AirportBusiness Blogs

There is much excitement over the idea of changing the age 60 pilot rule to allow airline pilots to continue flying to age 65.

In the latest news, FAA honcho Marion Blakey announced that the FAA will propose a rule change. Kinda makes it sound like a done deal. However, as the TV hucksters say, “But wait, there’s more.”

Scuttlebutt has it that what looks like an FAA push could instead be a delaying tactic by the FAA. Story goes that Congress is on the brink of changing the rule itself. Congress—as I understand it—could get it done in as little as 60 days, whereas an FAA proposal can drag out for more than a year and a half while they send notices of proposed rule making and provide a long time during which people can comment. As this theory goes, the FAA can’t stand the idea of making such a dramatic change in such a short time, so they will propose a change and Congress will back off of its own change.

How much of that is true and to what degree I have no idea, but it should be interesting to watch it play out.

Change of subject…

When we moved to Asheville, NC, we dutifully notified the Social Security folks of our address change. They sent a letter confirming that they had received our notice and had changed our address in their records. So, where did they send this letter? Why, they sent it to our old address, of course.

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I gripe a lot about the airlines so when they do it right I feel obligated to report the good news. Last week was good news.

It was a helluva week. I was booked—believe it or not—to drive to Greenville, SC, then fly from Greenville to Newark, to Las Vegas, Houston, Jackson, MS, from whence I would drive to Philadelphia, MS, and back to Jackson, fly back to Houston, then back to Greenville, then drive home. I had some tight, tough connections and missing them would have caused me to miss a speech.

Here’s the weird thing—it all worked. Every flight arrived on time or a little early. I stayed in four motels in four states, made speeches and sold a few books, all with no really terrible experiences. The audiences were wonderful, the hotel shuttles were on time, the rental cars were fine, and all the food was good. There really is a God in heaven and all’s right with the world.

It was still a tough trip, and there were a few problems. I gotta say that the problems were mostly minor and mostly on the ground.

Sooner or later, somebody’s got to do something about the unreasonable walking necessary in airports. It always reminds me why my mother quit flying when in her 80s. She didn’t mind flying, she said, but couldn’t stand all that “interminable walking.” And that was before 9/11 forced us to move parking lots away from terminals.

Airport signage is still far from perfect. At one of those airports last week the hotel shuttle dropped me off at the designated spot. Once inside, I couldn’t see a single sign giving directions to the ticket counters. One person told me they were upstairs, but when I got upstairs I still couldn’t find a sign, so had to ask someone again. At another airport I simply could not find my concourse.

What are the airport managers thinking, anyway?

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… your zest for the industry, that is. Seriously. The annual NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference, held this week in Phoenix, is unlike any other. The first thing that strikes any newcomer is the enthusiasm engulfing the event; the second is the relative ease in which one makes contacts. 

The schedulers and dispatchers are those people responsible for routing and arranging services for corporate and Part 135 charter aircraft. While it’s their job to ensure quality aircraft and executive services at a destination, they themselves rarely see that destination firsthand. For fixed base operators and business airports in particular, this conference is a way to reach these vital cogs in the aviation wheel – to tout services, location, amenities. Besides FBOs, other exhibitors include Part 135s who supplement corporate flight department activities, and suppliers (fuel companies, scheduling software providers, etc.). Key to the event’s success is the policy of offering only 10×10-foot ‘tabletop’ exhibit spaces. Everybody’s on a level playing field when it comes to exposure. 

The event has grown geometrically over the past decade, and again set records with more than 2400 total attendees and 351 exhibitors. The 2008 conference is scheduled for January 29-February 1 in Savannah. If corporates and 135s are the target, Schedulers & Dispatchers should be at the top of the marketing list. 

Thanks for reading.  jfi    

… airports consider new alternatives.  LaGuardia, FAA and the Port Authority of NY & NJ are looking to regulate size of aircraft flying into the facility in an attempt to move more passengers in an operations-limited environment. At LAX, the airport commission is reportedly considering buying back terminal leases from carriers in an attempt to open Los Angeles International to more competition. And, in 2006, Boston Logan opened a new runway intended to expedite aircraft flow during peak times; central to this initiative was FAA’s easing of rules on peak period pricing, a move not yet implemented but which remains a probability in the years ahead.

At LaGuardia, today’s situation is tied to two causes: 1) the physical constraints of the airfield, which do not allow for expansion; and 2) Congressional directives in 2000 that sought to end the slot rationing system used there and to push FAA to open the airport to new competition and routes. The latter move brought with it a push for smaller regional aircraft to connect various Northeast markets with LaGuardia. The Port Authority, in various reports, says that LaGuardia’s facilities (terminal, etc.) can handle as many as 10 million more passengers each year; however, the airfield infrastructure cannot. Bigger airplanes, it seems, is one answer. The airlines oppose the move. At LAX, a proposal calls for Los Angeles World Airports to spend as much as $154 million to buy back bonds originally backed by major carriers for previous terminal construction, according to reports. The move would allow the airport to regain control of exclusive-use gates in Terminals 2 and 5. In turn, LAX could then open the airport to new entrant carriers, notably Southwest.

It’s a changing airport environment. Airports Council International-North America and others have been calling for the federal government to allow them to have more business control over their facilities, to allow them to make decisions based on market forces in their regions. We may at last be at the threshold at which industry and government take a fresh look at how airports are regulated. As the new year begins, 2007 is looking more and more to be a watershed year for aviation. How the system is funded – from taxes to FAA operations to the Airport Improvement Program – is in play in Washington. How airports are regulated should also be a hot discussion item. Thanks for reading. jfi

On January 15, the “Hangar Talk” thread of AVSIG, the online aviation forum, included a link to the New York Times. The story on that link was hard to believe.

Seems the writer, one Kathryn Harrison, and her two daughters recently arrived at EWR (Newark) on a Continental flight from Puerto Rico. When they arrived at baggage claim, Ms. Harrison realized her wallet was missing. Leaving her two daughters, she spent 30 minutes getting permission to return to her arrival gate. What happened there is horrifying.

Ms. Harrison found that her airplane was still at the gate, but nobody was there to help her. She pounded on the jetway door, but to no avail. In frustration, she turned the door handle and, to her amazement (and mine), the door opened. An alarm went off but, as she put it, none of the “rumpled middle-aged men” in the area paid the least bit of attention. Nobody came to arrest her, so she propped the door open with her shoe (leaving alarm screaming) and ran down the jetway to her airplane.

The airplane door was open, but nobody answered her hails. She got on board, searched her seat and surrounding area without success, then went back to the gate where the alarm still blared and middle-aged men still read newspapers. Nobody seemed interested, so she removed her shoe and left.

She reported her loss to Continental and told them exactly what she had done. She was treated with astonishment rather than kindliness, but she wasn’t detained, either.

All I can say is good goshamighty.

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The great Bill Kershner is dead.

Others will describe his life in great detail. I will just say that he was a great writer and a great educator.

Kershner’s many training books made complex subjects simple. If he wrote it anyone—even I—could understand it. Once I was arguing with two rocket engineers about the finer points of flat spins. I called Kershner. He clarified the entire question and explained the answer, all in a few minutes.

Kershner was also admired and liked by everyone he ever met, and that’s a rare man. He was in the very first group inducted into the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame, and I was fortunate enough to be there. He was, as usual, delightful.

My contacts with Kershner were few and far between, and that was my mistake. My Alabama location was just a bit south of his Tennessee location for many years, and I truly regret that I didn’t take the opportunity to spend more time at the feet of this great master.

Kershner also wrote fun-to-read stories. In my favorite he pulled the throttle back and asked his student, “Now, where you gonna land?” The student picked a field and Kershner explained exactly why that field was totally inadequate and would not work. Then Kershner pushed the throttle back in and the engine went quite dead. Kershner landed that airplane in the very field he had said wouldn’t work.

The student timidly said, “Uh, I thought you said that field wouldn’t work.” Kershner’s next written line was brilliant. “Shut up, I carefully explained.” That line ranks right up there with Gordon Baxter’s line, “Instrument flying is an unnatural act probably punishable by God.”

Long may his books live on.

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If you want to see the best and worst of customer service, just move to a new town. We have been here in Asheville, NC, for almost a month now, and the degrees of customer service and/or the lack thereof have been amazing.

The best surprise has been—believe it or not—the dump. Well, okay, dumps are not called dumps anymore, but rather landfills. Either way, they tend to be dirty, smelly, and not much fun. Asheville is different. You drive up to a window and tell this fellow what you want to dump. Landfill personnel are usually about as cheerful as a newly circumcised panther, but not this guy at Asheville. He greets you with a loud “How are you today,” and I swear he sounds like he really cares. The lady who checks with you on the way out is just as friendly. Let’s hear it for the landfill in Asheville.

The worst-case customer service has been provided by the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper. It has been like a cruelty joke. I paid for a subscription on December 23. Today is January 3 and I haven’t gotten a single paper yet. During four telephone calls they have been as nice as Mother Teresa, but the next day cometh no paper. Today they promised to deliver a replacement paper. It didn’t get here. I’d cancel the subscription, but I want to see how it plays out.

Second-best customer service has been from the people at the North Carolina Arboretum. Gail, I, and two large dogs have hiked on their trails every day this year (that’s just three days, but it sounds good) and the personnel are wonderful.

Second worst case? The U.S. guvmint. Gail called a branch thereof and spent 45 minutes trying to change our address. Just listening was painful.

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… another signal of the opportunity for U.S. companies as they look to the East. Over the holidays it was announced that Mesa Air Group had inked a deal with Shenzhen Airlines Company to create China’s first commuter air carrier. Says The Wall Street Journal, “The venture, provisionally named Beijing Airlines, marks a milestone in the gradual opening of China’s airline business to foreign investors.” 

Airline analyst Mike Boyd likes to say that if you’re not Sino-Centric, you’re not paying attention to the future marketplace. Consultant Michael Hodges of Airport Business Solutions, who has an airport management consulting contract in China, comments that “the biggest weakness of the system over there is air service to smaller communities. Of course, small communities in China have 3 million people.  The real challenge is going to be the economics. The problem is changing the culture of people recognizing the value of time. People travel by train because they can take the train for three times less.”  At the same time, calls to the AIRPORT BUSINESS editorial desk come in frequently from companies looking to invest in the fixed base operation business in India. It would seem that big opportunities await global companies. Watching how the vibrant business aviation sector captures those new markets should be worth watching. Meanwhile, Congress and the U.S. DOT appear not to be convinced. In the past month they have thwarted attempts to allow greater foreign ownership of U.S. carriers, and turned down Richard Branson’s initiative to create a foreign-owned U.S.-based low cost airline. One has to wonder how long it will take for market and government forces to come to a global understanding.  Thanks for reading. jfi