B B B and F.U.R.P.!

[IORFA]

comme


i couldn't agree with you more, making descriptive comments about spouses and kids usually comes as part of an attack on a poster. The moderators seem not to care until you defend yourself or your family.

Mr. Sensitive to the rescue. Just stick to the topic. All the people were alluding to was the old TWA mantra, Karma. Apparantly, Karma is visiting Our Pays' world as we speak.

 

[eolesen]

Grow up...

 

[flyastrojets]

Did anyone ever confirm that Gerard and his wife are divorcing for certain? Sad news, if so. First time I met him, he was in an airport gift shop looking for something for his kids. I also delivered news that his flight was late due to t-storms in DFW. I didn't get yelled at, which was a refreshing change from his predecessor.

 

[slupilot01]

so if any one of you get a divorce because of some unforseen (or in some cases forseen) reason, would you like it if this board aired your very personal, private laundry? I think not...grow up, act like an adult, and be a human being. I know its hard, but give it a shot

 

[AMFAMAN]

In a attempt to go back to the topic of Bring back Bob, a NYT article from Bob Crandall:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/opinion/21crandall.html

April 21, 2008

Op-Ed Contributor

Charge More, Merge Less, Fly Better
By ROBERT CRANDALL

Palm City, Fla.

THIRTY years ago this fall, Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Since then, America’s airline system has greatly deteriorated.

Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality and international reputation. Fewer and fewer flights are on time. Airport congestion has become a staple of late-night comedy shows. An ever higher percentage of bags are lost or sent to the wrong airports. Last-minute seats are harder and harder to find. Passenger complaints have skyrocketed. Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable.

Consolidation will not resolve the woes of individual carriers, nor will it fix the nation’s aviation problems. Delta and Northwest agreed to a merger last week, and that deal is likely to be followed by other proposals. But the case for mergers is unpersuasive. Mergers will not lower fuel prices. They will not increase economies of scale for already sizable major airlines. They will create very large costs related to consolidation. And they will anger airline employees, who will perceive themselves to be hurt by the mergers.

Although the system could conceivably be operated by a single efficient carrier, consumers clearly benefit from the existence of multiple airlines. The absence of competition never fosters better customer service.

Market-based approaches alone have not and will not produce the aviation system our country needs. We do not need to return to the over-regulation of the past, but some government intervention is required. The objectives of a national aviation policy should be to enable people to move easily from one place to another, to assure safe, courteous and on-time service for consumers, and to improve the financial performance and international competitiveness of America’s airlines.

The first steps toward achieving these goals should be to improve our outdated air traffic control system, to build much-needed new runways and airport facilities, and to lower the heavy taxes and fees now imposed on airlines and their customers.

Today, aircraft movements are constrained by a radar-based air traffic control system that locks aircraft into predetermined, often crowded routes and that gives pilots little information about the locations of other planes. The system worsens congestion in the air and on the ground.

A new air traffic control system, based on the use of the global positioning system, is in the works. It will reduce costs and congestion by providing pilots with information about other planes, freeing them to choose optimal routes. Unfortunately, Congress has not provided the money to put the new system in place as quickly as possible.

Until the new system is in place, the number of flights at major airports needs to be reduced. Right now, airlines schedule more flights than the runways, terminals and air traffic control system can accommodate. Airlines cannot unilaterally reduce flights because doing so would grant other airlines a competitive advantage. In the short term, the only solution is a government mandate that limits flights to the number the system can handle. To create capacity for future demand, we need to build more aviation facilities, including high-speed rail systems that would encourage the use of airports that are farther away from the cities they serve.

The financial standards for new airlines also need to be made more stringent. In the years since deregulation, nearly 200 airlines have come and gone. These inadequately financed carriers — whose principal goal has often seemed to be merely to exist long enough to reap the rewards of an initial public offering — have consistently cut prices to attract passengers. This downward pressure on prices has hurt airlines that seek long-term success.

We should also revisit the basis on which we negotiate international aviation agreements. Since the 1980s, our government has too often agreed to “consumer friendly†pacts whose sole apparent purpose has been to try to lower prices for travelers. Because the United States has long been the world’s largest aviation market, these agreements have provided more opportunities for expansion to foreign airlines than to our own, with predictable consequences.

Given the recent concerns about aircraft safety, offshore maintenance of American aircraft should be prohibited. Maintenance performed in the United States is done under more demanding rules and a far higher level of Federal Aviation Administration oversight than work done abroad. Keeping the work here would enhance any safety improvements that result from the Transportation Department’s new plan to overhaul its oversight procedures. Moreover, bringing aircraft maintenance work back to the United States will re-create many thousands of skilled jobs.

Fees and taxes can be as much as 50 percent of the purchase price of an airline ticket and typically amount to about 15 percent, according to a study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Daniel Webster College in Nashua, N.H. Reducing these charges would make it easier for the carriers to recapture their costs without pricing travel beyond the reach of many customers.

Finally, we need to restore balance to the relationship between management and labor in the airline industry. Revising our bankruptcy laws to prevent failed airlines from continuing to operate would focus management and labor on the virtues of cooperation rather than confrontation. Similarly, binding arbitration of labor disputes would encourage both sides to avoid unreasonable positions and would free the nation’s transportation system from the threat of work stoppages.

We need to be realistic: whether there are mergers or not, airline fares are going to increase. Every business must charge enough to cover its operating and capital costs. Regulatory and oversight changes intended to make our carriers more successful may well force prices up faster than would otherwise be the case. But we will be better off with higher fares and more competitors than with higher fares and fewer competitors.

The enormous economic importance of our once peerless aviation system is indisputable. Adding some sensible regulations and making the investments needed to give our airlines opportunities for success would be a far better way to safeguard that economic contribution than further airline consolidation.

Robert Crandall, the chief executive of American Airlines from 1985 to 1998, is the chief executive of an air taxi startup.

 

[BigBangTheory]

Grow up...

Aww, it seems someone is upset because they didn't get their upgrade. Poor baby.

 

[eolesen]

Read Crandall's remarks closely.... Binding arbitration as a way of ending the threat of work stoppages.

Still want him back lobbying Congress to change the bankruptcy laws and RLA?....

Aww, it seems someone is upset because they didn't get their upgrade. Poor baby.

No upgrades necessary when you're paying full J or F. And I really like the Admirals Club. Best decision CR ever made (and Bob upheld) was keeping the employees from buying memberships (unlike UA and DL, where employees can join). No need to watch the nonrevs circling the ticket lift desk like buzzards around roadkill, and all the free sodas and salty death mix I can eat while surfing on the free wi-fi. Yum.


Seriously, I'd go back to work for him in a 633 Third minute, even if it meant bringing my wingtips, suits and button downs out of retirement.... but I don't think the rest of y'all could handle Bob being back at the helm.

The union leaders today wouldn't know what hit them...

And while you think he'd be harsher than Arpey, I'm not as convinced that he'd clean house on the management side as deep as you might think... Pretty much all of the SVP's except for Brundage, Reding and Ford worked for him at one point or another.

 

[title1 for life]

Read Crandall's remarks closely.... Binding arbitration as a way of ending the threat of work stoppages.

Still want him back lobbying Congress to change the bankruptcy laws and RLA?....



No upgrades necessary when you're paying full J or F. And I really like the Admirals Club. Best decision CR ever made (and Bob upheld) was keeping the employees from buying memberships (unlike UA and DL, where employees can join). No need to watch the nonrevs circling the ticket lift desk like buzzards around roadkill, and all the free sodas and salty death mix I can eat while surfing on the free wi-fi. Yum.


Seriously, I'd go back to work for him in a 633 Third minute, even if it meant bringing my wingtips, suits and button downs out of retirement.... but I don't think the rest of y'all could handle Bob being back at the helm.

The union leaders today wouldn't know what hit them...

And while you think he'd be harsher than Arpey, I'm not as convinced that he'd clean house on the management side as deep as you might think... Pretty much all of the SVP's except for Brundage, Reding and Ford worked for him at one point or another.

Personally I remember seeing all of the company UpAAtes monthly stating the need for yet a lower scale AMT IE the SRP. Just after the contract passed the company made record profits and never once agreed to open the contract to give the work force relief.Of coarse that was after B and C scale during the window of opportunity years.

The people that stand to gain the most from bringing Mr. Crandall back would be share holders.I really don't know where we would stand with him back. Maybe on the out side of the fence looking in ? Wow I never knew that employees that keep the company running were thought of as buzzards circling road kill. At least I know how a former management person sees me and my family thanks. <_<

 

[eolesen]

Wow I never knew that employees that keep the company running were thought of as buzzards circling road kill. At least I know how a former management person sees me and my family thanks. <_<

No, that's how I as a former gate agent from ORD/DFW/JFK saw it....

 

[title1 for life]

No, that's how I as a former gate agent from ORD/DFW/JFK saw it....

My apoliges for assuming you were managment !
As a gate agent I guess you also spent time circling the counter yourself excessing your non rev privilege. I have met my share of self righteous gate agents during my employment here. At least I know what your company back ground is. Cheers ! :blink: