Attention All Passengers (31 page)

Journalism ethics expert Fred Brown notes, “Is there pressure from advertisers? At good publications it shouldn't matter. The proper response is to resist that pressure.” And such pressure can be positive as well as negative.

Back when I was interviewing at Consumers Union that holiday season I stopped in to see
CRTL
's outgoing editor, Laurie Berger. On her desk was a large box of assorted gourmet brownies, courtesy of America West Airlines, which I recognized because that same morning the staff at my trade magazine had torn into an identical box. She explained they would overnight the entire box back to the airline's headquarters in Phoenix. I was impressed. But I also let her know the white chocolate raspberry brownie had been excellent.

I won't lie. I went through a little bit of a withdrawal process when I first started working for a nonprofit. No lunches. No cocktail parties. No trips. No tchotchkes. No schmoozing. It never quite reached the night-sweats phase.
Martinis . . . must have appletinis . . . Balthazar . . . must do prix-fixe lunch at Balthazar!
But many an afternoon I'd feel itchy and isolated and cut off from the travel industry shindigs occurring a few miles to the south in Manhattan. Gradually I learned I didn't need to schmooze with travel execs in order to write about their industry.

CrankyFlier.com's Snyder has taken an extra step. His site includes a Code of Ethics, which is clearly and easily explained: “My goal is to be an open book here.” In addition to stating his personal policies, Snyder goes further and provides complete details on every offer extended to him by airlines and other travel companies. It makes for fascinating reading, and he explains why he does it: “Nothing annoys me more than being called a shill for the airlines. I know I have strong ethics, so why not share it with the world?” He adds that ethics are particularly critical for new media outlets, noting, “Anyone can start a blog and you have no way of knowing who they are. Newspapers have tended to be trustworthy, but with blogs—who knows?”

Unfortunately, not every media organization sets clear policies. Many companies willingly accept freebies from the travel industry. Others establish weak procedures that are not enforced. And some establish strict policies that are occasionally ignored.

Veteran journalist Fred Brown currently serves as vice chair of the Ethics Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. I asked him about the particular hazards of reporting on the airline industry, since the temptations seem riper than on other beats. Brown responded, “This issue is kind of difficult for newspapers and websites to address because they use a lot of freelancers and freelancers don't have a budget to travel. You read about a new airplane and you wonder, is it an [Associated Press] story or a freelance story?” But he adds, “Ideally a credible publication or credible website should pay its own way.”

Getting Social: New Media

If traditional media outlets have not always provided full disclosure on airline issues, thankfully other channels have emerged. Dave Carroll, the author of the YouTube mega-hit “United Breaks Guitars,” makes an important point: “The beauty of my situation is that social media has leveled the playing field—you can now be heard.”

Indeed, just as in most arenas, democratic and technological forces have combined to bypass mainstream media outlets. Consider that recent breaking news reports of airline disasters have led with cell phone images and text messages from rescuers and survivors alike, notably when US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River adjacent to the world's media capital. It's a phenomenon seen with extended tarmac delays, too, as passengers trapped on aircraft have called local media to provide real-time updates from on board, thus elevating such events into even larger news stories. Meanwhile, no gripe is too arcane for the leveling influence of the Internet; back in 2007, the website The Consumerist even provided graphic photographic and editorial details of a Continental flight in which lavatory waste backed up and began seeping down the aisles of the airplane.

Kate Hanni, the passenger rights advocate who knows a thing or two about generating media coverage, also knows what she's up against with the airlines: “They use a lot of money to buy a lot of ink for what they want.” But she maintains that passengers capitalizing on social media by photographing and tweeting about service problems help keep pressure on the industry. And then there are TripAdvisor, IgoUgo, and dozens of other travel advice sites that solicit and post tens of thousands of comments from passengers. Some of these amateur reviews are biased, some are unfair, and some are downright wacky. But few would deny they have the power to influence an airline booking decision.

The flip side is that new problems can be brought to light through new media. In asserting that coverage drives policy, safety expert Todd Curtis stresses this includes coverage from both “formal and informal networks.” In fact, his AirSafe.com site includes a discussion about a photo taken in-flight by a Continental passenger that clearly shows loose and missing screws on the engine strut of a Boeing 737. As Curtis notes, “What you have now is a pervasive reach of media. Any [event] that happens is discussed. It's hard to hide a problem.”

Epilogue

Fighting the Clock

T
his book has been a journey. I've now spent twenty-seven years in and around aviation, but through research and writing I learned an awful lot I never knew I didn't know. Ostensibly this book is about the airlines, but in fact it's about much more, as we struggle to define what America is becoming in 2012.

When Pan Am was in its death throes, one executive noted, “If we went into the funeral business, people would stop dying.” I thought of those words as I visited the Southern California Aviation facility in Victorville, otherwise known as the aircraft boneyard. This Mojave Desert cemetery contains hundreds of discarded commercial airplanes, some still painted in the colors of Delta or United, some partially obscured, others completely whitewashed. Domestic flights are fuller than at any time since World War II, yet this dysfunctional industry can't find a way to improve customer service, put more skilled Americans to work, and keep planes flying.

The question emerges: Is it too late to save America's airline industry? I certainly hope not. I think it's worth noting that I have immersed myself in the business for more than a quarter of a century and I was stunned to uncover some of the findings shared in this book. Over a very short period of time, the airlines have radically changed how they do business. Now it's up to all of us to reverse some of those dangerous trend lines.

Two years ago, in early 2010, I began the outline of what would eventually become these pages, though I put the project on hold once I joined the FAAC. I was also traveling about three times a week from Connecticut to New Jersey to visit my mother, who was succumbing to the cruelty of Parkinson's disease and had begun reacting with suspicion and paranoia when any of her many children paid daily visits to her facility. One night in March she spotted me and recoiled, while I told her repeatedly not to worry, that it was Bill. Finally, I invoked the sobriquet I had been running from since 1973: “Mom . . . it's Billy.”

Then I tried to repay a forty-five-year-old debt by settling in at her bedside to soothe her into sleep. Conversation lulled, so I started a new thread. “I've begun writing a book,” I told her. “A man wants to help me sell it.”

One eyebrow rose. “A book? About what?”

I leaned in close. “It's about airplanes.”

She would be dead within weeks, just shy of her ninetieth birthday, but at that moment her features softened and it was apparent she was no more than six going on seven. She had beaten diphtheria and was perched atop her father's shoulders, anxiously awaiting a glimpse of Lucky Lindy himself. America had oceans to conquer. “Bill?”

I smiled. “Yep. I was named for your dad.”

She seemed surprisingly lucid then, and she nodded. “Make it a good book.”

I kissed her on the forehead and dimmed the headboard light. “I'll try,” I promised.

Conclusion

A Manifesto for Taking Back Our Skies

I
n September 2011 the members of the Future of Aviation Advisory Committee were called to Washington by Secretary LaHood. There we discovered that the collection of proposals we submitted the previous December was very much a work in progress. To the DOT's credit, there were advancements on passenger rights issues, particularly new rules to enforce transparency of airline pricing and added fees. And a forum was convened to spur a long-term discussion between airline executives and labor leaders. But many of what I view as the most critical safety issues—particularly enhanced oversight of outsourced maintenance and regional carriers—never made it past the discussion stage. As for child restraint systems, the FAA backed away from mandating CRSs on domestic airlines, and instead said it will continue bolstering efforts to educate parents.

I've come to see that the deepest problems facing the U.S. airline industry are the deepest problems facing the United States itself. These include the pervasive effects of corporate influence throughout all three branches of government; political gridlock; the ever-widening economic gap between corporate CEOs and rank-and-file workers; federal regulators failing to regulate the industries they are sworn to oversee; the wholesale outsourcing of decent jobs, particularly outside the United States; and a willful ignorance of how industry is affecting the environment.

Quite a few of the experts I interviewed for this book offered sensible, practical, and reasonable solutions to address the many problems facing the U.S. airline industry. After analyzing and weighing a broad spectrum of competing philosophies, I came to form my own proposals for fixing the airlines. Therefore, I respectfully suggest the following actions be considered.

• Crafting a National Transportation Policy

A hot topic on the Future of Aviation Advisory Committee was “intermodalism,” a term meant to encompass how various transportation modes intersect. But a committee composed solely of aviation experts charged with examining aviation is in itself lacking—how can those with a vested interest in promoting the airline industry help determine the big-picture transportation needs of the United States? The airline lobby has its cheerleaders, as do the lobbies for highways, rail, motor coaches, etc. Consider that one expert I spoke to noted that for many U.S. airports, the largest single source of revenue is parking. So what incentive does aviation have to promote Amtrak or intercity buses? If the U.S. Department of Transportation truly wants to examine the future of aviation, then the White House must instruct the DOT to examine the future of all transportation modes at once, so we as a nation can discuss transportation not only in terms of convenience, but also in the context of jobs, the environment, infrastructure, and the public good. As Kevin Mitchell has noted, it's past time for America to develop a true national transportation policy.

• It's Time for Partial Reregulation

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 held out many promises, and the industry would have us believe those promises have been fulfilled, primarily because of the tremendous influx in commercial flying over the last thirty-three years. Prior to 1978, airline safety was improving, more passengers were flying, and fares were decreasing. What remains unknown and unknowable is how many of the changes we have seen since 1978 would have occurred naturally, even in a regulated environment, due to technological advancements and other big-picture factors. Today it's fair to ask, who exactly has benefited from airline deregulation? Investors have lost billions over three decades. Airline employees have been downsized, outsourced, offshored, and cut back. Communities have lost service and in some cases airlines. And as for consumers, they are more frustrated with commercial aviation than they have ever been. The claim that base airfares have not risen dramatically in the aggregate conceals the billions now paid by passengers in ancillary fees and does not address the inequities in a system that primarily has seen fares repressed only by the presence of low-cost carriers. The industry's stellar safety record is threatened by cost cutting and outsourcing. It's time to acknowledge the simple fact that the airlines are run as a cutthroat free-market exercise, yet they provide a necessary and vital service for the nation and are intrinsic to its economy, welfare, security, and even defense. Airline executives make individual decisions that may seem logical on a corporate basis but are detrimental to the country on a macro level. As former American Airlines chairman Bob Crandall notes, the airline industry is a necessary utility, and as such it requires the regulation of a utility. Few would seek a complete return to 1978, when the Civil Aeronautics Board micromanaged the industry, route by route and fare by fare. But it is time for the White House and Congress to direct the Department of Transportation to reconsider how partial reregulation will level the industry's inherent deficiencies. This means ensuring that communities and passengers are served, fares are priced to ensure a return on investment, labor agreements are fair to both parties, and safety is not compromised.

• Justice Department Should Enforce Fair Competition

The architects of the Airline Deregulation Act made it clear that success would be dependent on a robust U.S. Department of Justice that would enforce fair competition and sanction predatory pricing and other forms of illegal anticompetitive behavior and prevent rapid industry consolidation that would also threaten competition and long-standing antitrust law. In recent years the Justice Department has failed on both counts, by allowing predatory practices that have driven some low-fare carriers out of existence and by allowing mergers and acquisitions that have created a “too big to fail” scenario for the domestic airline industry. It's time the White House directed the department to fulfill its mandate to American consumers.

• Meeting International Standards for Emissions

The U.S. aviation industry—and at times the U.S. government—has fought international efforts to codify and address commercial aviation's carbon emissions and environmental footprint. The White House and Congress need to work with rather than oppose other governments seeking to incentivize greener behavior on the part of the airline industry.

• NTSB Should Have Teeth

It's shameful that recommendations on aviation safety put forth by the National Transportation Safety Board to the Federal Aviation Administration can remain on the NTSB's “Most Wanted” list for years and even decades. If the FAA fails to act on such recommendations, then the NTSB should be empowered to forward such proposals directly to Congress for immediate consideration.

• Aircraft Maintenance Should Be Performed Domestically

The airline industry's dramatic experimentation with maintenance outsourcing has created a dangerous environment in which frontline FAA inspectors claim they do not have the resources to properly oversee the work being done. All aircraft maintenance for U.S. airlines should be performed in the United States, and the White House and Congress should ensure that the FAA has the budget, staffing, and resources to properly oversee this work.

• A Higher Standard for Regional Airlines

Although the Federal Aviation Regulations stipulate a single standard for mainline and regional air carriers, the regulations address a minimum proficiency that has proven to be lacking in some cases. In practice, many mainline airlines maintain higher standards for hiring, training, and operations than their regional marketing partners. The FAA should examine the federal standards to determine if the minimums should be raised.

• More Transparency for Foreign Airlines

Critics claim the U.S. State Department has more authority than the DOT in determining which foreign air carriers operate into the United States. The European Union provides consumers with full transparency by identifying every banned airline by name; the United States should adopt a similar model.

• Fund NextGen

Political gridlock led to the shameful state of twenty-one consecutive failures by Congress to provide long-term funding for the FAA, which in turn has stalled the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, the desperately needed revamp of the nation's outdated air traffic control network. NextGen needs funding—now.

• Revamp Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Laws

Far from viewing the process as a stigma, in recent years airline executives have embraced bankruptcy reorganization on a broad scale. In the end, Chapter 11 can save companies, jobs, and communities. But some airline executives have used bankruptcy as a means to secure sacrifices from labor and other stakeholders—while boosting their own economic portfolios. Bankruptcy laws should be amended so that the senior executives who oversaw the entry into Chapter 11 are replaced, and senior management is not excessively rewarded while other workgroups sacrifice.

• A Facility for Passengers Banding Together

Unfortunately, despite their overwhelming numbers, consumers have less of a voice in setting domestic aviation policy than any other group of stakeholders. Federal preemption effectively removes many of the basic rights customers are afforded throughout American commerce. Ralph Nader has long advocated for an effective organization that would allow consumers to be heard and would facilitate their grievances.

• A Codified Passenger Bill of Rights

The airlines' Contracts of Carriage have become ineffectual, obtuse, and impossible for consumers to comprehend, let alone enforce. The DOT needs to instate a new Rule 240 for the postderegulation environment: A transparent and uniform set of standards for what carriers need to provide in the case of extended flight delays, flight cancellations, and involuntary denied boardings. The European Union has done this for its passengers, and the resulting rules are clear, cogent, and easy for all passengers to understand.

• Address Airport Slots as Public Property

As Stephen Van Beek notes, private companies such as airlines and banks buy and sell public property that belongs to all Americans. Airport takeoff and landing slots should not be treated as corporate assets, and in fact the DOT should reexamine its process for awarding such slots. This means rewarding the public's greater good—airlines that provide more seats and therefore reduce carbon emissions.

Will perfect regulation create a perfect airline market? Sadly, no, because both are impossible to attain. But well-meaning and carefully considered imperfect regulation can help create a much more perfect airline market than we have today. The time has come to reclaim our skies.