Blame Pilots as Labor Dispute Not Pilot Shortage

[swamt]

How typical of Alaska management. They want to blame the Pilots and make it "look like" it's the Pilots fault for the cancelations of flights instead of blaming them selves for their shortage of Pilots. All Pilots at the "info picketing" were "OFF DUTY" AND this was an "info" picketing not a striking picketing. But as uaual the co. wants to make it look likes it's all the Pilots fault. Put your big boys pants on Alaska and just admit that there is a Pilot shortage because YOU (Alaska) did not "prepare" enough for the rebound in traffic. If the Pilots were to have something to do with it, you would have a lot more than just 120 flights canceled...

Alaska Airlines cancels more than 120 flights and warns of possible weekend disruptions

Canceled flights affected more than 15,000 Alaska Airlines passengers on Friday and the airline warned there could be more disruptions this weekend in the middle of the spring break travel season.

www.yahoo.com

 

[eolesen]

Picketing won't cause cancelations, but let's say the quiet part out loud - pilots probably are not picking up open time. Pretty much the same effect as when mechanics start to refuse overtime. Every airline counts on some degree of people picking up extra flying or overtime, which is why it's an easy target for a labor dispute without violating the letter of the contract.

 

[swamt]

Hey Alaska, this is how you admit when it's your fault. SWA admits that this routine maint outage was the cause of a much larger outage for some delays and cancelations Nationwide. Just suck it up, admit it "UP FRONT" and apologize profoundly and refund or add discounts as needed. Easier for the general public to understand and even continue to use in the future. If anything it's a much better "trust" factor to keep your loyal passengers...

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/04/02/southwest-airlines-says-planned-system-outage-affecting-flights-nationwide-including-houston-area-airports/&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoUMTUyNTY4NjgzMzEwNzUwNjY0OTMyGmQ1YjljMjg3OWNhYTVkNDE6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNF27jBQEvRpzzCbUibqKL-aFKSz2A

 

[eolesen]

Sorry, but planning "routine IT maintenance" for 0400 is about as dumb as it gets.

Take the outage at 0100. Yeah, you might impact a few late departing flights, but never, EVER, mess with the startup flights. You won't recover for the rest of the day.

 

[Kev3188]

+1

And make that 0100 on a Saturday or Sunday...

 

[swamt]

Sorry, but planning "routine IT maintenance" for 0400 is about as dumb as it gets.

Take the outage at 0100. Yeah, you might impact a few late departing flights, but never, EVER, mess with the startup flights. You won't recover for the rest of the day.

+1

And make that 0100 on a Saturday or Sunday...

Agree with ya both here. As a matter fact that is when they have done always in the past. Why in the world someone tried it before the weekend and so late in the morning is beyond me too. A bunch of flights were still outta wack all day Sun.

 

[eolesen]

And make that 0100 on a Saturday or Sunday...

Nope. Far better to do it on a Tuesday/Wednesday which are historically the lowest volume days of the week.

Plus, when you do have things hit the fan, trying to find people in the middle of the work week is always going to be more successful than trying to fix things on the weekend with whoever just happened to be on call and/or not traveling. Ask me how I know this....

 

[swamt]

At least KIRO7 has admitted they were wrong for calling it a job action or a strike by the Pilots when in reality and now properly reported as a Pilot shortage. Many other airlines have the same problem as evident over this past weekend...

Alaska Airlines cancels more flights as pilot shortage continues

Tens of thousands of Alaska Airlines passengers have been impacted since Friday as the airline continues to deal with staffing shortages.

www.yahoo.com