New ASA Boarding Procedure w/o Pilots!

[ASABound]

jmoney something else man, you only get violated, if you did something that caused the incident or accident to happen. If you arent there then you cant get in trouble. In order to hold you accountable they have to prove that you had a duty to act, and that you breached that duty!! You will be ok man. Be a captain dude, not a worry wart !!

 

[No Delay]

Does this mean we can leave as soon as shut her down?


Might not be a bad thing....

 

[www.]

www.? What say you?

Hoser

Too many signs, my crystal balls are cloudy. Some things to think about...

1. ASA is so focus on cost savings and DAL is involved in this.
2. Is it just ASA or are other DCI airlines being squeezed at ATL for 40 min turns along with this new plan to board pax w/o pilots.
3. DAL takes over the ramp and gate ops in ATL. OK, but they also took all the ground equipment also. All this took place very quickly didn't?
4. DAL moves our aircraft in ATL. I think there were approx 28 a/c damaged by DAL, per SH. But SH says that we are responsible for the ontime perf without these a/c in the system.
5. Jetways are going back into C. All airlines will use C but SH says ASA still owns the gates.
6. Several months ago ASA MGMT had a meeting at GT in ATL and a portion of the meeting was to promote or sqash the rumour going around that ASA was going back to DAL. When was the last time MGMT anywhere took the time or energy to sqash a rumour that had no teeth? Most would laugh at it and joke about it but not this one.

There are many more but I think there was a pre BK deal done. DAL gave Skywest ASA for pennies just days before BK to save it from the creditors. The gates were worth more than the sale price.

Just what I'm seeing.

 

[www.]

The way I see it, this is one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard of!
We are supposed to trust that the "transient or reserve" FA has any clue what the hell is going on?
You know this is going to lead to trouble! Especially considering the fact that we only have one FA on the 50 and they will be unable to do anything if an emergency occurs!
This absolutely without a doubt will lead to issues! It is unsafe to board all those folks without any meaningful communications capabilities. I am not at all psyched about the idea of trusting some fool "transient or reserve" FA not to screw crap up for us all. If any mess happens, guess who gets violated?

NOT YOU!

Who cares. If this is what ASA/DAL wants to do let them do it. It's not your aircraft. You fly airplanes, you don't manage an airline.

 

[Palerider957]

Guys don't get to excited about boarding without the pilots on the acft. Delta has been doing this for a long time. I'm suprised it took this long to come up with this program. The problem I see is ASA getting a F/A to the acft before us.

A little birdy in the GO told me that the contract was done at the last meeting also and Big D was at the meeting. I didn't hear about JA being the reason it's being held up I was told it was Big D, we shall see?

701EV

Yes, but Delta has adequate GSE to heat/cool and power the aircraft. ASA FA'a won't have the stones to refuse to board even with 100+ OAT, and we all know ASA doesn't have adequate GSE. What you'll end up with is super hot planes with no power, being boarded by super-junior FA's.

Another ASA policy that will simply won't work.

 

[Crash Pad]

BOARDING WITHOUT PILOTS!!!! Mother of God. What if a fire breaks out? The FA will have to ask the pilots if they should evacuate... without us there everyone will burn alive.

What if someone has a heart attack? The FA can't leave the plane and doesn't know how to use the radio... Clearly a death will ensue.

Are you all serious? I know we can b!tch about anything but this one takes the cake. I hate to inform you all that you really aren't that important.

 

[Palerider957]

Guys, this is not a bad idea, THIS IS A GREAT IDEA!! Delta and other "REAL" airlines have been doing this for quite some time. To be completely honest it makes complete sense operationaly. I have been parking at B29 and B31 quite a bit this month, and I have to tell you that the ground air and power off of the jetways over there works better than our APU on the 200 at least. This is a sign of growth and progression for our company. I know some of our senior capts, who have thier head up their but are saying "Well this is no good, because I have to give clearance to board!" Well really folks, the cockpit crew should have no say when the boarding process begins or ends, if they want to board let them board, they cant push until you say so!! Last but not least, we all need to remember that in the midst of negotiations, pilot hiring and everything else that we are in the business of customer service, and safely getting the customer from point a to b to make a profit. This could be a great thing for all , dont kill it yet !! Fly safe

This is like the Captains who say "the gate owns the airplane until the door is closed"......wrong. You bet your a$$ they'll say you "own" the airplane if a passenger has a heat stroke.

Presumably this policy is meant to save time. As one other poster said, the better idea is to keep planes and crews together for the day. I've argued with flight control over this, they say it's "more efficient." BS....it's more efficient for someone sitting behind a computer screen, certainly not for flight crews.

When you are given a super-tight turn and an aircraft swap, what do you do....you say screw it and take your time, why not use a real toilet and grab a bite to eat, then make your way to your A/C. When you have absolutely NO way to make your turn anyway, crew QOL is more important than some hallucination of flight control, schedulers, and dispatchers in the GO.

I'd be curious to hear from some ASA F/A's about this.

 

[Palerider957]

Question: It's been a couple of years since I've flown anything with ASA written on the side. Can you fuel a boarded aircraft that does not have power to it?

 

[Speedtape]

Question: It's been a couple of years since I've flown anything with ASA written on the side. Can you fuel a boarded aircraft that does not have power to it?

You can't board an aircraft without power on it. You can fuel an aircraft with or w/o power. To fuel with passengers on board, there has to be the required F/A's, power on aircraft, and the main entrance door has to be open.

The big question: "How about them 'Emergency Exit Lights' that lead to the the emergency exits?" Who is going to arm those?

 

[Airboss]

Question: It's been a couple of years since I've flown anything with ASA written on the side. Can you fuel a boarded aircraft that does not have power to it?

The airplane will have a GPU & an air cart running when this procedure is in effect.

 

[shamrock]

Wow, can you imagine how mad all those passengers are going to be when their flight is cancelled for lack of crew after they've been sitting on the airplane for over an hour?

 

[CFI2766]

The airplane will have a GPU & an air cart running when this procedure is in effect.

Also, the FAs are supposed to have access to a jetway phone, ergo, communications with (gate agent/ramp/Labreque/someone who cares...)

This policy has the potential to save some time. However, it also has some serious risks. I don't get the feeling that the risks to the passengers have been adequately addressed. As well, I suspect the first passenger that comes to grief over this process will have an easy time in court proving negligence on the part of the airline. Also, let's face it, the FAs who will be babysitting these aircraft will more than likely be the most junior FAs. What will happen when a junior FA comes in contact with a unhappy/rowdy/drunk passenger? Leave the aircraft unattended to access the phone in the jetway to call for help?

A more likely scenario is operations folks boarding an airplane without really knowing where the crew is, or when they will actually get to the airplane. We all know that the gate agents are much more concerned about getting the passengers out of their gate area than about whether or not the airplane actually should be boarded. I see the potential for aircraft having to be boarded and then un-boarded several times as the scheduling displays their normal efficiency in locating flight crews.

 

[Palerider957]

The airplane will have a GPU & an air cart running when this procedure is in effect.

This is where the policy will fail. I can't imagine ASA/GSE reliability has improved a bit, so this policy will be a paper policy almost never used.

 

[IamHYPOXIC2]

Ok, this is a retarded rule. It might work for DELTA...but not ASA. Ground facilities or not, the inbound crew might wait 30 minutes for wheelchairs and then satisfy physical needs before even thinking about getting to the plane. People may sit on board a cramped RJ for 45 min to an hour before their pilots even show up. Then the airplane might be put in MTC or who knows what....DEPLANE!! DEPLANE!! This will make passengers very happy. Another well thought out idea by our mis-managed airline.

 

[Jmoney]

Nuts!

jmoney something else man, you only get violated, if you did something that caused the incident or accident to happen. If you arent there then you cant get in trouble. In order to hold you accountable they have to prove that you had a duty to act, and that you breached that duty!! You will be ok man. Be a captain dude, not a worry wart !!

This is simply nuts! Lets say a fuel truck hits the airplane, fuel starts dumping out everywhere, and now you have a situation. Pilots know how to use the radios, know the technical aspects of what risks are involved, and can make an informed judgement about the situation. What will some "transient" FA who has been here two weeks do?

If you read the memo on this crap, there is one FA on the plane, out of communication with everyone, and he or she is supposed to acutally ask panicked passengers to do many of the things she can't do-like get off the plane and call someone. Why the hell does the intercom between the flight deck and FA have to be working for dispatch? Because the FA needs to be able to communicate! This is a huge f-ing mess!

The lawyers will have a field day with this if anything ever happens, and you can bet they will sue/attempt to violate everyone who had anything to do with this aircraft. When the landing gear fell off a few years back and some woman sprained her ankle during an evacuation, she sued everyone who had anything to do with that flight, all the crew, the dispatcher, the freaking gate agents, etc. I do not want to be involved in something similar! Don't bet ASA will spend a dime to defend your butt!

-Find something better to suck up to these retards about!

 

[sweptback]

I think you guys are missing the best part. With the jetway hooked to the aircraft, one FA on board, and ground services running, the flight crew may leave the aircraft with passengers on board.

Waiting for 5 wheelchairs on the last flight of your 4-day? Tough luck, see you on the bus!

 

[SuperPilot]

So if I'm correct at how this will work, the plane will have a GPU and air hooked up and a FA on board. Who turns the airplane on to actually utilize the ground power? And who is the one who will shut off the plane when the GPU plug is accidentally knocked out or stops supplying power and the tubes overheat?

I don't work there, just curious.

--SP

 

[HoserASA]

my crystal balls are cloudy. .

They have shots for that www.!

Hoser

 

[HoserASA]

As long as you're not there, you are not responsible for what may occur. ASA/DAL is taking responsibility for this, and as been mention, Delta does it routinely. Should be comical to watch though. Fly Safely!

Hoser

 

[crjskipper]

jmoney take your meds. what if a fuel truck crashes into a delta jet at a15. fa's will do the same thing on us as delta fa's do. remember the letter says only at delta gates. and btw, the emer lite can be turned on from the fa phone panel, and gpu power can be turned on from the outside,they dont need the cockpit.