AirportBusiness Blogs

… the mood is upbeat. Airport officials are meeting here for the annual convention of the Airports Council International – North America. This is a meeting with some history – this group was meeting in Montreal in 2001 when the 9/11 attacks occurred.

FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey, opening the conference, reiterated her calls for new funding mechanisms to support the agency and infrastructure improvements. Yet, she seems to be backtracking on just what new formula of taxes the Administration will propose as the industry engages in a reauthorization showdown that one official here terms “the funding battle of a generation.” Top on ACI-NA’s list in the funding discussion is the unleashing of passenger facility charges. ACI-NA wants the $4.50 cap either raised or eliminated, along with less restrictions on airports on how that money is spent.

Significantly, in a pre-conference press briefing, ACI-NA president Greg Principato announced that ACI-NA and the American Association of Airport Executives are once again becoming completely separate organizations. In recent years the two groups had combined their legislative affairs departments in an effort to present a more unified voice for airports in Washington. Just two years ago, the groups were discussing a full merger.

Back to Blakey, she spent a good part of her speech talking about the need for a clear delineation of responsibility when an airfield is undergoing construction. Airfield safety and communications are everyone’s responsibility, she says. In light of the recent crash at Lexington, it’s a message that indeed needs to be reinforced.

More to come … thanks for reading.

jfi

According to The Wall Street Journal, health care costs for employers are rising twice as fast as wages/inflation. The average family premium is more than $11,000. I don’t know abut you, but I can remember working for a lot less pay than that.

People wonder why health care costs go up, and I’ve got a theory. 

Unlike most goods and services we buy, health care suppliers are not even close to operating in a free market. You reckon that could have anything to do with it?

The very supply of physicians is greatly influenced by the guvmint providing the money to create interns or resident physicians.

Even worse, in most places you cannot build a hospital — or even a major new piece of equipment for a current hospital — without first getting the guvmint to agree that the facility or equipment is “needed.” Now how the hell can you do business like that? Can you imagine Walmart, Holiday Inn, Office Depot, or McDonald’s having to ask the guvmint if the community “needs” a new store/hotel? No. We leave such decisions to business people on a ”win-lose-or-draw” basis, and we have come out very well with that system. 

Hospitals do not have the right to turn away people who can’t pay. We would never force a grocery store to provide free goods and services to poor folks, but we require it of health care providers.

Of course the airline business was greatly controlled until 28 years ago, particularly in the areas of supply and demand. What scares me is how many people want to go back to that system.

Damned if I understand it.

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Boeing has flown the damndest aircraft you’ve ever seen from Taipei to Seattle. Called the Large Cargo Freighter (LCF), the airplane looks like somebody stuck a 747 into a giant hot dog bun. That’s logical enough since it’s an adaptation of the 747-400. It will be used to carry the wings of the new Boeing Dreamliner—expected out in 2008—from the Orient to the USA.

Could anybody over 50 possibly look at this behemoth without thinking of the Guppy airplanes of yore? I doubt it. In fact, can anyone who ever saw a Guppy ever forget that unbelievable first impression? I can’t.

The Guppy was largely the brainchild of John Conroy and Lee Mansdorf. An extensive modification of another Boeing, the 377 Stratocruiser, the Guppy was built for the sole purpose of transporting booster rockets from California to Florida for one customer, NASA.

The Guppy didn’t look like it could possibly fly. For the initial test flight the guvmint evacuated buildings along the planned route and forbade any deviation from that route. It took off, flew, and landed to much amazement and awe. When a reporter asked Conroy if he was relieved, he said. “Oh no. We weren’t worried about this one. It’s the big one we’re worried about.”  

There are a few Guppies still around—I saw one at a recent Oshkosh Airventure—and they don’t look a bit more believable today than they did 40 years ago.  

Now cometh the Boeing Large Cargo Freighter. It is certainly not as unwieldy looking as the Guppy, but it is huge. Boeing says it will carry more than three times the cargo of a 747-400 by volume. Whereas the Guppy was loaded through a swingaway nose, the LCF is loaded through a swingaway tail. You can find a picture of the LCF and related story here on Airport Business, so you can look for yourself. It is awesome.

You can also link to Boeing’s Press Release and further photos by clicking here.

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I am amazed.

Wife (of 39 years) Gail is the last person I would have suspected.

I hear my airline-pilot friends complain about passenger behavior (passengers won’t listen, they won’t behave, they don’t know what they’re doing). Usually, I have chalked it up to poor customer service. After all, why should we expect infrequent flyers to know the ropes?

I may be forced to change my thinking.

This morning (at 6:00, BTW) I took Wife Gail to the airport for her first airline flight since the foiled terrorist plot in London. Last night I suggested she check one bag with everything in it that she could possibly live without for a few hours.

Now bear in mind that this is an intelligent woman. She keeps up. She reads. Also, she has heard me talk about the airlines for lo, these many years, and she edits everything I write about the industry.

This morning, as we drove to the airport, Gail put lotion on her hands, then put the bottle in her large, carry-on, pocketbook. I, of course, expressed absolute amazement.

I will shorten this story. Wife Gail had to throw away several items. No doubt she held up progress at the security check point.

And I? I have a totally new respect for the difficulty of convincing the flying public of the truth.  

Why did she do it? Near as I can tell, she just wasn’t convinced by all of the media reports. Then, when I explained it to her, she obviously figured, “Well, there goes Ralph again trying to run everybody’s business.”

Now you know, of course, I took great pleasure in telling her “I told you so.” Wrong. I didn’t say a word. I may be old, fat and bald headed, but I ain’t stupid.

Besides. I want to stay married to her for many more years.

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… let me add one. It’s 9/11/01 and we’re in Montreal for the annual convention of Airports Council International – North America. In my hotel room, I tie my tie as I watch CNN; they’re trying to explain why one of the World Trade Center buildings is burning. I’m ready to leave the hotel room and get to the convention but I can’t get away from that image on the screen. As I go to turn off the TV, I watch as another plane hits Tower No. 2.

My response (yelling to myself): “The bastards have finally done it!” All of us in industry (and government) knew airline-controlled passenger screening was a joke. The concept of using airplanes as weapons was not a new idea. The interesting thing for me was my immediate reaction when I saw that second airplane — I knew what had just happened. It’s not that I was so far ahead of the class on this learning curve; it’s more that this was the realization of what many people had for so long expected.

At the convention, things had shut down, except for the airing of CNN coverage. I recall standing next to Jeff Fegan of DFW as we watched one of his managers being interviewed. I asked him what he was feeling at that moment. His response: You have to believe in your people that they will do (say) the right thing. His did.

From an AIRPORT BUSINESS perspective the bottom line of 9/11 reflections is this: Airports took 9/11 seriously; Congress did not; it only pretended to, which is why every commercial airport in the U.S. doesn’t have explosives detection equipment in place, in line, to date. The post mortem on 9/11 is that the U.S. Congress has failed us. The memories, however, should reinforce why this country cannot give up the fight.

Thanks for reading.

jfi

… is at once a tragedy and a lesson (re)learned. The crash of Comair Delta Flight 5191 killed 49 of 50 persons on board; it appears pilot error was the cause, as the jet departed the wrong and shorter runway at Lexington on its way to Atlanta. One question to be answered: Was there confusion in the cockpit because of recent changes in taxiway procedures due to construction?

Less than a month ago this BLOG reported amazement that the airlines were increasing capacity. We are more amazed today.

I just bought a ticket roundtrip from Huntsville, AL—we are not a major hub and have no discount airline service—to fit my schedule, on a legacy carrier, for a grand total (including fees and taxes) of $258.19! I also got a quote from here to Boston and return for an all-up total of $296.60—again, to fit my schedule, on a legacy carrier. (I didn’t buy that one yet. I’m waiting on prices to go down!)

Is there any hope for the airline industry?

What is their competition? Not driving, that’s for sure. Gas alone on the Phoenix trip would be more than the airline ticket. Gas plus a few meals would cost more than the Boston trip. Throw in a little insurance, tolls, motels, and other costs and it gets even more ridiculous. Obviously, the only competition is with other airlines. Is memory so short that they can’t remember where this downward spiral of ticket prices quickly leads them?

If “one swallow doth not a summer make,” then surely one summer of (slightly) higher ticket prices doth not a turnaround make for an entire industry. But so help me, that’s the way the industry acts.

The airline industry proved this summer that the traveling public will not quit flying if airfare goes up a little. Having proved that, they bought more airplanes and lowered prices.

What are they thinking? 

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