AA767AV8TOR
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2006
- Posts
- 258
Current State of Affairs At AA:
Dark Friday - The Mismanagement of Dec. 29
Doing What We Do Best
Something Special in the Air
We know why you fly. We’re American Airlines.
The above slogans are familiar to us all as advertising catch phrases known to millions of our customers around the world. Over the years, each of us have stood proudly behind these slogans as they represent the service our customers have come to expect and the company that we have sacrificed so much to uphold.
On Friday, Dec. 29, many years of pride in our great company turned to embarrassment. Attached below is a recent article from the Wall Street Journal describing the events of what can only be described as a mismanaged disaster. The weather across the DFW hub that day was a challenge, with 85 flights forced to divert. However, as you will read in the article below, the challenges of that day were not met by the experienced management of an airline that has been in business for more than 80 years. They were bungled by a management team that has increasingly shown that they are more focused on explaining how their compensation compares to other companies’ executives than they are with running our airline, taking care of our employees and serving our customers.
In the wake of a similar high-profile and ultimately costly debacle at Northwest several years ago, long weather-related delays are not new. What is rather clear regarding this latest event is that a management team unable to foresee the foreseeable will be woefully inadequate to respond to the unforeseen.
In the face of this leadership vacuum from AA’s managers, we have collected numerous stories regarding how our flight crews went above and beyond to assist our passengers. For example, one international flight became stranded for several hours at a facility without customs, the passengers could not leave the aircraft and the catering supplies were eventually exhausted. The AA captain took it upon himself to go into the terminal and buy food and beverages for his passengers. Where was management when these passengers required the basic necessities?
American’s top management is presently on track to pay themselves approximately $190 million in “performance” bonuses in April. It may well go even higher. After reading the article below, one has to wonder how many of our customers who our airline failed that day would agree that management deserves even one penny of it.
I have communicated our disgust to management over this failure and have suggested they provide the following:
· An aggressive and public apology to our passengers
· A sincere and heartfelt apology to the employees
· A thorough explanation of what occurred and exactly who has been relieved of their former responsibilities
· An even more thorough explanation from those managers who will receive large “performance” payouts regarding what steps they have undertaken to make sure this NEVER happens again
Absent the above in the very near future, I intend to pursue the development of formal APA RECOMMENDATIONS to our flight crews should they ever be presented with a situation even closely resembling this one in the future. In short, if the highly compensated managers at American Airlines cannot provide clear leadership when the unexpected happens – the pilots will.
This was clearly a material failure to properly manage an airline for which we all sacrificed handsomely to save. Any future references to ACCOUNTABILITY will ring very hollow to our line employees if this issue is not properly and fully addressed.
If management doesn’t soon get their act together, the next AA slogan might as well be, “We know why you fly – but we just don’t care.”
In Unity,
Ralph
Dark Friday - The Mismanagement of Dec. 29
Doing What We Do Best
Something Special in the Air
We know why you fly. We’re American Airlines.
The above slogans are familiar to us all as advertising catch phrases known to millions of our customers around the world. Over the years, each of us have stood proudly behind these slogans as they represent the service our customers have come to expect and the company that we have sacrificed so much to uphold.
On Friday, Dec. 29, many years of pride in our great company turned to embarrassment. Attached below is a recent article from the Wall Street Journal describing the events of what can only be described as a mismanaged disaster. The weather across the DFW hub that day was a challenge, with 85 flights forced to divert. However, as you will read in the article below, the challenges of that day were not met by the experienced management of an airline that has been in business for more than 80 years. They were bungled by a management team that has increasingly shown that they are more focused on explaining how their compensation compares to other companies’ executives than they are with running our airline, taking care of our employees and serving our customers.
In the wake of a similar high-profile and ultimately costly debacle at Northwest several years ago, long weather-related delays are not new. What is rather clear regarding this latest event is that a management team unable to foresee the foreseeable will be woefully inadequate to respond to the unforeseen.
In the face of this leadership vacuum from AA’s managers, we have collected numerous stories regarding how our flight crews went above and beyond to assist our passengers. For example, one international flight became stranded for several hours at a facility without customs, the passengers could not leave the aircraft and the catering supplies were eventually exhausted. The AA captain took it upon himself to go into the terminal and buy food and beverages for his passengers. Where was management when these passengers required the basic necessities?
American’s top management is presently on track to pay themselves approximately $190 million in “performance” bonuses in April. It may well go even higher. After reading the article below, one has to wonder how many of our customers who our airline failed that day would agree that management deserves even one penny of it.
I have communicated our disgust to management over this failure and have suggested they provide the following:
· An aggressive and public apology to our passengers
· A sincere and heartfelt apology to the employees
· A thorough explanation of what occurred and exactly who has been relieved of their former responsibilities
· An even more thorough explanation from those managers who will receive large “performance” payouts regarding what steps they have undertaken to make sure this NEVER happens again
Absent the above in the very near future, I intend to pursue the development of formal APA RECOMMENDATIONS to our flight crews should they ever be presented with a situation even closely resembling this one in the future. In short, if the highly compensated managers at American Airlines cannot provide clear leadership when the unexpected happens – the pilots will.
This was clearly a material failure to properly manage an airline for which we all sacrificed handsomely to save. Any future references to ACCOUNTABILITY will ring very hollow to our line employees if this issue is not properly and fully addressed.
If management doesn’t soon get their act together, the next AA slogan might as well be, “We know why you fly – but we just don’t care.”
In Unity,
Ralph