The airline industry used to be known as a glamorous way to travel. There was unbelievable customer service and the pilots and flight attendants (aka stewardesses) were treated with respect and could wear their uniforms with pride. Well, if Orville and Wilbur knew then what we know now, they would've kept their feet firmly planted on the ground and forgotten all about this silly flying stuff because it has been nothing but trouble. Hubby and I have been associated with the airline industry for over 20 years now. Part of me is proud of the service that we have both provided in our careers, but the rest of me feels like I have been through a war. Aviation is a series of ups and downs like no other industry. How many history-making airlines have gone by the wayside because of mis-management? Pan Am, Eastern,TWA and Braniff to name a few. How many are teetering on the edge right now for the same reason? Believe me, you do NOT want to know. Everyone suffered a great loss, both personal and economic after the tragedy that struck on September 11, 2001. The airline industry slowed to a crawl, and people were afraid to fly. Our lives have been in turmoil because of new security procedures, and the overall fear of the unknown while traveling. That holds true for flight crews as well as passengers on the airplanes. The traveling public does not see what goes on behind the scenes or how today's economic downturn has affected the airline employees. There have been massive furloughs, pay-cuts, loss of pensions, loss of stock and overall loss of pride in their profession. The airline industry is an emotional roller coaster for all involved. A lot of pilots have lost the pension they have worked their entire life for, and are now being forced to work an additional 5 years before they can retire. Well, just when we thought the worst was over (for now), the cost of fuel has taken a toll on the industry as a whole. A lot of airlines are doing more cut-backs once again, reducing their fleet, changing their route structure and of course, eliminating anything that could be confused with customer service such as meals and entertainment.
United Airlines, for one, has just announced it will be eliminating it's fleet of Boeing 737s and also a large handful of the much bigger Boeing 747s. The domino effect that a huge change like this brings is astronomical to the point where I can't imagine anyone has really done the math on it. All of the pilots who will be displaced by the disappearance of their airplane will be able to choose another position in another airplane based on what their seniority can hold. That means they will be displacing yet another pilot, and that pilot displaces someone and so on and so forth until there are more furloughs coming from the bottom of the seniority list, not to mention more pay cuts for those still employed. This procedure may sound simple and as fair as it can be, given the circumstances, but think about the cost of training with this kind of upheaval. The Training Department is not manned to re-train half the pilots in the company. Therefore there will have to be pilots trained to be trainers. Then, the real training will begin and every pilot who gets displaced will have to go through a training period of up to 6 weeks before being able to fly again. What you probably do not realize (unless you are very familiar with the way airlines work) is that will calculate into pilots sitting at home, getting paid to do nothing until they are properly trained. To me, this sounds very costly and inefficient. I have to wonder if the guy behind the mahogany desk has gone a little too far with this latest decision. Maybe there could have been smaller measures taken for a more steady pace towards repairing the airline structure and off-setting fuel costs. How does this affect him exactly? What kind of cut-backs will United's fearless (or perhaps feared) leader take personally? According to the Air Line Pilot's Assoc. (ALPA), Glenn Tilton will be giving himself yet another excessive bonus for this ingenious plan to foil save United Air Lines.
I can totally relate to this.. Travel industry work is not all that glamorous as it used to be, in my opinion....
Posted by: Marie | 22 June 2008 at 07:56