Aircraft 103

[firstamendment]

I just got off of a trip and had the displeasure of taking over (airbus) aircraft 103, that had three broken overhead bins...one at row 2, one at row 4, and one at row 7. My crew was on their way to PHX. When I got on the airplane, it looked like a kid tried to get by with duct taping mom's broken vase. It was sloppy, alarming to say the least, and had three extra bins taped up in addition to the three broken for a total of nine unusable bins on a full flight. This was written up on Jan 24. Supposedly the a/c hadn't overnighted at a maint. base that could repair it. I must give a huge kudos to the PIT guys who came onboard and at least preserved three bins and made the broken ones look less tacky. They were great , understanding, as well as shocked that it was written up and meled in PIT. Thanks guys.

Question:

I understand how these things work, but with the many times that aircraft are changed for maint., how come this a/c wasn't simply changed to ron in CLT, PIT, or PHL for repairs? OR Why couldn't the items be put in the belly to be repaired wherever it ron's provided there is maint.? We aren't talking repairing the engines.

Comment:

I was embarrased to board customers on this aircraft. This looked horrible for US. Can you imagine what else our customers must be thinking is duct taped? Now I know we are short the employees we need but please remember, you can tape up the whole airplane, but we f/a's are the ones who have to face the distressed looks on our customer's faces. If you have the attitude of just tape it up (and sloppily) and send it on it's way, you are only hurting your fellow co-workers.


Any comments on what can be done to improve upon items being repaired would be appreciated.

BTW, the tooth latches probably contributed to the breaking of the bins because customers are always getting their bags hung on them.

Thanks for any useful comments.
First

 

[AOG-N-IT]

To answer you question most directly....a minimum of two factors have prevented your BINS from being repaired.

(1) The fleet shrinkage due to planes being parked in GYR is hampering the routings.

(2) The Materials Branch is being hamstrung on purchasing anything not deemed critical to flight safety issues. The inventory for routine items such as this , has never been good for our fleet of Arbii...and it's gettng steadily worse. The Boeings are now starting to suffer from the penny pinch as well.

 

[Light Years]

 

[LOVDPIEDMONT]

Sadly, our beloved US is finished.

 

[sfb]

You have to wonder if Dave S. forgot some of the tenets of Continental's "Go Forward" Plan:

"Deliver an industry-leading product we are proud to sell."
"Help well-trained employees build careers they enjoy every day. Treat each other with dignity and respect."

Dirty planes with broken-down interiors don't contribute to a positive passenger perception of an airline, no matter how hard the front-line staff works to please the folks on the planes. It only gives further fuel to perceptions that the airline is going out of business -- and that's the last thing US Airways needs right now.

To quote Gordon Bethune (whether you love him or hate him) from a speech he gave to the International Aviation Club of Washington, DC on September 15, 2003:

"This brings me to the topic of value. As I said earlier, customers want value, and customers always get what they want and are willing to pay for.

"But what is value? Is it just low fares? Not if Continental’s past experience is any guide.

"Back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Continental was the lowest-cost hub-and-spoke airline – and we lost a fortune. We were charging our customers the least, and paying our employees the least. Yet, we still took two trips into bankruptcy – and were on our way into a third – when we decided to start listening to the customer, instead of telling the customer what we wanted.

"Back then, we took so much cheese off of the pizza, that eventually nobody wanted to order from us anymore. When we went back to looking at value instead of solely at fares, customers came back to us in droves."

 

[firstamendment]

To answer you question most directly....a minimum of two factors have prevented your BINS from being repaired.

(1) The fleet shrinkage due to planes being parked in GYR is hampering the routings.

(2) The Materials Branch is being hamstrung on purchasing anything not deemed critical to flight safety issues. The inventory for routine items such as this , has never been good for our fleet of Arbii...and it's gettng steadily worse. The Boeings are now starting to suffer from the penny pinch as well.

Thanks for your imput. It all just sickens me.