NW Flight Cancellations

[jenny@nw]

Northwest Calls Off Hundreds of Flights
By Ted Reed
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
6/25/2007 3:18 PM EDT
URL: http://www.thestreet.com/newsanalysis/tran...n/10364704.html

Northwest (NWA) has cancelled more than 500 flights over the past four days, apparently because of crew shortages.

The cancellations could be a precursor to problems that will plague travelers throughout the summer if airline pilots—frustrated by reduced compensation and increased work hours—are unwilling or unable to volunteer to fly beyond their normal scheduled hours.

According to FlightStats.com, Northwest called off 453 flights from Friday through Sunday. More than 125 additional flights were taken off the schedule by midday Monday. Minnesota-based Northwest operates about 1,400 daily departures.

“This staffing problem is something we have pointed out for a long time,†said Wade Blaufuss, spokesman for the Northwest chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. “The company wants to operate the airline at the red line. It looks great on paper, but intangibles like fatigue and morale and stress don’t show up on a balance sheet.â€

A Northwest spokesman declined to immediately comment. The carrier is just weeks removed from its emergence from bankruptcy protection.

Federal regulations limit pilots to flying 1,000 hours a year and 100 hours a month. Normally, airlines fly heavier schedules in the summer, when travel surges, and rely at times on volunteers to enable them to operate a full schedule.

“It looks like Northwest got the short straw,†said Meara McLaughlin, spokeswoman for FlightStats, which compiles flight statistics for various travel businesses. “At this point, the system is so tightly wound that if you just have reduced staffing or bad weather or airport congestion or a VIP flying through, you [quickly] get to the breaking point.â€

Andy Wisbacher, spokesman for the Northwest chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants, said he has had three A320 flights cancelled in the past two weeks due to a shortage of pilot crews.

“I can only imagine that Northwest knew about this going into the summer and didn’t plan properly,†he said. “I expect it will go on through the summer.â€

http://www.thestreet.com/pf/newsanalysis/t...n/10364704.html

 

[jenny@nw]

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

Who cares about those checks. Take thousands away and replace it with a few hunderd? Oh come on. My home rental brings me more than the paycheck that I get now.

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%

Well, well, well. Why is it ALPA's fault? How do you know they are doing sick calls on purpose? You know something we don't know?

Perhaps these "sicks" are also under the same definition as calling in "fatigued". Really, come on they are not about to get on a plane with 2 hrs sleep at some ghetto hotel that took them an hour to get to and kill themselves and 100+ other people because you guys overworked them.

As usual, your nose is just as brown as my kitty's dingleberry.

I'd like to see you fly crappy ill maintained airplanes for 16 hrs (with delays) and do this again next day after mininum rest for 8+ days straight.

Flat and simple. Gifted management team failed to understand that pilots can't fly over certain amounts legally and didn't listen to what ALPA said about the scheduel wasn't workable with the staff they have currently (or projected)

Someone up there demanded to get as much work smallest amount of people. Wages aren't fixed cost so of course they went that route.

I'm really angry about this because this has a domino effect with everyone and people are now wondering about losing their jobs since someone obviously miscalculated.

This is the kind of junk that happens when private companies go public.

 

[whaledriver]

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.

Fin,

I've flown with several crews over the past few months...nothing with regards to sick abuse or sabotage. It's really just a staffing issue, most pilots are at the monthly max of 88 hrs, flexed up to 90 hrs. Pilots are fatigue and not willing to fly high time. In the past pilots would fly high time with a better QOL schedule. Now pilots fly the max and go home for the very few days that they have off each month. NWA-ALPA has nothing to do with this problem, they actually warned the company months ago that this very thing would happen unless they increased pilot staffing.

 

[Hackman]

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?

Sorry finny, if you want to point fingers at all the problems Scab Air is currently enjoying, point it at your $26 million dollar failure....Dougie "Bucktooth" Stealin'.

His flagrant greed and arrogance got the airline to the edge of the cliff again, along with the rest of his management henchmen. The unions didn't kill anything, he did.

Enjoy the ride....'cause we sure are. 😉

 

[jenny@nw]

Fin,

I've flown with several crews over the past few months...nothing with regards to sick abuse or sabotage. It's really just a staffing issue, most pilots are at the monthly max of 88 hrs, flexed up to 90 hrs. Pilots are fatigue and not willing to fly high time. In the past pilots would fly high time with a better QOL schedule. Now pilots fly the max and go home for the very few days that they have off each month. NWA-ALPA has nothing to do with this problem, they actually warned the company months ago that this very thing would happen unless they increased pilot staffing.

Exactly. There is NO such thing as anyone doing any sick abuse or sabotage!
I have seen so many tired pilots. One flight they even mentioned that it was amazing they didn't crash- because they were really tired. :down: :down: :down:

 

[groundcontrol]

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

Do you understand my response or "opinion" on the substance of my post now after reading some of the other posts?

My opinion was that you were "baiting" people who frequent this site into anomosity towards the pilots for messing up profit sharing etc....it's the "mis"management team screwing everything up....always was always will be.

Yes, imposed contracts have a funny way of catching up to themselves.

Huh, and I thought PTO was the master baiter on this site??!! go figure! 😛

 

[finman]

Fin,

I've flown with several crews over the past few months...nothing with regards to sick abuse or sabotage. It's really just a staffing issue, most pilots are at the monthly max of 88 hrs, flexed up to 90 hrs. Pilots are fatigue and not willing to fly high time. In the past pilots would fly high time with a better QOL schedule. Now pilots fly the max and go home for the very few days that they have off each month. NWA-ALPA has nothing to do with this problem, they actually warned the company months ago that this very thing would happen unless they increased pilot staffing.

So the fact that pilots are calling in sick about 60% more than the recent historical norm has nothing to do with this? There wouldn't be a need to have pilots fly high time if there wasn't all of the extra sick calls in the first place. This is a concerted effort here. You can't tell me that these pilots are such whiny wimps that they can't handle flying 80-90 hours in a month. Southwest pilots have been doing it for years. Are Southwest pilots just tougher and harder workers than NWA pilots?

ALPA doesn't like the current work rules, and this is the only way they can create a shortage and thus cause cancellations. Did ALPA send out a memo with who should call in sick and when? Of course not, but the numbers don't lie. When on average every pilot is calling in sick for 1 out of every 5 trips, it is sick abuse/sabotoge. I don't buy that all of a sudden our entire pilot workforce is sick 60% more than they used to be.

As such, this has nothing to do with staffing; unless you propose that NWA overstaff the airline by 300-400 pilots just in case the pilots decide to do a sick-out. It's very unfortunate that NWA caved in during contract negotiations when it came to putting teeth into the sick language. Getting sick paid at 75% for all sick calls, like a lot of other employees in the company now work under, would have gone a long way to preventing this type of work action. Pilots get 100% pay on sick calls, so there is not financial disincentive for them to call in sick during work actions like this.

 

[tadjr]

Getting sick paid at 75% for all sick calls, like a lot of other employees in the company now work under,

Since I am unfamiliar with NW and who gets what, just curious if you currently fall under the 75% plan for sick time?

 

[finman]

Since I am unfamiliar with NW and who gets what, just curious if you currently fall under the 75% plan for sick time?

Yes, I do.

 

[ExAF]

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?

Finny, you are so full of cr@p. There is no sick out. If there was a sick out the sick rates would be MUCH higher. It is just the toll of flying max hours a month for numerous months in a row. Fatigue builds over time and eventually can effect the health of the body. You must feel defeated or at least defesive to resort to calling the NWA pilot force wimpy. I would love to see you drop by the terminal near the rest room or bag room and say that to a few of their faces. The NWA system is not set up to fly those kind of hour for an exteded period of time like SWAs is. I'll bet you didn't know that SWA pilots don't usually switch planes during the day. They fly one plane all day. That makes a 5-leg day much easier than bag-dragging to 3 jets at opposite ends of the terminal each day. I'm not going to waset my time explaining why that actully makes a difference, you'll just have to take my word for it that it makes a huge difference. I'm sure better planning and scheduling at NWA could fix that and reduce fatigue. They also don't do 4 hour sits at the terminal and 33 hour layovers at Fargo. Don't compare apples to oranges. The real problem is the lack of planning on mgt's part to properly staff the airline at the increased work load. Higher than normal attrition also factors into the equation. There are pilots bailing for greener pastures at all levels of experience. Add to that, when you take away all of the carrots for being an instructor, it is no surprise that you lose instructors. Then you have to train more of them to keep up training and that overburdens an already maxed out training pipeline. Marketing bought off on more than they could handle. When you run a system at redline it only takes a minor hiccup to get it past the red and into the meltdown mode. Poke your head out of the cubicle once in a while and get a dose of reality. You can't find all of the answers in number crunching. You can't blame this on the weather, the FAs or the pilots. This is mgt's pooch and they screwed it. C Ya.

 

[Kev3188]

.

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%

Fin,

Where did you get these numbers from?

You can thank ALPA for your diminished profit sharing check this year...

Between my new coffee mug and my $62.07 performance incentive check, I'm good. 😉

 

[Kev3188]

Fin,

I've flown with several crews over the past few months...nothing with regards to sick abuse or sabotage. It's really just a staffing issue, most pilots are at the monthly max of 88 hrs, flexed up to 90 hrs. Pilots are fatigue and not willing to fly high time. In the past pilots would fly high time with a better QOL schedule. Now pilots fly the max and go home for the very few days that they have off each month. NWA-ALPA has nothing to do with this problem, they actually warned the company months ago that this very thing would happen unless they increased pilot staffing.

Where's the "hit the nail on the head" emoticon when you need it?

Sometimes things really are what they seem....The problem is NWA mgmt. constantly looking for an ulterior motive. Not for nothing, but it's this same mentality that is the biggest stumbling block in implementing NWA's latest "hooray for everything" programs, to say nothing of moving forward as a company.

No matter the end result, I think blaming the weather and ATC is weak. After all, not only do T-storms happen every year, but NWA is an airline that has always prided itself on flying in brutal weather. It's also important to note that no other carriers had significant "weather related" delays during the same time frame.

With regards to staffing, too many times NWA has tried to do too much with not enough. They assume a lot of holes in any given schedule (be it Ground or Flight ops) can be covered with overtime. The problem comes when trying to cover definitive items like a flight schedule with subjective variables (will the pilot, F/A, AMT, or ESE work the OT? Who knows?). The company is so convinced that people will come in to work, that they're blindsided when they don't.

Whaledriver, I'm curious; awhile back NWA made quite a big deal about "unpadding" block times...Are they still pared down, or did they add time(s) back in?

 

[finman]

Fin,

Where did you get these numbers from?
Between my new coffee mug and my $62.07 performance incentive check, I'm good. 😉

Actual data from the crew scheduling and crew payroll systems.

Not sure why everyone seems to think that this huge spike in sick is somehow something NWA should have expected and staffed for. That defies logic. The airline was staffed with a moderate surplus for June based on the "normal" sick unavailibility.

 

[finman]

Finny, you are so full of cr@p. There is no sick out. If there was a sick out the sick rates would be MUCH higher. It is just the toll of flying max hours a month for numerous months in a row. Fatigue builds over time and eventually can effect the health of the body. You must feel defeated or at least defesive to resort to calling the NWA pilot force wimpy. I would love to see you drop by the terminal near the rest room or bag room and say that to a few of their faces. The NWA system is not set up to fly those kind of hour for an exteded period of time like SWAs is. I'll bet you didn't know that SWA pilots don't usually switch planes during the day. They fly one plane all day. That makes a 5-leg day much easier than bag-dragging to 3 jets at opposite ends of the terminal each day. I'm not going to waset my time explaining why that actully makes a difference, you'll just have to take my word for it that it makes a huge difference. I'm sure better planning and scheduling at NWA could fix that and reduce fatigue. They also don't do 4 hour sits at the terminal and 33 hour layovers at Fargo. Don't compare apples to oranges. The real problem is the lack of planning on mgt's part to properly staff the airline at the increased work load. Higher than normal attrition also factors into the equation. There are pilots bailing for greener pastures at all levels of experience. Add to that, when you take away all of the carrots for being an instructor, it is no surprise that you lose instructors. Then you have to train more of them to keep up training and that overburdens an already maxed out training pipeline. Marketing bought off on more than they could handle. When you run a system at redline it only takes a minor hiccup to get it past the red and into the meltdown mode. Poke your head out of the cubicle once in a while and get a dose of reality. You can't find all of the answers in number crunching. You can't blame this on the weather, the FAs or the pilots. This is mgt's pooch and they screwed it. C Ya.

OK then, a concerted increase in sick usage intended to cause NWA harm and send a message (if sick-out isn't the term you wish to use)

If flying 85 hours per month (14-15 days flying per month) causes such fatigue and stress that pilots are becoming ill, then yes, they are pussies. I've worked 70 hour weeks for months on end, both in a physically intensive positions and mentally intensive positions, and it has never made me sick. It certainly wouldn't have instantly made me sick when my employer needed me the most to do my job.

As I said, the month of June was staffed fully based on normal sick usage trending. The work action (sick usage spike) caused the staffing shortage; nothing else.

Is it harder to sleep in Fargo than other places? I'd think they'd get more sleep there, since they aren't out chasing hussies.

 

[ThirdSeatHero]

As I said, the month of June was staffed fully based on normal sick usage trending. The work action (sick usage spike) caused the staffing shortage; nothing else.

So the "NWA Statement Regarding Flight Cancellations" posted earlier by Kev is what?

Please explain why NWA would tarnish their sterling reputation by publishing such obvious falsehoods when the blame for this entire episode should be laid squarely at the pilots feet.