It’s amazing how jaded you airline guys are – thankfully I got out 6 years ago! If your Mom or Sister were over there trying to get home I bet you would sing a little different song?
How is it the passengers problem that two airlines, both serving the Hawaiian Islands failed in the same week?
Contrary to you, people don’t follow the airlines and then study their balance sheet before they book a trip – some people do have a life. Yes, they do book the most affordable ticket! Do you not do the same thing?
Do you always buy from Saks 5th Ave, your suits from Brooks Brothers and groceries from Central Market because you “know what you’re getting”? Or do you buy from places like Old Navy, The Men’s Warehouse, Albertsons and Target because you can save a few bucks? Yea, that’s what I thought!!
How about the folks who were using there points and miles to take a vacation (SWA & ATA) and are now stranded?
Neither Aloha nor ATA were fly-by-night operators. Aloha has been in operation since 1946 and ATA since 1973.
But what do you care? You just drive the bus.
No doubt some of the comments on this thread are a bit hardcore. And I understand your angst against us "bus drivers" (sure that's all we do). But what you fail to realize is the comparisons you make to other industries (clothing) are apples to oranges. Without getting into a long-winded debate about that subject, let me just remind you about the Hawaii market. ATA started the cheap-travel concept to Hawaii from the west coast years ago. Despite them being around since '73 they are the SW/ Jblu of the Hawaii Transpacific market. Should you have known their precarious financial position as a traveler? Sure, why not? It only takes a few minutes on the internet to figure that out. Does that mean you might not have bought the ticket? Not at all. Afterall, who knew they would shut down so quickly? Not I, not their own employees/ unions, and certainly not the traveling public. So, no, it is not the fault of the travelers stuck in Hawaii. But I would not want my tax dollars spent getting these people out. Ultimately, the public cried for cheap travel, numerous choices, deregulation and less government involvement. Well, this is what you get when industry can't police itselt. Expect more of it.
The reason for all of our angst against the traveling public is that we have taken it the shorts for the past 6 years. When pressed as to why we need to take such a hit, our mgmts have told us it's because the public won't pay-to-play, thereby shopping around the cheapest ticket. What this amounts to is that some of us are virtually subsidizing the traveling public (Ex: $99 airfares across the Atlantic). That is not any one persons fault, rather it is the fault of the marketplace and the negative ramifications of deregulation, unchecked airline managements and the ignorant public (would you be so ignorant about the plight of your heart surgeon if his hospital cut his pay and benefits in half? Especially if he worled 20+ years to acheive those benefits? Ok, poor analogy but you get the point). Likewise, one of the other negatives is a demoralized and labor force in a service-based industry. Would you work for free? Some of us have taken such huge hits the past few years that we feel we very nearly are "working for free." I can show you numerous sections in our pilot CBA where we get clearly taken advantage of and indeed work-for-free. Ask someone to put up with that indefinitely and eventually negativity sets in. It is inevitable.
Generally speaking, there is a huge segment of the traveling public that feels it is their God-given right to be afforded cheap air travel. They do not factor in the variables that affect service quality and viability when it comes to buying the cheapest ticket they can get. Is it their fault? Not really, they are merely the participants of a ruthless marketplace not of their making. But the problem is, they do indeed make up that marketplace. So in effect they are part of the problem. Of course, the MAJOR part of the problem are the airline managements that have used this excuse to pummel wages while padding their accounts and perks with millions of dollars in compensation packages. Our former CEO paid himself $37 million on his way out the door at a time when earnings were down 120%. Rest assured, we place most of the blame solely at their feet.
I am afraid the public is going to face more ATA scenarios unless Washington passes laws to punish airline execs for running perfectly good businesses into the ground. I have proposed 12 month limits to running in any given market sector at a loss, i.e. run at a loss and you either must raise prices to cover the costs of the product or pull out. The problem with ATA is they ran at a loss in many markets which were subsidized by their military charter contracts. Now who is paying for that? I am, with my federal tax dollars... so are you. Is that a responsible way to run a business? Should that kind of pathetic business intellect, or lack thereof, exist in any industry? How can we as a nation expect to compete on a global scale when such morons are permitted to remain in the exec offices? Is this what Harvard/ Yale are teaching these guys? To run at a loss indefinitely? If so then they grossly overpaid for their Ivy-league education.
These are all questions that need to be asked.
By the way, the problems that plague the aviation transportation industry are not limited to the US. This is very much a global problem. There are limits to the benefits of dereg. Too much competition does indeed lower the overall long-term health of the business. And an unhealthy travel industry is hugely detrimental to an entire economy. Years and years of dereg have done nothing to help the overall long-terms strength of the business. There is a great article about this in AWS&T. I will try to track it down.
Again, no slight against the ATA crews. Y'all are great and I hope we can get each and every one of you hired as swiftly as possible. You are just another victim of shtty airline mgmt.
