Crossky said:
Seriously though, what did airlines do to plan, coordinate, and execute crew scheduling duties before the age of computers? I would guess they had more employees, used lots of paper, pencils, and chalk boards. Don't mean to be arrogant, but it seems a little silly to me that they've cancelled all their flights only because their scheduling computers are down. The pilots, schedulers, and dispatchers know the regs, the phones still work, we have solar powered calculators, and the pilots still have their schedules, on paper at least. You would think the company, like Clint and the Marines, would "improvise, adapt, and overcome" (Heartbreak Ridge movie). The payroll and scheduling computers could catch up when the system is fixed.
While the inept management of the airline during the last few days is inexcusable, let me try to respond to a little of the above.
1. They've not "cancelled all their flights only because their scheduling computers are down". Many aircraft are temporarily disabled due, in part, to the weather system that moved through the area a few days ago.
2. The phones do work...but not well when you have 2000 crewmembers trying to call the handful of schedulers available. Christmas Eve, almost no one...including dispatchers, was able to contact Crew Scheduling.
3. The pilots, schedulers, and dispatchers know the regs., though some Flight Attendants don't. Regardless, this is a moot point if you reference #2 above. Nothing can get done without coordination and agreement between the three workgroups, and when one of the three isn't able to handle the call volume, let alone handle the tremendous workload that has just been forced on them by the failure of an ancient computer system, coodination cannot occur.
3. As pointed out above ("I would guess they had more employees") the efficiencies afforded by computer systems - regardless how archaic, become a double-edged sword when the system fails. I don't know if Comair has enough human schedulers to manually sort out the mess the weather, aircraft mechanicals, and scheduling system failure has thrown at their feet...while still maintaining operational integrity. Don't forget there are over 3000 crewmembers, almost all of which are operating different schedules due to the emergency operations declared in the wake of the winter storm.
4. While in the movies, and perhaps in war, it is acceptable to "improvise, adapt, and overcome", this type of behaviour in a system as intricate as an airline's operation is likely to make the situation even worse...not to mention the rules that will have to be broken to accomplish this. The last thing Comair needs is hundreds of crewmembers flying airplanes around to places without the company's knowledge. There has been a lot of hard work by scheduling, dispatch, and crewmembers alike to "improvise, adapt, and overcome"...however there are well-defined limits we will not cross.
Comair has had crews stuck in hotels for six days in some locations, that I'm aware of.
I agree there is no excuse for not having a good back-up plan in place. I also believe there is no excuse for using a scheduling system that was put in place when Comair was half the size it is today. The responsibility for creating the system in which employees work is given to management personnel. The fallout from the failure the airline experienced this weekend must be directed towards this same management.
