Tough times for airlines? Try being a passenger
Airline fortunes have historically waxed and waned in lockstep with the nation’s economy. In the good times, airlines expand, buy new planes, open new routes, and hire more employees to support those things. It goes without saying that the more airplanes a company has flying, the more people it needs to support the operation and service the customers.
But what happens to all of those employees when things go south? And what happens to passengers?
The International Air Transport Association released a dismal economic forecast for the airline industry. Just this morning, United Airlines became the latest carrier to announce fleet and job cuts.
Another report suggests that the general view of airline employees is that the good days are over. The not-too-distant profitable run by many airlines led employees to believe pay and work-rule concessions could be renegotiated during upcoming contract renewals, but the sudden downturn due to the spike in fuel costs has dashed those hopes.
Check out any of the Internet message boards dedicated to airline employees, and you’ll find myriad gripes about pay parity, a desire for better crew hotels and meals, preservation of seniority, pensions, health insurance, limits on lines of flying that include “reserve” status and outsourcing to commuter partner airlines.
But those things cost money, and are incongruous with management’s objective of cutting costs – any costs – to stem the financial bloodbath caused by the high price of gas. Heck, US Airways isn’t even serving three-cent bags of pretzels any longer — that’s how desperate it is to save a buck.
The result? Disgruntled employees, and a notable lack of harmony between management and labor.
What’s more, an industry that used to see employees start careers at a young age and stay until retirement is seeing senior executives make statements such as, “We’re not looking for people to make this a career any longer, this is just a job.”
Nice way to build loyalty and inspire good customer service, isn’t it?
What does all of this mean to the customer? Angry employees, try as they might not to let it show, will eventually spill some of their ire onto the flying public. Airline complaints are through the roof and nobody can make sense out of them, and the Department of Transportation is being bombarded by unhappy customers.
As those experienced career airline employees are replaced by those simply looking for a “job,” the people who could tell the difference between a bag going to Greenville, NC (PGV) versus Greenville, SC (GSP) or who could handle an involuntary reroute on an international five segment, interline code-share itinerary with a customer who is a TWOV (Transit Without a Visa) with excess baggage fees and a wheelchair request with only 15 minutes until the departure of the customer’s new flight are quickly disappearing.
Good luck getting 19-year-old, fresh-out-of-high-school Susie to figure that transaction out in time for you to make your flight.
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Nice article, David.
Here’s a wacky idea that came to mind as I read your article. I think the time has come for the airline executives to volunteer to cut their exorbitant pay until the airlines can get back on their feet. It’s not a panacea, but it would certainly be a gesture of goodwill that employees, passengers and stockholders would respect and rally around.