Posted on 11/29/2011 12:24:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
NO bailouts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yet another “casuality” of former POTUS James Earl Carter’s - and the DNP’s - enchantment with “deregulation” of critical infrastructure ! IOW, “creeping socialism” at its worst ! >PS
I think that may happen. If it does happen either the US Airways will go away or the American Airlines will go away...
He would be insane to buy American Airlines..
Currently prohibited by law.
I’m glad I’m flying Delta later this week.
That's exactly what United did back in 2002.
After 9-11 the airlines(stockholders) got a 15 billion dollar bailout. My small aircraft parts making business got nothing.
46 airlines have filed Chapter 11 since 1979. That’s about 1 1/2 airlines per year. Many of which are out of business now (Pan Am, Eastern, TWA, Braniff, etc).
The airline industry is and has been very poorly run for many, many years. With few exceptions, they have too large a fleet with too many different types of planes. That means they have to have redundant parts on the shelf for each plane in case of breakage or maintenance. Then it spirals downhill from there. It’s a very poor business design.
Airlines like Southwest, who currently flies one type of aircraft are successful for many reasons but one is obvious, 1 type of plane, 1 type of part. Low overhead. Smart business.
“Airlines like Southwest, who currently flies one type of aircraft are successful for many reasons but one is obvious, 1 type of plane, 1 type of part. Low overhead. Smart business.”
I remember, back in the late 80’s, on a layover in Los Angeles, spending all day and evening with a Southwest crew..pilots and flight attendants. I worked for United, and we flew a DC10 from EWR to LAX.
The Southwest flight attendants were amazed that I was part of a flight attendant crew of 8 and that we served food! I remember them looking at each other and saying, “Can you imagine serving FOOD and working with 8 people?”
I will never forget that.
Those were also the years when we served Filet Mignon dinners in first class on all dinner flights to and from ORD to PHL and EWR! A short flight! And, of course, economy class had chicken or beef. Always lots of food on all flights! So much was wasted also.
It wasn’t until around 2003 that United started selling food.
Thanks for the comments. I’m sure your right, that this is an important factor in the success/failure of various airlines.
You might want to examine the operational consequences of deregulation before casting undocumented aspersions. But I doubt you will ! As a long-time user of the air-travel system on a weekly basis, I’ll give you a quick sketch of the critical impacts.
Service: Deregulation took us from a “route system” providing air travel to/between multiple cities on that route and multiple links to the nation at those stops; to a “Hub and Spoke system” for the sole purpose of keeping passengers on a particular line, regardless of how much their travel time was extended. Many small cities lost air travel access or had “air taxi” access only.
The quality of passenger declined rapidly until air travel became the modern equivalent of riding the bus. Often a third world bus, at that.
Safety: The hordes of “great unwashed” also exhibit a remarkable degree of contempt for even basic safety rules and instructions, demanding a “exit row seat” then completely ignoring the rules about placement of carryons, or safety briefings despite having contractually obligated themselves to do so.
By bringing aboard bags and articles for overhead stowage, by their weight and character, posing lethal threats in event of an incident, combineded with their lack of self-dicpline posed a “perfect storm” in event of an incident.
Deregulation turned a largely co-operative industry into a competitive one, where once superbly maintained aircraft are now commonly dispatched with multiple “in-op” flags on cockpit instruments, faulty, in-op or missing cabin safety equipment awaiting sufficient “lay-over” time at a station with repair facilities. Aircraft became dirtier, vital servicing short-cut, and crew duty hours increased in the chase for revenue. Crew training was curtailed.
A DC-10 shed an engine coming out of O’Hare due to faulty (think “short-cut) engine replacement procedures. All aboard died. A 37 out of National ended up in the Potomac because line procedures didn’t permit/encourage pilots to return for de-icing. And the toll goes on annually ! Visit the NTSB.Gov site for a litany of crashes attributed to training/maintenance/operational failures all finding their genisis in “deregulation”. >PS
Thanks for your post! My neighbor is an ex-Eastern Airlines pilot from the 70’s thru the early 90’s. Actually flew them until they went away... literally overnight. He landed in Florida. Him and the crew checked into their hotel. Someone told him to turn on the news and that is how he found out that his airline no longer existed. He called the hotline and they literally told him “You’re on your own.”. Luckily he was able to hop a flight on another airline.
I remember the food on airlines. Now, the only time you get food is if you fly overseas. You’re right though. The food was actually good at the time! And the interior walls were yellow from the cigarette smoke! Ahhh.... the good old days!!!
“Thanks for your post! My neighbor is an ex-Eastern Airlines pilot from the 70’s thru the early 90’s. Actually flew them until they went away... literally overnight. He landed in Florida. Him and the crew checked into their hotel. Someone told him to turn on the news and that is how he found out that his airline no longer existed. He called the hotline and they literally told him “You’re on your own.”. Luckily he was able to hop a flight on another airline.”
“I remember the food on airlines. Now, the only time you get food is if you fly overseas. You’re right though. The food was actually good at the time! And the interior walls were yellow from the cigarette smoke! Ahhh.... the good old days!!!”
OMG....your Eastern Airlines story! How very interesting! I must ask my friend...a retired United F/A...about her husband, a former Eastern pilot....where he was when it happened!
Regarding the cigarette smoke...
I will never forget...many years ago...mechanics coming onboard one of our airplanes. Something was wrong with a door...we waited for them to fix it with passengers onboard.
The mechanics fixed it, but commented on the guck that was in every door of every airplane because of cigarette smoke!
Management takes care of management.
Scum had the votes in 2009. But not in 2011.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.