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May 2010
Less
Regulation equals Shorter Wait Times
There’s been a lot of talk about
airline delays in the last few months,
most of it stemming from the new
regulations from the U.S. Department of
Transportation that punishes airlines
for, what they call “stranding
passengers”. New federal
guidelines allow for fines up to $27,500
per passenger if an airplane is stuck on
a tarmac for over three hours. A
quick calculation shows a loaded Beoing
757 could conceivably cost an airline
more than $5,000,000 in fines if
it’s delayed for whatever reason and
cannot depart or cannot dock at a gate.
The U.S. Transportation Department sees
nothing wrong with handing out the
penalties, stating the airlines could do
a better job in scheduling flights and
crews. It makes no
difference to those who lobbied for these
fines, or to the lawmakers who instituted
them, just what the cause of the delay
happens to be. But there are those,
including me, who have serious
reservations about departing into
questionable weather, or in an aircraft
that has developed mechanical problems.
The
air carriers are now threatening
they’ll be forced to cancel flights
that could for some reason be delayed,
rather than face the fines. A
spokesman for the D.O.T. has come
out and said the airlines should have
spare aircraft and flight crews available
to avoid cancellations. Sounds
simple enough. Schedule two
747’s and two entire crews for every
flight, just in case. This
seems to be the way the flying public and
the politicians would like to see the
airlines operate. Well, in the real
world, that’s the most absurd idea
to come along in many years.
This whole
story sounded like a joke when it first
surfaced, so I did a lot of searching for
the real facts. It turns out this
is no laughing matter, particularly for
the air carriers who must plan around
weather and mechanical troubles, air
traffic control systems, safety and
security issues, sick passengers, local
airport problems, and countless other
unforeseen circumstances that can throw a
curve ball at a flight arrival time.
I have worked for and seen the obstacles
faced by small aviation companies. It
is a tough business and these fines are
nothing more than a political knee-jerk
reaction to a powerful lobby of
self-centered people who see themselves
and their travel plans as being above all
else.
The
reality is that air carriers get their
passengers from A to B, on schedule a
large percentage of the time. They
don’t sit around and plan these
inconveniences and delays. Some
airlines aren’t as prompt as others,
but these ones soon get a reputation, and
flyers go somewhere else if they can, or
simply take another mode of
transportation. Any business,
airline or not, will not survive in a
free market without providing good
service to its customers. Political
intervention should be for safety reasons
only, not for dictating schedules and
handing out fines because passengers are
whining when they’re held up and
inconvenienced.
If
you disagree with me on this, then
consider other waits we’re all faced
with on a daily basis. Why are
airlines being singled out? What
about traffic congestion? That’s
the biggest waste of time in any city on
the planet, yet the Department of
Transportation has not stepped in and
handed out fines to the engineers and
bureaucrats charged with the
responsibility of keeping freeways
moving? Where is the lobby on
traffic problems? Lineups! They’re
another source of frustration and time
wasted. We line up for almost
everything these days. We do it at
the post office, the supermarket, the
bank, for government services and for
fast food. Doctors,
particularly those practicing a
specialty, are notorious for making us
wait. We even wait hours in
hostpital emergency rooms. And I
challenge you to find a corporation or
government department that answers the
phone without voice or number prompts,
then puts you on hold for not just a few
minutes, but sometimes hours. The
cable company I get my internet from can
keep me on hold for over an hour when I
call for technical assistance, and all
the while I’m listening to their
commercials telling me what great speed
and customer service they provide. Not
only am I inconvenienced, I’m
insulted every minute I’m on hold.
Of
course the solution to the internet
provider is to move on to another one,
which I did! It should be the same
with any service, including an airline.
There are instances of monopolies
however, and this is what should be
attacked by the lobbyists and the
politicians. They ought to be
addressing the real root of the problems,
not stepping in where they have no
business and inserting stop-gap measures
which are unrealistic. I believe
there would be more airlines operating if
there were fewer regulations, less red
tape and greater freedoms to make
corporate decisions based on business
practices. More airlines would
ultimately result in better customer
service as they all fight to survive.
No company could continue operations if
three-hour delays on the tarmac were
common occurrences.
I
know there are arguments on both sides,
and this isn’t the simple solution.
Nobody likes lineups and delays. Many
times I have delayed departure or
cancelled a flight in my own airplanes
when the weather looks bad, or because of
a mechanical surprise, bad mag, faulty
instrument or a stiff elevator control
… whatever. I have waited on
the ramp for reasons that were beyond my
control, and waiting for a Customs
officer comes to mind as one example.
The airlines have much bigger problems,
things that go well beyond their
capability to solve. What’s
needed is less government intervention,
not more. As things continue to
spiral out of control, this new law is
just another of example of how we’re
allowing, in fact requesting the
government to take over more and more
control of our lives.
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