college, I built 1/72 plastic models and can appreciate superb modeling. In those days my eyes were much better; I could not build the models as well now since my glasses are several diopters stronger.
Most modelers prefer to build military aircraft because of their more exotic looks. They are also a little easier to build than airliners, especially now when people compare them to the die-cast models that are finished with perfect attention to detail. We did see some airliner models, though (see photos).
The organizers also held workshops for model builders or would-be model builders, where visitors could get valuable know-how tips.
When we were leaving the event, our wallets were about as empty as the government treasury, and the good times were not over yet. It was only Saturday afternoon, and there was more to come on Sunday.
Sunday morning coming down… it was a beautiful Sunday morning, again unlike Sundays we usually experience around that time of the year. It was also the day that the German flag carrier, Lufthansa, celebrated the 45th anniversary of its service between Frankfurt and Prague. The airline decided to celebrate it in a very special way – by bringing its Airbus A380, the world’s biggest airliner – to Prague.
After a quick breakfast at 7am and checking my cameras I rushed away to the Metro station to catch the airport bus. The A380 was scheduled to arrive at 0900 hours and I did not want to miss the arrival. The bus was more crowded than on a work day, confirming that it was a good decision to leave the car at home.
The airport was full of cars; in fact the Police made for once a good decision and allowed people to park even in the fire lanes. Thousands of people packed the fields around the airport. The only times I remembered a crowd this size was when years ago a Concorde landed in Prague, and then when the U.S. president arrived on the Air Force One. Having the airport pass, I was able to avoid the crowds and I found a place on the tarmac to take pictures from.
At 0855 hours we spotted the A380 on the base leg.
“Lufthansa 380 heavy, there are thousands of people waiting for you, the traffic is low, and we would like to ask you for a low pass and touch-and-go,” I heard suddenly from my air-band radio an unexpected Prague Air Traffic Control request. There was a brief moment of silence, and then I heard, “Lufthansa 380 heavy, copy, low pass confirmed.” It was great that both pilots, Cpt. Werner Knorr (Lufthansa’s Chief Pilot) was in the left seat, and Cpt. Ingo Meyerdierks who flew the First Officer’s position, were a game and obliged us.
The huge Airbus was on the Runway 24 glide slope and then, with flaps fully extended, made a low and slow pass. The aircraft seemed to float just about 18 feet above the ground, barely audible, which was so surprising for anything this size.
Cameras started clicking away like machine guns. The pilots applied full power as they neared the end of the runway, executing a perfect take-off pattern while climbing sharply to the indigo-blue skies. The plane made a go-around and reappeared in about ten minutes, again executing a perfect landing. Unexpectedly, the cockpit windows opened and two Czech flags were flown from them in the morning breeze.
A beauty in motion...
The life at the tarmac came to a virtual standstill as the jumbo taxied to the gate. Several departures were delayed because curious passengers were watching the plane from the terminal instead of going to their gates for boarding. I wished I could board the A380, but unfortunately I was not among the privileged ones who had a special invitation to visit the plane.
But even doing a walk around was exciting, and thanks to a friend who is a member of the ground handling team, I can bring you a photo of the cockpit.
A380 landing sequence at Prague-Ruzyň International Airport, and the crew that piloted the plane:
Cpt. Werner Knorr (Lufthansa’s Chief Pilot) who was in the left seat, and Cpt. Ingo Meyerdierks who flew the First Officer’s position.
Auf wiedersehen… und vielen danken!
The life at the tarmac came to a virtual standstill as the jumbo taxied to the gate. Several departures were delayed because curious passengers were watching the plane from the terminal instead of going to their gates for boarding. I wished I could board the A380, but unfortunately I was not among the privileged ones who had a special invitation to visit the plane.
But even doing a walk around was exciting, and thanks to a friend who is a member of the ground handling team, I can bring you a photo of the cockpit.
Time is running fast when you are having fun. Before we knew it, it was 1115 hours and the A380 doors were closed, anti-collision strobes turned on and the giant was ready for push-back. Budapest, the Hungarian capital, was its next destination.
It was time for me to find a good spot for take-off pictures. From experience we estimated that a place close to the runways’ crossing should be the place for the A380 to rotate. Television crews, journalists and airport employees armed with cameras lined up around that area.
The estimate proved to be right, as the Airbus rotated right in front of me, went into a climb while making a wide left turn in the south-eastern heading for Budapest. It was only 50 minutes when the Hungarians had an opportunity to welcome this marvel of modern technology at their Ferenc Liszt International Airport.
I returned home very excited. Now was the time to upload all those photos and go through all my “toys” I bought at the fair, convention and E-Day. The A380 visit highlighted every TV channel that night and all newspapers covered it the following day.
I guess it was not a weekend as usual, was it?
THE SCIENCE OF SEATING AND THE ART OF BEING A FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Airlines lose millions of dollars through delays caused by passengers who do not land in their seat as quick as possible during boarding, and who keep fooling around their seats when they are supposed to get out of the plane. All of us who have worked flights know that no matter how helpful you try to be, there is always a handful of those folks who are totally oblivious that boarding should be fast. Blocking the aisles cost time… and money.
An astrophysicist and a co-author of a study recently published tested a new method that “is guaranteed to save airlines big bucks.” They tested their theory in a plane in Studio City (a section of Los Angeles, CA) in a mock-up with 12 rows, with 6 seats per row, narrow body (single aisle).
Passengers were seated in this order: 12A, 10A, 8A, 6A, 4A, 2A, with “A” seat being the window. Then folks on the other side of the aisle went on in a similar order: 12F, 10F, 8F…” with “F” seat again being the window. After that they returned to the “A” seats, starting from 11A, etc – you got the picture.
The result was startling – they boarded 72 people in a record 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The middle seats were done in a similar order, and so were the aisle seats (they were the last to board – one glitch would be that some might not have space in the overhead bin for their carry-ons). The middle and aisle seats boarded a little slower at about 4 minutes and 21 seconds each.
Do not take this into full consideration when it comes to 72-seat regional jets. They will not board in those 12:22 minutes, because the planes are not laid out in 3-and-3 configurations. However, it can be loosely assumed that a plane with 144 seats (i.e., B737) with 3-and-3 configuration could be boarded in 25 minutes if you hustle (2 x 12:22min).
When I went mentally over the whole thing, I realized that something might be amiss with this math or “record.” When I was working Delta Express flights, where we were cleaning the planes ourselves to speed up the turnaround, we deplaned passengers, cleaned up the place and boarded a new plane in less than hour, often within 45 minutes. Those were B-737s with about 142 seats, all-economy cabin. Either we were super-efficient, or the astrophysicist got his number wrong (and Southwest guys were even faster than us).
At this time of labor problems, one can also appreciate the fact that the pilots ran out to the terminal to get us something to eat while we were cleaning, or they cleaned-up with us while one of us ran out to get the food. Of course, those were times of different camaraderie between the cabin and cockpit crews than now, it was not long after 9/11.
For comparison, United’s approach of randomized seating takes about 4:48 per window row of “A” seats, and the same with the others. Traditional seating from the back to the front takes nearly 7 minutes “A” or any other seats. We are curious who will adopt the “astrophysical” approach.
BLUE HAWAII HELICOPTER CRASHES
Blue Hawaii – not the “classic” movie with Elvis Presley from the 1950s, but a Hawaiian Islands helicopter tour company - got bluer in the sad sense of the word when one of its choppers crashed on November 10. The helicopter was on a 45 minutes tourist flight over the beauty of Maui and Molokai islands to two women and two men from the mainland when it hit a mountainside near an elementary school.
The chopper crashed in a fireball. All four tourists as well as the pilot were killed instantly but no one on the ground was hurt. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the accident. The rate of similar accidents – almost all of them fatal - seems to be on the rise among the Hawaii-based helicopter tour companies.
DREAMLINER HAS EARLY PROBLEMS WITH LANDING GEAR
On November 6, one of the new Dreamliners that started commercial service with All Nippon Airways only two weeks earlier experienced a problem with the hydraulics and simply would not engage the landing gear on final approach to Okayama Airport in western Japan from Haneda Airport in Tokyo.
The crew was considerably more fortunate than its colleagues from Polish LOT Airlines with their B767 (see another article in this issue), where LOT had no choice but to belly-land in Warsaw – the Dreamliner had a functional manual backup, and the plane landed without any problems.
Boeing had technicians on-site and a malfunctioning hydraulic valve was fixed and the plane went back up in the air.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
FROM BUDDHIST TEACHINGS
When wishes are few, the heart is happy. When desire ends, there is peace.
Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts. No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts.
Every life has a measure of sorrow. Sometimes it is this that awakens us.
DID JETBLUE SCREW UP, OR IS IT “THE SYSTEM”
A few years ago passengers were stranded in jetBlue planes during heavy snowstorm on the East coast. It should have been a sufficient warning written down in jetBlue annals in big red letters: let those people GO!
That’s what the recent weather situation caused, and what it looked like as the news media essentially reduced the whole airline/weather mess like this:
On October 29 weekend, hundreds of people were stranded on jetBlue planes, and also on planes belonging to American Airlines. Although Senior Living magazine gave jetBlue high score mark for service, just like Southwest, but that was before the end of October. That weekend was again a fateful weekend for jetBlue.
Heavy snow on October 29 disrupted flights over the weekend for most airlines and resulted in 1,261 cancellations in the U.S. Twenty-three flights were diverted to Bradley International Airport near Hartford, CT, That included six jetBlue planes carrying a total of about 700 passengers and at least one American
Airlines plane with almost 200 passengers on board.
The planes sat on the tarmac in Hartford for nearly 7 hours as the snow piled up and the airport struggled with intermittent power outages. Supplies of food, snacks and fresh water ran out, and there were reports of lavatories backing up on at least one plane.
Under Department of Transportation regulations, which were put in place since April 2010, permissible delays on tarmac are limited to three hours. If the delay may be longer than three hours, planes need to get back to the gate, or – like in this situation where planes could not move in the snow – a way should have been provided to get people off the plane and inside the terminal.
So, that’s all nice and well, and really straight forward, but after examining the situation a little closer, you get a feeling that the airlines were stuck with the passengers simply because the entire U.S. aviation system in the northeast failed.
Scott McCartney, an investigative reporter from Wall Street Journal, took time to look into it more thoroughly than other organizations cared to do and came up with some interesting facts. They are interesting because the failure we saw that weekend is something that we will see more often in the years to come.
The problem was not really the airlines, and it was not entirely the snowstorm either. Scott writes” The trouble started midday Saturday, when heavy, wet snow temporarily knocked out instrument landing system on key runways at both JFK in New York and Liberty International in Newark, NJ. Until the system could be fixed (via de-icing) planes were not able to land on the existing runway (the other runway has been closed for maintenance for some time). As some people put it, the diversions would not have to happen if the airport equipment worked right.
As a result, 158 flights were suddenly diverted to airports from North Carolina to Nova Scotia [Canada]. Many of those flights were requesting Boston Logan Airport as an alternative because both the weather and facilities were more favorable.
But Logan had its own problems already – one runway was shut down for unloading wounded soldiers arriving from Libya on a C-17 military transport. And then there was a Lufthansa Airbus A380 superjumbo that could not land at JFK, parked at one of Logan’s longest runways, shutting the runway for any other traffic. Aside from these closures, Logan already accommodated 13 flights and could not take any more.
The next possible alternate was Bradley airport in Hartford, CT. JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines planes were told to steer clear of Boston Logan and head for Hartford. That’s how it happened that Bradley Airport suddenly got 29 planes, something it had never had to handle before. Initially planes were coming in just for refueling as they ran low of juice.
But that “gas-and-go” turned into seven hours on the tarmac as conditions deteriorated. Bradley’s fuel facility suffered electrical power failures. Power also went out at the international arrivals terminal, so the passengers from abroad could not be processed through Customs and Immigration. In the meantime, the snow kept coming.
JetBlue should not be blamed this time
JetBlue people ordered the mobile stairs to get its passengers out on the tarmac so they could be bussed to the domestic terminal. But the airport gave the stairs to United, Swiss Air, American and Delta to unload their passengers instead. The problem was that the passengers from international flights still could not go through the domestic terminal. Rules are rules, the airport said.
Since no one was getting anywhere, Delta at least brought in porta-potties and water supply as well as snacks from McDonald’s for their passengers. No one else did that.
But JetBlue really got the dirty end of the stick. When a window opened up in the weather so flights could take off, they could not go because either because they no longer had enough fuel or could not be refueled because of Hartford’s failure, or were blocked by other planes. By the time they could try to take-off, they had been on the ground for more than 7 hours,
which presented another problem – most of the crews were over the duty-time limit and not eligible to work the flights out of Bradley. Most passengers had to be bussed eventually to New York.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is now investigating jetBlue and American Airlines to see if there was a breach of the passenger-protection rule. If so, the airlines could be charged $27,000 per passenger for keeping them on the plane. The fine for jetBlue would total about $19 million. It would not be a precedent for the new rule that dictates the $27,000 fine per passenger per occurrence.
On November 14, the Department of Transportation fined American Eagle, the regional subsidiary of American Airlines, $650,000 with additional $250,000 payable to passengers for an incident that occurred on May 29. On that day, American Eagle allowed a gridlock of 15 planes at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, stranding more than 600 passengers for more than 3 hours. Apparently all gates were occupied and American Eagle had no where to bus the passengers in the thick fog.
Because this incident involved severe weather, the Department of Transportation was lenient and did not slap the full fine on American Eagle. That amount would have been $16.7 million, enough to sink the financially troubled airline.
BIOFUELS MAY MAKE THE SKIES BLUER, BUT THE AIRLINES SEE RED
Don’t make a mistake – airlines love to see an alternative to the current kerosene--on the rise, to keep the globe green and skies blue and the air clear. The problem is that biofuels, which are available in very limited quantities, would make airlines see red in their financial reports.
It seems that – while everyone thinks that biofuels are a terrific idea – without any government subsidy the use of biofuels will be significantly hindered in the years to come by the high cost of their production. It is a modern Catch 22, where the airlines would use a lot more of the stuff if it was cheaper, but the manufacturers cannot make it cheaper unless they have some tangible commitment from airlines that huge quantities will be purchased.
On November 7, United Airlines conducted the first commercial flight in which a mix of 40% of biofuel was mixed with traditional kerosene. The particular brand they used is manufactured from algae and retails to airlines at a whopping $17/gallon. That makes the $3/gallon kerosene a real cheappie… United, nevertheless signed a letter of intent to buy 20 million gallons of algae-derived biofuel from San Francisco-based Solazyme, Inc. Those 20 million gallons represent about 0.6% of United’s annual jet fuel consumption.
United hopes it may encourage other airlines to sign similar agreements in order to propel biofuel production a little faster.
The airlines are showing goodwill. Alaska Airlines, in cooperation with its regional carrier Horizon Air, committed to a series of 75 flights where the airline will be using a 20% blend of biofuel made of cooking oil mixed with kerosene. It started the flights on November 9. It has committed also to buying at least 28,000 gallons of biofuel from Dynamic Fuels, Inc., in Geismar, LA, but Alaska’s executives said that the airline will not be able to do this on a regular basis. One can appreciate the fact that at least the airlines are giving it a try.
The true leader in pioneering biofuel use is the German Lufthansa, which will be using a 50% mix in about 1,200 flights, using biofuel manufactured from a mixture of 80% cameline plant, 15% jathropa (shrub) and 5% animal fat.
KLM, a division of Air France-KLM, another leading European airline, will conduct about 200 flights, also using a 50% blend manufactured out of cooking oil.
All manufacturers of biofuels claim that they can be cost-competitive as soon as they have some sort of guarantee that their output will sell. That all depends on pushing through investments from U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Navy and the Department of Energy and their combined $510 million investment into biofuels. The deal would mean a true jumpstart for a brand new industry that could conceivably make biofuels that cut emissions by at least 50% truly affordable.
Boeing, which supports biofuels, is hoping that by 2015, 1% of all aviation fuel needs will be met by using biofuels. The fact that European Union is trying to enforce penalties for excessive emissions over Europe might help jumpstart the whole clean-air movement and production of alternate fuels.
GROWING LAX SECURITY MEANS INSECURITY FOR ONTARIO
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with its increasing air traffic takes presently third place in passenger volume in the country. It is expected that the airport will be the busiest one in the nation during Thanksgiving. By the end of the year, LAX will be the seventh busiest airport in the world with 1,700 flights a day, or about 61 million passengers a year. The growth has been a great pride for an otherwise useless Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his protégé, Gina Marie Lindsay, the LAX boss he brought in from Seattle, WA. According to airport critics, Lindsay is unfortunately more concerned about her personal gains than running LAWA – Los Angeles World Airports – so all airports involved would show prosperity, not just LAX.
While LAX has clearly become her “favorite child,” the other airports – Long Beach, Ontario and Palmdale – have turned into Cinderellas. Ontario, which was very prosperous just a few years ago, feels it the most. It was seen best at how much money was poured in the restoration of the dilapidated airport recently, and how
much money was poured in security. The other airports administered by LAWA can only wish. But even LAX has been criticized for very lax security, and that was seen in a number of areas from the lackadaisical Transportation Security Administration (TSA) performance laced with corruption, trying to avoid any confrontation that might result from merging the LAX police – traditionally a lazy group that might do better on a Hollywood stage than at the world’s third busiest airport – with the rest of the Los Angeles Police Department. In fact, Lindsay is curiously almost always absent from the security meetings at LAX.
Gina Marie Lindsay, top,
and LAX Encounter restaurant
Her poor handling of issues dealing with security initiated a strong movement to reinstate the position of Public Safety Inspector, a position she eliminated when she came to LAX. What is worse is that the prosperity of other airports under LAWA – Long Beach, Ontario and Palmdale – has gone, with the exception of Long Beach, from nearly nothing to a complete zero. It almost appears that the airports’ prosperity depends on their distance from Lindsay’s office at LAX.
Palmdale, the farthest away has no commercial (or any other) traffic at this time, and it may end up as a solar panel farm, if only legally this is possible (but it may not be because of the way the land for the airport was acquired). It is a very nice airport that shares one of the best runways in the country with the U.S. Air Force establishment at Palmdale but you see nothing around that runway except growing weeds.
Ontario is also on a fast train to extinction as the traffic has decreased at a truly alarming rate. The airport, that a few years ago saw international flights both from Mexico and Canada has become a place of few passengers. Unless LAWA puts more money in promotion of this great alternate to LAX, it will go down the same road as Palmdale.
Thanks to LAWA management that clearly is concerned only about LAX prosperity, about 250 police officers were added to the LAX Police Department and $1.1 billion was spent on “expanding security” – whatever that means. Additional half a billion was spent on putting a fence around the entire airport, setting up security cameras, baggage screening equipment and a new “communications center.”
Meanwhile, the other airports hardly got anything. As the L.A. Times succinctly put it, Ontario International Airport is rapidly becoming “a no fly zone.” You can’t get a burger at the airport as all concessions are practically closed – they’d not make enough money by staying opened even just to pay the minimum wage to the employees as there is no passenger traffic to speak of. The airport is now at about the traffic level like when the airport was just about getting off the ground during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
Ontario airport officials estimate that Ontario and surrounding areas has lost about 8,000 airport-related jobs and about $400 million in airport related business activity. Traffic has dropped by nearly half in the last four years. True, traffic dropped everywhere as airlines reduced capacity, but LAX lost
only 5% while Ontario lost 47% - mostly because of poor promotion of the facility. And that is not because people in Ontario would not like to promote its airport – it’s because LAWA and Lindsay will not allocate any money for promotion and advertising.
LAX, in the meantime, has embarked on a new security program called “Pre-Check,” which in effect is nothing else than what has been promoted as “Preferred Traveler Program” that failed to take off under the management of private groups. If successful, the faster throughput of passengers through security would funnel more passengers to LAX.
Clearly, airlines will not return to Ontario under the current situation. Airline cost per passenger is $2 at Burbank (not a part of LAWA), and even LAX cost is lower than Ontario’s. LAX charges airlines $11.00 per passenger, while Ontario is forced to charge $14.50 to make ends meet.
All these bad news, combined with rising unemployment around Ontario, means that the airport may suffer a slow and painful death, contributing to the rise in the ranks of unemployed in California’s Inland Empire.
USEFUL INFORMATION FOR CORPORATE AVIATION FLIGHT ATENDANT WANNABES
Corporate aviation came into being shortly after World War II, when surplus military transport planes were sold either for scrap or for next-to-nothing to convert them into company planes. It was at times when gasoline was cheap and airplane tickets were expensive.
As the U.S. economy went through its ups and downs, corporate aviation started to be seen not as a convenience and necessity for bosses but a status symbol. It was not always true – there were companies that had corporate planes – which, incidentally graduated from propeller-driven planes to small jets, or at least turboprops – which saved their executives a lot of time. Even the time spent on the plane was used on company projects.
But there were the flamboyant executives who flaunted their wealth or success, or both, by getting their private jet (like what we see in China today). The bigger the ego, the bigger the plane. And so it happened that Playboy’s founder, Hugh Hefner, got an MD-80 full-size jet and furnished it in pure luxury that was surpassed only by his Los Angeles mansion. That was all fine and well while Playboy was making big money, but it was not long when two other magazines appeared on North America’s newsstands – Oui and Penthouse – often featuring more raunchy nude photos.
It did not take long before those two magazines made a significant cut into Playboy’s profits. That was when the Playboy Board of Directors started rumbling, and “Hef” was forced to sell his corporate jet. It has also become a lesson for the corporate world, showing that you can go only so far in the “use” of corporate money.
The Playboy Bunny was the ultimate corporate flight attendandant (top) in Hugh Hefner's DC-9 (top right). Today's corporate flying is in smaller, fuel-efficient corporate jets like the Citation X.
Overall, though, for many years still most U.S. corporations pampered their executives and bought planes. Although the planes were not used most of the time, corporations paid for maintenance and operations as well as for the pilots and flight attendants (if needed).
But even entrepreneurs, who did not need to flaunt their wealth, have fallen for the corporate flights – straight-laced Walt Disney was one of them, more than half a century ago. Steve Jobs, the business genius who has just recently died of cancer, enjoyed the rides in his Gulfstream jet (incidentally, Disney’s plane was also a Gulfstream, but it was a twin prop).
Now corporations have downplayed status and stress one important, and at times true point: flying on corporate jets and putting that time to work for the company beats wasting time at the airport and on commercial flights where it is practically impossible to concentrate on any serious work.
And some people realized that the time the corporate planes sit on the ground could be “sold” like a timeshare in real estate. After all, the plane is happiest when it is in the air…
And that’s how various schemes of partial, or “fractional,” ownership in the corporate aviation evolved. Why are we telling you all this? Because after you have interviewed with several airlines, you may have discovered that airline flying is not for you, and you would like flying that is different. Corporate aviation is definitely very different. It pays to know about it as much as possible, the same way when you interviewed with the airlines. The more you know, the more ahead of the game you are.
So, how does corporate aviation operate? A few companies still own planes and actually use them, some extensively. Not all of them are created equal, some are great employers and some are not. Usually, large corporations that are doing well financially are great employers. According to one of our clients who works for Pfizer (a pharmaceutical company), it has been a true delight.
Working for companies like that means steady employment, and often it means trips that may take several days at a time. You get to know the executives of the company well, their likes and dislikes and things go well. But you must always consider that things may not always pan out like that.
What if you do not hit it off with the top brass, and you are stuck with them on the small plane for 10 days on a business trip around the world? You need to consider things like that as well. You also should know that it is not always just the top management that gets rides on corporate jets. I’ll be forever grateful when Delta sent us a brand new flight computer via corporate jet along with two mechanics to fix our plane in New Orleans, so we could fly again.
Then there are airport operators that deal only in renting out corporate planes to individuals or companies, and you work for that operator. That may have some advantages and disadvantages when compared to working for a single corporation. You have a greater variety of flights and clients and make the best out of that. You also can have more of those “bad apples” that you can’t stand. But still, it usually represents a steady employment. And in most cases, even now, the steady employment comes with benefits that you do not get otherwise.
Back to the “modern” – almost cheapskate – way of corporate flying. That fractional ownership we mentioned above comes in many shapes and sizes to fit most corporate budgets. And speaking of corporate budgets, that should give you a hint that like our economy it has ups and downs, and corporations may make it or not. So, it behooves you to know some of the variations corporations can access corporate planes.
Whole ownership
That’s how it used to be and corporations that can make frequent use of their fleet will benefit from having their plane(s). That way the company has access to the planes at any time for unlimited time; but that also means that it pays full cost of expenses whether the planes fly or not.
Fractional Ownership
As mentioned above, it is the same thing as “timeshare” in real estate. A person or corporation buys a share of the plane, which means that the access to the plane is limited and the plane may not always be available. It also means that the fractional owner pays only a fraction of operation and maintenances expenses. Typically, fractional ownership is sold at 1/16 segments of sharing (and you can then buy two 1/16, or three, etc.), which count as an asset to the purchaser.
Jet Card Program
Flight time is purchased in pre-paid blocks, usually at 25 flight hours/block. Your actual flight time is deducted from that at a set hourly rate. If the corporation or individual anticipates using the plane less than 50 flight hours a year, this may be a good stepping-stone into using corporate jets. One can also precisely establish the number of hours one can predictably use over a period of time, and then use this knowledge if one wishes to upgrade to “fractional ownership.”
Jet Card Membership
This is a program that is between fractional ownership and a Jet Card Program. It is designed for companies that need more than a yearly commitment but do not wish or do not need to use the plane as an asset. Membership runs for a set term, giving the corporation or individuals access to blocks of time at an hourly rate.
Air Taxi
You do not own anything, but pay for service, similar to commercial airlines signing a “wet lease” on an aircraft. The plane comes with fuel and crew, and you just fly where you need to go. You pay either by a seat/mile tariff, or distance between airports. Very rarely you pay by fixed rate for flight time.
Every type of ownership or way of using corporate jets grew well during 2006 and 2007 until we were hit by the recession, which seems to be getting deeper. In comparison to those years, current business travel (both on corporate and commercial jets) fell by 40%, and flight hours fell by even more--by 50%. Last year the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) predicted improvement for this year but had to revise its expectations, as both U.S. and world economies worsen.
Economic recovery is not realistically expected now till mid 2012, if at all, and it will not be as robust as the past when we got out of a slump. Deliveries of new business jets are expected to go down this year by at least 11%, and most of the planes delivered will go abroad to China. The improvement in corporate aviation that was anticipated next year probably will not come for at least two years and that is after already three years of suffering depression.
NBAA expects few deliveries in North America and almost none in Europe, with the majority going to Asia and Middle East for the next few years. Even then, the number of deliveries will be significantly lower than a few years ago. With the rising prices of fuel and maintenance, corporations will be discouraging the use of corporate jets.
Since sales of new planes will be significantly depressed for some time to come, the industry expects that corporations may opt for upgrading their older planes with newer avionics to improve flight safety. Both Rockwell Collins and Honeywell, the world leaders in avionics design and production expect that existing corporate jets will be soon retrofitted with similar avionics we see in the most modern commercial jets.
It stands to reason, however, that we may expect that corporate aviation will spring back if, or when, world economy recovers. There are certain advantages inherent to corporate aviation that commercial airlines will never be able to match. You need not stay in long security lines; you can work on your projects in flight, especially now when Internet is available while airborne. Also, just in the U.S. you have access to some 5,000 airports by corporate plane rather than those 450 by commercial airlines. And who can put money value on the time you save by using a personal aircraft?
New types of light weight corporate jets will make corporate ownership once again more affordable and socially acceptable; and despite higher fuel cost, operating costs may actually be lower in the future than they are now.
Your services as a corporate flight attendant will still be needed in the future, but positions will be fewer and only the best of the best will make it. We can also expect in the future that even corporate flight attendants may need FAA certification. Getting in now may help you getting “grandfathered in” when the time comes. Prepare for everything well ahead of time. The time to start is now.
GREAT DESTINATIONS MAY REQUIRE GREAT PILOTS
Many people get a great feeling of paradise when their plane lands at Honolulu International. When the plane door opens and you step out, you feel that perhaps not all of the world is rotten and you have arrived in the Pacific version of Shangri-La. It was more so before the airport installed jetways, and you walked down the movable steps, immediately feeling a fresh, warm ocean breeze.
Everyone loved to come to Honolulu from the days when Juan Trippe of PanAm picked Hawaii as the refueling stopover on the way to Asia. It is a great airport to land on, and layovers, which used to be 3 days in a row, were fabulous. Today, most airlines treat the flights from west coast to Honolulu as a turnaround. You don’t even get out of the terminal.
There are other paradise-like destinations that are frequented more and more by tourists, but landing at those destinations may be a little tricky. The best known is perhaps the island of St. Maartin – half Dutch, half French territory (the French call it St. Martin).
These pictures are not computer generated/enhanced. What you see is what you get....
Jeremy Ivanovskis, our flight attendant client who flies for American Airlines, sent us a few times pictures from the St. Maartin beach while he was watching jumbo jets land. It is a wonderful sight, and you almost get bronzed in the kerosene exhaust. We thought it was really something – having the flightpath literally just a few yards above the sandy beach, as you hope the pilots line up the plane perfectly with the runway that starts a short distance from the amber sea. We all agreed it definitely takes some skills to navigate the landing.
That’s what we thought until we came across other island airports – St. Barts and Saba. While St. Maartin has been built for heavy commercial planes, these two – also commercial airports – are accessible only by smaller planes. Saba sports the shortest commercial runway in the world – 1,300 feet short. You feel like you are landing on a cliff, and you feel like you are falling off a cliff on take-off.
It’s the closest you get to feeling like taking off and landing on a Navy carrier.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR AVIATION COLLECTIBLE SHOWS
January 21, 2012
and June 16, 2012
Embassy Suites Airport South
Los Angeles International Airport
Contact:
Dave Cherkis at (702) 360-3615 or
Marshall Pumphrey (562) 987-1904
July 27-29, 2012
Airliners International Annual Show and Sale
Memphis Hilton Hotel
We have no contact as yet, but it is possible the website info
is at AI2012MEM.com or info@mem.com (based on previous websites)
SPEAKING OF CALENDARS…
Remember the calendars that came out in the last few years? Fiurst it was Mexicana, shortly after closing its doors – its flight attendants got together nd created a “glamour” calendar that was sold out in less than 24 hours.
Then there was RyanAir, the UK low-fare company that created its swimsuit calendar featuring RyanAir’s flight attendants. Though not as exotic looking as their Mexican counterparts, the girls from UK also did well, and very few people actually knew that proceeds from that calendar went to charities. It was obvious that the girls had a lot of fun posing for the calendar, and they are making it a tradition. In fact, you can purchase your own copy if you log onto www.ryanair.com and look for the promotional stuff.
As much As Europeans criticize the “bare-bones” airline, we have not seen British Airways come out with their portfolio of bathing beauties to benefit any UK charity.
Interestingly, half-way around the world, Kingfisher Airways in India also came out with their glamour calendar, but they have used professional models, not their flight attendants. What a pity… The proceeds from the sales did not go to any charity, either.
RyanAir continues its tradition of flight atendant girlie calendars to support charity; Kingfisher in India used models for their calendar.
BRITISH AIRWAYS TRAINS PASSENGER SURVIVAL IN PLANE CRASH
British Petroleum (BP), the oil company that apparently sends a lot of their employees to overseas destinations on oil business approached British Airways (BA) – the airline they use the most about five years ago – to give its employees a head-start on self-preservation in event of a crash. British Airways was happy to oblige, and it goes way beyond expanded safety demo on the plane. It teaches people how to save their lives in an accident by actually walking them through deployment of emergency equipment and running through mock emergencies.
The class is typically taken by corporate frequent flyers and taught by certified BA flight attendant instructors. The major point is to teach people how to react quickly and rationally, rather than freeze in fear, or – worse – panic. Even half a second can make a difference between a successful evacuation and jamming the emergency exit.
Students learned how to react quickly and appropriately in the four major types of emergencies: emergency landing on land, emergency landing over water, smoke in the cabin and evacuation through emergency exits. Each class is about 16 students, allowing the instructors to give proper attention to everyone and explain everything thoroughly.
Instructors also try to hammer in students’ heads a crash plan, which should consist of the following (and we all may go over this review):
Preflight Plan
Go over your emergency card in the seat pocket in front of you. See how many rows between you and the nearest emergency exit. Feel for the life vest under the seat or where the emergency card tells you it is stored. Make sure it is not
missing. See if people sitting next to you are “able-bodied” or if they may pose some challenge during evacuation.
Try out bracing position
Take a good look what is the recommended “brace” position by the airline (again in the emergency card) Make sure that you can actually assume it. These days when airlines have jammed seats real close together, you may practice a little to get your head and arms/hands properly positioned.
Check the emergency lights
See if floor lights work (either in the floor or at the seat cushion level on the sides of the seats. Remember, white lights lead to red lights, which indicate exits.
Check your over-the-wing exit if you sit next to it
See if you can actually stand next to the window in a position that will allow you to open it and dump it (some of the “plug” exits still may have to be put inside the plane) though in more modern planes like the B777, they can be simply jettisoned outside the aircraft.
Get ready to “jump and slide”
Passengers are asked to take off anything that could pierce the slide – shoes, especially those with high heels, and glasses, lean slightly forward and cross your arms over your chest and slide (again, it is all in the demo card).
Participants in the class face a few surprises – like getting the cabin filled with smoke during their welcome; and then during deployment of over-wing emergency exits in some planes, realization that some of those “plugs” weight as much as 40 lbs.
Why did BP start with these classes? They realize the value of their employees, and they realize that going through the motions in a class can be extremely useful in real life. It is also a welcome partnership for British Airways, because those BP people (and other corporate people) become natural leaders in addition to flight attendants on board when it comes to organizing people in the event of the real thing.
CHINA MAY YET SCORE BIG IN SPACE
NASA is just about out of the space game for at least several years, and Russia is on a fast track to do the same if its space program does not get spiffed up. U.S. is clearly just relying on other sources such as private enterprise or another country to take over the torch for space exploration, as NASA has both unrealistic budget requirement and nonspecific goals.
Russia has shown in recent months that its space shuttles are unreliable, and it would be safer to bring its cosmonauts and American astronauts back from the Space Station rather than to extend their stay there and risk their lives. The day may come when we may not be able to transport needed life-sustaining stuff, even at exaggerated Russian prices.
Events in the past 12 months show that Russia not only may have a problem with the space vehicles launching, but there may also be a problem with computer programming, neither of which can be fixed from the ground once a mission enters the Space. It is hard to say what’s better – NASA having nothing to show for, or Russians having mostly failures.
The problem with the Russian failures, however, is that it is not just being unable to get stuff to the Space Station and eventually get the astronauts back, but it is the debris and the amount of toxic material that ultimately may fall back to Earth from those failures.
As an example, a former NASA engineer warned that it may actually be tons of toxic stuff hitting the earth, and no one really knows where it might crash.
Dan Burbank jokes with a Russian kosmonaut
Despite all that, on November 13 a Russian spacecraft carrying Dan Burbank, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off from the prairies of Kazakhstan in a launch that was to ease anxiety about the future of U.S. and Russian space programs. The Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled from the Russian-leased Baikonur kosmodrome on a mission to the international Space Station. The blast-off was delayed for two months after the crash of an unmanned cargo ship in August.
The Soyuz TMA-22 has brought back American astronaut Michael Fossum, who spent 165 days on board the International Space Station. His arrival to earth was way overdue.
In the meantime, without too much fanfare but with considerable success, China caught up with U.S. and Russia, and its latest space experiment put the Communists on even keel. On November 3, China showed that it is capable of
creating its own, presumably better functioning Space Station, as it docked the first “building block” – Shenzhou-8 space craft with the Tiangong space laboratory module. After the docking and a 12-day flight together, the two space craft separated and orbit the earth now separately.
China expects to have its Space Station completed by 2012, roughly the same time when the U.S.-Russian International Space Station will be retired. While China’s presence in space plays a very important role in gaining support from “third world countries” that use China’s satellite services, western countries are beginning to caution the world about possible Chinese military buildup in space.
In the meantime, the Boeing Company is developing a 7-person space ship called Crew Space Transportation-100 and is moving its space facilities to Cape Canaveral, FL to use the facilities of the Kennedy Space Center. Boeing also hopes to hire 500 people from that area who no longer work at NASA. Boeing’s new facility may not be up until 2015.
A SECOND MEXICO MINISTER DIES IN AIR CRASH
Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Blake Mora, 45, the second most powerful figure in the Mexican government died on November 11 in a government helicopter crash outside Mexico City.
It is the same fate as the one met by his predecessor, Juan Camilo Mourino, whose Learjet 45 plane went down in November 2008. Mexican President Calderon says it is only a coincidence and neither of those two crashes are related to the illegal drug trade. Calderon said Mora’s accident was due to fog and bad weather. Both Mourino and Mora have tried to combat the drug-related crime activity in Mexico.
Investigators said the pattern of the helicopter debris strewn on the ground suggested the chopper may have been intact when it hit the ground. That would possibly rule out any explosive device on board, but it is not ruling out foul play.
It is estimated that about 45,000 people have died in Mexico because of drug related violence. That does not include deaths in other countries caused by warfare of various Mexican drug cartels.
Mexican government says “no foul play”
HIGHER FUEL COST MAY SIGNAL THE END OF FRONTIER AIRLINES
It was a tight bidding war between Republic Airways Holdings and Southwest Airlines some three years ago when Frontier Airlines, flat broke, was up for grabs. Nearly everyone in the industry expected Southwest to outbid Republic, but when the price tag reached $109 million, Southwest dropped out of the bidding. Southwest knew right then that the airline was not worth paying that much for and then the problems associated with mergers.
Frontier was worth about that much, but like a lot of bankrupt airlines, it had a little “package” attached to its worth – nearly $1 billion in leases and debts. Just a few months before that, Republic Airlines acquired Midwest Airlines that was also doing poorly financially. Midwest was compared just a decade ago to Singapore Airlines with its high quality of service. The plan was to merge the airlines that operated big planes (Midwest and Frontier) with their main hubs in Milwaukee and Denver and run the feeder airlines as usual.
But with the 40% increase in fuel prices within a year, Republic had to pay for it from its own pocket. It was a different situation than with its regional airlines that fuel was hedged and paid for by the airlines that used the regional services. Delta paid for Delta feeders’ fuel. U.S. Airways paid for fuel used on the planes that fed U.S. Airways mainline, and so the price of fuel had very little effect on Republic’s bottom line.
Republic really blossomed. In fact, if it was not for Frontier Airlines, Republic would be still steadily making profit. However, of the last eight financial quarters, when it ran all its airlines as one company, Republic posted losses in half of them. Shareholders were grumbling and now Republic wants to spin off Frontier.
Frontier employees’ have made concessions to the tune of $120 million, but most people in the industry doubt that there will be any buyers for the airline. Frontier is based in Denver, the second largest base for United/Continental with Southwest being the second largest airline there. Frontier is No. 3, with fewer choices of destinations.
Republic will have a hard time recouping the money it put into Frontier, as regional airlines are struggling at this time as well. Most of them have opted to replace props or turboprops with jets when “going was good,” and are struggling now as it costs a lot more to fly people on the smaller planes than on the full-size jets.
SkyWest, a leading regional airline has made only $25 million profit for the entire last year. SkyWest owns ExpressJet and Atlantic Southeast regional airlines (both operating as Continental Express) and at this time is barely making any money. Another regional company – Pinnacle Airlines, which also owns two other regionals - is losing money at this time as well. The situation is so bad in the regional world that AMR Holdings, the company that owns American Airlines, can’t get rid of its regional airline, American Eagle.
What can we expect? Just like with the major airlines we’ll have fewer regional airlines as they merge. There will be fewer jobs for flight attendants, or – for that matter – any position in aviation. Ticket prices will go sky-high on regional airlines or at least on certain routes where specific airlines have monopoly. Life will not get any easier as time goes by.
[Just at the deadline, American Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 29, which may include American Eagle as well].
UNITED GOES THROUGH UNPRECEDENTED DIVISION
In a really happy marriage, it is a “give and take,” where both partners are opened to the suggestions of the other. The “marriage” between United and Continental is anything but that, as labor problems are getting closer to an impasse between the “new” United and the “old” United pilots. If you are a United/Continental flight attendant, you are unfortunately caught in between and see that pilots are creating a very unpleasant working environment for everyone in the company, especially the flight atendants.
The crux of the problem is that old United pilots have to get used to training and proficiency maintenance as it is done at Continental. Continental has been saving considerable money by having pilots doing the bulk of their training on computers (Computer-based training, or CBT), while United opted for the more costly traditional way of individualized instruction and extensive use of full-motion simulators.
Continental’s leadership, which essentially took over the “new” United, maintains that CBT has been just as efficient at Continental so far, and much cheaper. It was designed by Boeing’s test pilots and Continental has not had any problems adopting it. The Federal Aviation Administration supports it, saying that the CBT training meets all safety standards; and it has full trust both in Boeing and Continental pilots.
Cpt. Wendy Morse, United Airlines pilots’ union chairman claims that Continental, Boeing and the FAA are wrong, and United pilots have been pushed to calling in sick because they do not want to endanger passengers as CBT training is too superficial and they feel rushed. United’s branch of ALPA, the pilots’ union, put together a 101-page document to prove the “unsafe” points of CBTs after a Brooklyn, NY, judge threw out their case against the airline last month The judge said that all ALPA’s claims are purely speculative, particularly in view of a great safety record of Continental pilots. Cpt. Morse and ALPA presented the document to Congress in the middle of November in the hope the lawmakers may interfere and United can revert to the old United’s ways.
UAL Cpt. Wendy Morse is the head of UAL ALPA, and claims that United's pilots can't grasp things as readily as their Continental's counterparts, as confirmed by the FAA as well. It's time for the pilots to stop their crap and do some work.
