NW Flight Cancellations

[upsilon]

It is all over other aviation and flying message boards and blogs about the massive flight cancellations now going on at NW. What do you "insiders" have to say about it?

 

[slothman2000]

It is all over other aviation and flying message boards and blogs about the massive flight cancellations now going on at NW. What do you "insiders" have to say about it?

Oh come now....they're telling the gate and reservation agents to say that it's "weather related"....so they must be right....right????? :blink:

 

[jenny@nw]

Oh come now....they're telling the gate and reservation agents to say that it's "weather related"....so they must be right....right????? :blink:

Let's see what Finman says on this one.

 

[Kev3188]

Slothman is correct; the official script the company has handed out to CSA's blames both weather and ATC for all of the cancellations....Here's an announcement that was posted on our internal employee website:



"NWA Statement Regarding Flight Cancellations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In recent weeks, severe weather has disrupted air service across the East Coast and Midwest for a number of airlines, including Northwest. As a result, the weather and related air traffic control restrictions have disrupted Northwest’s scheduled operations, causing increased crew duty time and the inability to consistently position aircraft and crews as needed.
The recent severe weather events have caused Northwest to experience crew shortages, which have resulted in some flight cancellations. Northwest is working to correct the situation.

Northwest is taking steps to address the situation including:

1. Relaxing travel restrictions to help ensure flight reaccomodation as quickly as possible
2. Proactively cancelling flights well in advance to allow adequate time to rebook
3. Increased use of Northwest’s Automated Flight Rebooking (AFR) system to help ensure quick reaccomodation
4. Increasing reservations and airport staffing to assist customers with their flights.
5. Contacting customers regarding the status of their flights including:

Extensive use of the airline’s automated notification system, which alerts customers to a change in their travel plans and when possible, automatically provides new flight information.

Aggressively promoting recently improved technology to notify customers by email and PDA of any flight schedule change.
As always, Northwest is advising customers to check the status of their flights at nwa.com. Through nwa.com, customers can also take advantage of the airline’s convenient “My NWA Infoâ€￾ flight status notification options, which provide customers with current flight information. Flight status updates are also available through Northwest’s toll-free automated flight information line at 1-800-441-1818.

Northwest sincerely apologizes to its customers for the inconvenience this issue has caused."






While I concede that that's part of the problem, the main component is marketing built a schedule flight ops couldn't cover. A combination of not enough pilots, ot enough accepting recall, and those on the property flying a lot of time meant something had to give. It's also my understanding that those that did come back had 30 days to decide, which pushed things back that much further (not even taking into account the recurrent training, etc.).

IIRC, this weekend saw 250 or so flights cancelled due to no crew(s).

My city is seeing an average of 1-2 flights cut daily. Some cities are seeing more.

As for which flights are getting cut, that seems to be a bit of a moving target. One day it seems like A19/A320 trips are the ones systemwide, the next it's '57's, then DC9 trips. I'm sure someone can explain why that is better than I can....

Anecdotally, it's made for some interesting equipment subs while the company scrambles to plug all the springing leaks. For example on Friday (I think?), PDX saw 2 MSP and 1 DTW turns using A330's instead of the usual 757 and A320 equipment. I believe LAX had 1 DTW turn do the same.

Our printer at work has also been running non-stop with "future cancellation" teletypes, so I have no idea if the end of all this is near.

What I do know os that if they don't rectify this soon, the same crews will eventually time out for the year, which oughta make the holidays, um, interesting...

 

[groundcontrol]

ahhhh...looks like they're earning those millions.

 

[jenny@nw]

flawless.

 

[whaledriver]

Pilots are reaching the monthly max early each month. Very few are flying high time due to fatigue and QOL issues. Mgt was told by NWA-ALPA in advance the schedule presented by marketing would not work based on the lack of pilots. NWA mgt was way to slow on the pilot recalls. Look for pilot hiring to start in the next few months. Maybe if we just pay Doug Steenland another $26 million, he'll learn how to run an airline someday...

 

[jenny@nw]

Pilots are reaching the monthly max early each month. Very few are flying high time due to fatigue and QOL issues. Mgt was told by NWA-ALPA in advance the schedule presented by marketing would not work based on the lack of pilots. NWA mgt was way to slow on the pilot recalls. Look for pilot hiring to start in the next few months. Maybe if we just pay Doug Steenland another $26 million, he'll learn how to run an airline someday...

Oh come on now... you mean that "talent" with the big bucks didn't listen to you guys?

 

[Hackman]

Let's see what Finman says on this one.

Well of course, it will be the ALPA that is at fault. 🙄

 

[Kev3188]

For today (26.June.07):

Systemwide cancellatons due to lack of crews: 181

Passengers affected: 12,522

Passengers "lost*": 4,980



* Lost passengers include anyone not reaccomodated on NWA flights

My station tomorrow has 4 flights cancelled, for a total of 408 affected pax.

 

[finman]

Well of course, it will be the ALPA that is at fault. 🙄

The airline is staffed based on reasonable expectations of sick calls, largely derived from historical norms and a moderate contingency. When sick calls drastically increase over historical norms it makes it nearly impossible to staff to the level needed to cover that shortage.

So yes, it is ALPA's fault, as they conducting a quasi sick-out in order to sabotage the system at a very opportune time for them to make a message to management.

Historical norm Sick % (2004 - 2006) - 9.5%
Jun06 Sick pay percent of total pay - 9.8%
June07 Sick pay percent of total pay - 15.6%

This drastic increase over prior year and over the historical norm is an obvious indicator of sick abuse. The number of man-monthths that is chewed up by this differential in sick usage (about 5.8%) is about 300 pilots. I.E., in order to cover the sick-out currently being employed, NWA would have had to have an additional 300 active pilots.

You can thank ALPA for your diminished profit sharing check this year, as they are costing NWA tens of millions of dollars with their current action. Since they are all making well over $100k on average, I'm sure that must sit really well with you guys.

 

[groundcontrol]

The airline is staffed based on reasonable expectations of sick calls, largely derived from historical norms and a moderate contingency. When sick calls drastically increase over historical norms it makes it nearly impossible to staff to the level needed to cover that shortage.

So yes, it is ALPA's fault, as they conducting a quasi sick-out in order to sabotage the system at a very opportune time for them to make a message to management.

Historical norm Sick % (2004 - 2006) - 9.5%
Jun06 Sick pay percent of total pay - 9.8%
June07 Sick pay percent of total pay - 15.6%

This drastic increase over prior year and over the historical norm is an obvious indicator of sick abuse. The number of man-monthths that is chewed up by this differential in sick usage (about 5.8%) is about 300 pilots. I.E., in order to cover the sick-out currently being employed, NWA would have had to have an additional 300 active pilots.

You can thank ALPA for your diminished profit sharing check this year, as they are costing NWA tens of millions of dollars with their current action. Since they are all making well over $100k on average, I'm sure that must sit really well with you guys.

Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha....
Your so funny!
So, you don't suppose that the imposed contract finally caught up to the mismanaged system?

Don't get down on the fly boys (gals) for your profit sharing loss, it won't do you any good. They do no wrong and command the airline. Get over it and move on. Perhaps its time for a new job finny ol boy you sound discontent.

 

[finman]

Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha....
Your so funny!

Thank you. It's a gift.

 

[finman]

So, you don't suppose that the imposed contract finally caught up to the mismanaged system?

Don't get down on the fly boys (gals) for your profit sharing loss, it won't do you any good. They do no wrong and command the airline. Get over it and move on. Perhaps its time for a new job finny ol boy you sound discontent.

Huh? You mean the ratified contract from August of 2006? This contract has made pilots sicker? Not sure what you're trying to say?

Oh, I'm not too concerned about the profit sharing. Apparently you're not either. I'm just giving all of you the facts behind the story, just in case you were interested in digging past the headlines.

I'm very content; not sure why you'd think otherwise. If it looks like the unions are going to try to kill the airline, I can always get a job elsewhere. Until then, I plan on enjoying the ride.

Do you have an actual response or opinion on the substance of the post?

 

[robbedagain]

well there goes the profit for the summer and those profit sharing checks!