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Despite the additions, US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker says the low-fare market leaves airlines with little choice but to operate lean staffs. "You can't get the passengers to pay more so the airlines can staff another flight attendant. It's the reality of the business and what the consumer has told us they want," he said in an interview.
For decades, airline jobs were coveted, and many of the largest carriers attracted multiple generations of the same families drawn to the glamour of aviation. The pay was better than comparable jobs in other fields, the benefits were generous, and travel passes allowed workers to fly for little or no money.
Now, snarling passengers and trimmed pay have taken away much of the industry's allure. And airline workers have a harder time taking an inexpensive vacation: With planes full of paying passengers, they're often unable to grab a free seat for themselves.
Even the more financially successful budget airlines are doing more with fewer people. "We're trying to grow the company without adding head count," says Greg Wells, senior vice president of operations for Southwest Airlines. When Southwest was faced with the ramp-worker injuries at Chicago's Midway Airport over Christmas, the airline muddled through by asking for or imposing overtime and using fewer gates so there would be enough manpower to cover each one. It is studying why there were so many injuries.
Black Eye
JetBlue Airways Corp. got a huge black eye when it mishandled a Valentine's Day ice storm in New York, stranding customers in airports and on planes for hours at a time. David Neeleman, the founder and chief executive officer, days later admitted there "are some areas of the company...that needed to be beefed up and didn't keep pace with the growth" of the discount airline. Last week Mr. Neeleman stepped down as CEO.
While unions criticize what they call excessive staffing cuts, they're not happy about one response to the problem: outsourcing work. A few years ago, Northwest hired lower-wage "skycaps" to help check in passengers inside the terminal, but it had to halt the practice after the union argued successfully that the skycaps violated contract terms governing customer-service agents.
Last month the union representing United's mechanics filed a grievance saying the airline is outsourcing a higher percentage of maintenance spending than the union's contract allows. United says it is within the contractual limit.
Carefully negotiated union pay scales also can make it difficult to raise wages for hard-to-fill jobs. Stephen Gordon, president of the International Association of Machinists district that represents Northwest ground workers, says Northwest was having trouble recruiting ramp workers and wanted to raise starting pay to $10 an hour from $9. The union's reply: If you do that, you need to give everyone a $1-an-hour raise. The wages stayed the same.
When outsourcing does happen, the process isn't always smooth. In 2005, Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines outsourced ramp jobs in Seattle to an outside firm. The transition was marked by misplaced luggage, late flights and an incident in which a damaged aircraft had to make an emergency landing. The airline and the outside firm, John Menzies PLC, say the problems have been fixed.
Overall, airline and government officials say tighter staffing doesn't represent a threat to passenger safety. A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration says air travel "has never been safer."
Ground operations are among the most acutely affected by the airlines' cutbacks. Troy Bacon, a ramp agent in Atlanta for Delta Air Lines Inc., says he has seen a shortage of drivers to transport luggage at the international terminal during weekends, which contributes to baggage delays. "Sometimes, they may be 10 minutes late because they're so undermanned," though the company has been hiring, he said. Delta says it recently adjusted staffing to address problems like the one Mr. Bacon describes. Mr. Bacon says his pay fell nearly 20% as Delta reorganized in bankruptcy court, to $14.07 an hour from $17.28, although he has gained some of that back recently.
Mr. Gordon of the machinists union said Northwest is having difficulty hiring and retaining qualified employees in expensive cities such as Boston and New York. In Minneapolis, where the airline has a hub, "you can hire on the ramp for $9 an hour" and work bad shifts out in the cold weather, or "you can work inside a Target for $11," he said. Northwest confirms that it is having hiring difficulties in some places.
Customer-Service Cuts
In Dallas, Southwest Airlines had 140 customer-service agents before 9/11, compared with about 90 now, says Debbie Aven, an official with a part of Mr. Gordon's union that represents these workers. (Southwest says the pre-9/11 figure was closer to 120.) The company now sometimes assigns one or two agents to handle multiple gates, which can cause problems when a flight is late or oversold, says Ms. Aven.
Southwest says it doesn't think the new staffing arrangement has worsened service for passengers, although it won't roll it out fully until it introduces technology that will help rebook passengers automatically when there are storms or other disruptions.
Yesterday, the University of Michigan released its American Customer Satisfaction Index. U.S. airlines scored 63 out of a possible 100, their lowest score in seven years and two points lower than last year. Airlines fared worse, by nine points, than the federal government and even lagged by two points the Internal Revenue Service.
American's vice president of customer-services planning, Marilyn DeVoe, says the airline's overall staffing is adequate. "Would we like to have more manpower?" she asks. "I would. But it just isn't prudent as a business."
Write to Melanie Trottman at [email protected] and Susan Carey at [email protected]
For decades, airline jobs were coveted, and many of the largest carriers attracted multiple generations of the same families drawn to the glamour of aviation. The pay was better than comparable jobs in other fields, the benefits were generous, and travel passes allowed workers to fly for little or no money.
Now, snarling passengers and trimmed pay have taken away much of the industry's allure. And airline workers have a harder time taking an inexpensive vacation: With planes full of paying passengers, they're often unable to grab a free seat for themselves.
Even the more financially successful budget airlines are doing more with fewer people. "We're trying to grow the company without adding head count," says Greg Wells, senior vice president of operations for Southwest Airlines. When Southwest was faced with the ramp-worker injuries at Chicago's Midway Airport over Christmas, the airline muddled through by asking for or imposing overtime and using fewer gates so there would be enough manpower to cover each one. It is studying why there were so many injuries.
Black Eye
JetBlue Airways Corp. got a huge black eye when it mishandled a Valentine's Day ice storm in New York, stranding customers in airports and on planes for hours at a time. David Neeleman, the founder and chief executive officer, days later admitted there "are some areas of the company...that needed to be beefed up and didn't keep pace with the growth" of the discount airline. Last week Mr. Neeleman stepped down as CEO.
While unions criticize what they call excessive staffing cuts, they're not happy about one response to the problem: outsourcing work. A few years ago, Northwest hired lower-wage "skycaps" to help check in passengers inside the terminal, but it had to halt the practice after the union argued successfully that the skycaps violated contract terms governing customer-service agents.
Last month the union representing United's mechanics filed a grievance saying the airline is outsourcing a higher percentage of maintenance spending than the union's contract allows. United says it is within the contractual limit.
Carefully negotiated union pay scales also can make it difficult to raise wages for hard-to-fill jobs. Stephen Gordon, president of the International Association of Machinists district that represents Northwest ground workers, says Northwest was having trouble recruiting ramp workers and wanted to raise starting pay to $10 an hour from $9. The union's reply: If you do that, you need to give everyone a $1-an-hour raise. The wages stayed the same.
When outsourcing does happen, the process isn't always smooth. In 2005, Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines outsourced ramp jobs in Seattle to an outside firm. The transition was marked by misplaced luggage, late flights and an incident in which a damaged aircraft had to make an emergency landing. The airline and the outside firm, John Menzies PLC, say the problems have been fixed.
Overall, airline and government officials say tighter staffing doesn't represent a threat to passenger safety. A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration says air travel "has never been safer."
Ground operations are among the most acutely affected by the airlines' cutbacks. Troy Bacon, a ramp agent in Atlanta for Delta Air Lines Inc., says he has seen a shortage of drivers to transport luggage at the international terminal during weekends, which contributes to baggage delays. "Sometimes, they may be 10 minutes late because they're so undermanned," though the company has been hiring, he said. Delta says it recently adjusted staffing to address problems like the one Mr. Bacon describes. Mr. Bacon says his pay fell nearly 20% as Delta reorganized in bankruptcy court, to $14.07 an hour from $17.28, although he has gained some of that back recently.
Mr. Gordon of the machinists union said Northwest is having difficulty hiring and retaining qualified employees in expensive cities such as Boston and New York. In Minneapolis, where the airline has a hub, "you can hire on the ramp for $9 an hour" and work bad shifts out in the cold weather, or "you can work inside a Target for $11," he said. Northwest confirms that it is having hiring difficulties in some places.
Customer-Service Cuts
In Dallas, Southwest Airlines had 140 customer-service agents before 9/11, compared with about 90 now, says Debbie Aven, an official with a part of Mr. Gordon's union that represents these workers. (Southwest says the pre-9/11 figure was closer to 120.) The company now sometimes assigns one or two agents to handle multiple gates, which can cause problems when a flight is late or oversold, says Ms. Aven.
Southwest says it doesn't think the new staffing arrangement has worsened service for passengers, although it won't roll it out fully until it introduces technology that will help rebook passengers automatically when there are storms or other disruptions.
Yesterday, the University of Michigan released its American Customer Satisfaction Index. U.S. airlines scored 63 out of a possible 100, their lowest score in seven years and two points lower than last year. Airlines fared worse, by nine points, than the federal government and even lagged by two points the Internal Revenue Service.
American's vice president of customer-services planning, Marilyn DeVoe, says the airline's overall staffing is adequate. "Would we like to have more manpower?" she asks. "I would. But it just isn't prudent as a business."
Write to Melanie Trottman at [email protected] and Susan Carey at [email protected]
