DO LOOK UP: Why the Line is Holding the Sign

Buckle up! Since your flight was just cancelled or delayed, you now have time to read this.

The current Travel Armageddon is a complex problem and sorry, it's going to be like this for a while, but these are the crossroads we saw coming. Then Covid threw our path into a roundabout and leadership didn't read the huge signs to get us out of the circle. Now, there are some knee-jerk reactions brewing - something similar to what got us here in the first place. I'm concerned about what I'm seeing and so are the pilots who are standing up for safety. I want you to understand that those pilots aren't on strike. They're picketing, and there's a difference. It's about asking to be heard. So, I'll try to give you the overview of how we got here. It's not just covid, even though that will now get all the blame.

This is an extreme oversimplification, but here are the key ingredients, from the beginning, to help you understand why those pilots are using their own precious time to stand up for safety:

1. Deregulation. Yep, we moved from purposely subsidizing airlines during normal operations to crisis subsidizing instead - and allowing CEOs to continue to take in $41,987,000 in 2021, during the crisis, using your money. We could afford to hire / train all the pilots we need with that. Yes, 10 airline CEOs earned that much (wait, check out Maurice Gallagher! Well done.). Capitalism guides the market. Nothing wrong with that, but letting the market do its thing, and then bailing them out with taxpayer money needs more oversight and now most of the world's population is underserved by air travel.
2. Years of forced pilot retirements at 60. Then raised to 65, but too late to help the ratio.
3. Previous pipeline of military pilots to airlines dries up.
4. Dwindling pilot pipeline in general - started in 1980 and accelerated exponentially down after 9/11. The sheer number of licensed pilots in general has influence on ATP numbers. Maybe Top Gun Maverick will help, but it'll still take years to get pilots trained.
5. Merger mania.
6. Furloughs over the years. Each time, fewer come back.
7. Ultra-low-cost carrier business plans begin the race to the bottom. No one to blame since consumers drive the market. You asked for it, so you got it, but it began the tarnishing of the pride for the industry.
8. Cost of general aviation / flight training continues to rise, narrowing pilot market. No innovation to pilot training. It's there, but not being implemented. Cost always the primary barrier for pilots.
9. 1500-hour rule - knee jerk reaction to an accident unassociated with hours.
10. Covid. Wearing a mask to get back into the world is no big deal, but apparently for some, it was the worst thing that ever happened to them, and they needed to punch flight attendants to explain that. Passenger temper tantrums of epic proportions. What little glamor there was in aviation is washed away.
11. Layoffs during Covid - even though taxpayer bailout, CEOs still taking millions for their own bank accounts over furloughed the industry. Hundreds of thousands left aviation, especially all the important low paying secondary services required to make airlines run, got hired into other industries and won't be coming back.
12. Massive early pilot retirement offerings without thought of the future - loss of enormous tribal knowledge, no chance of pass down of info since pilots ran from the industry in droves. Drive to retire highest paid salaries first without seeing correlation with cost of training to replace (or simply inability to replace that talent). Pilots walked away and never looked back. Once vaccine introduced, no plan to accelerate hiring/training immediately.
13. Normal attrition charts showing another huge spike of pilot loss coming! By 2030, not a single baby boomer will be legal to fly Part 121.
14. Years of low entry pilot pay can't justify $100K of flight training and 4-years degree.
15. The most important ingredient is missing, and its loss is hard to measure. The AVIATION INDUSTRY LOST ITS SPIRIT. Pride and innovation exist everywhere, but workers aren't allowed to shine. They are pressed down by ruts plowed by previous leaders who jump from one company to another, doing magic to spread sheets, getting their money, getting out, and leaving behind a trail of disrespect, frustration and a generation of pilots who can't / don't recommend the industry to the next generation.

What do all these ingredients bake? Something none of us can swallow.

The challenge for me is that I understand both sides of the cockpit door, so I can't jump up on a soapbox because I'm also in the audience, preaching to the choir.

For this summer travel Armageddon, airlines are going to have to spend time and money to be RESPECTFUL of pilots, cabin crew, ground workers AND passengers and realize their bottom line will grow even while doing so. Establishing good relationships and being respectful now will pay off in the future.

Someone needs to realize that the low paying ground workers have more power than CEOs. Something as simple as the lack of jet bridge workers and ground crew actually costs the industry billions as airplanes wait for gates, pushbacks, and wing walkers. Raise your hand for every time a pilot says, "Folks, from the flight deck, we're just sitting here waiting for a gate..." etc.

Simple economics already provided the outcome of this current menagerie months ago (well, really, years ago, some saw the light but the rest of us knew it was a train) and most pilots KNEW this exact scenario was going to happen, but most industry leaders did not come up through the ranks and front lines of aviation, so those P&Ls block the view of true vision and understanding the balance. The result is that airlines continuously operate in crisis mode. What does that look like?

I just got done being awake 24 hours because my international flight was cancelled a few hours before departure. I had to book another flight, with a layover, to the wrong side of the country first, to get home at 0230. 11 of those 13.5 hours, my knees were painfully pressed up against the seat in front of me. But I'm home safely, so in the end, that's what matters most.

The tradeoff is that the original ticket I paid for, months ago, was for the luxury of a nonstop since I was traveling with my kids. I paid an extra $400/ticket/person for that nonstop - and that's a significant cost that the airline expects me to just swallow. I also had to pay another $80 to get my family to sit together on the additional un-intended flight. It's the disrespect of passengers that creates an image of the industry that trickles into disrespect for the industry as a whole, which rubs off on pilots and cabin attendants.

The reason for the headline picture? Crews are exhausted. Being worked to the limits within duty/flight time week after week, but they hold no power because the rules allow for it, it's within parameters. No, I don't believe the rules should be changed, but the industry should not be constantly riding the edge. The rules are the limitations, not normal operating procedures, but that's not how they're being used. They're interpreted by airlines as their rights to use those edges and as an employee, it's hard to argue since they're not asking you to operate outside the lines. So, you can see the conundrum, and as a former dispatcher, I know what it's like to get a flight covered. You're desperate to get flight crews so you press and cajole because you have all those passengers to think about. I get it. I've been on both sides of that phone call.

Despite everything, it's the camaraderie and respect for the pilot seat that I still continue to see that makes these pilots shine, even in the darkest days. They are professional, even during deteriorating working conditions, so when you see picketing, understand that it's not a strike. It's a notification that they are concerned about working conditions and it takes a lot to get them to take their own time to come out and say it. It's scary to step up to that line, hold the sign, and say hey, please listen to me. They've spent tens of thousands of hours working to put their hand on the yoke (okay, side stick too) and truly, the bottom line is that they're asking for simple respect. So next time you feel those wheel kiss the earth, take a moment to let it sink in, how much sacrifice it took for that pilot to get you there.

The Highest Paid Airline CEOs in the U.S. (skift.com)

From the front desk of a FBO, to the captain's seat of business and commercial aviation, Erika Armstrong has experienced everything aviation has to offer. If you want to tell her why she is right or wrong about her views, you can reach her at [email protected]