YOU ARE GROUNDED !!!

As a man who has been around the world in 80 days, How could I not comment about what happened this week?
Commenting on what, Mr. Fogg?

The exciting college basketball final? No, I didn't watch it.

The Democratic Pres beauty contest? No, there's enough column inches on that. Off topic but there's a skit waiting to happen with the swimsuit portion of this contest: Hillary in a postage stamp top and a thong, Barack in a spedo or Vice versa. URGHG. Don't go there. I need to wash my brain in bleach

The Fuel prices going up? No, but I intend to comment on it at a later time.

OK I give in. So, what's the story Morning Glory?

The American Airlines maintenance fiasco.

Ah that. I heard something about it. So what's up there? Well, to paraphrase Churchill, it is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma.

Huh? It relates to all the cancelled flights due to Federal mandated maintenance and identifying who is to blame.

OK, I'm with you so far. With 300,000 people stranded, the press has been laying into American Airlines. CNN Interviews with pissed off people, many vouching never to fly AA again. Blah, blah, blah. Yeh, I heard that.

According to TRAVEL WEEKLY 10th April, "Gerard Arpey, American Airlines' CEO, said he takes "full personal responsibility" for the cancellation of nearly 2,500 flights over the past three days." That is very magnanimous Mr CEO but I'm more sceptical of this being a one person leadership issue.

Dig deeper and it is about FAA changing the goalposts after criticism from Congress on being too buddy buddy with the airlines of safety inspections.

You'll also find out that the issue with the wheel wiring has been there since 18 months and suddenly, the FAA plays hardball. AA are unable to publicly fight back as it is a perception issue: Nobody can ever criticise "SAFETY" precautions as they'll be perceived as being lax on safety. Could the wheel inspections been speeded up, absolutely. Was it a show stopper ? Probably not but nobody will go on the record and say that. There is all pain but no gain in that. Feds come across as blameless but they not.

What is not being discussed is the vintage of aircraft that US carriers fly. I don't know if you noticed but these are MD80's. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with MD80's but they are well, pretty old. Come to think of it, you are right there.

Modern aircraft are Boeing or Airbus. Being familiar with Reliability, the older the machinery, the more it comes nearer it's wareout stage so maintenance is going to be more costly. Beside, modern aircraft should have better designs for safety.

Are the US carriers upgrading their fleet in the near future? I'd like to say yes but with fuel prices going north and credit crisis peeling away everyday, it is unlikely. They will be cash strapped.

At this moment, I don't seek out a particular aircraft to fly on. However, on board I do notice the quality and features of the aircraft. I recently flew Lufthansa on a new airbus which had the toilets downstairs from the main cabin. This avoided queues in the aisle after the post-meal rush. I also flew Virgin and enjoyed it's in flight entertainment system. My BA inflight system was also pretty good. However, I've flown Continental, their in flight systems suck (as well as their food).

I have had two recent experiences with Continental and maintenance problems. 1st was when my flight from Hawaii to Guam was delayed when electrical system had a fault just as were were taxi-ing away from our gate. So why was that a issue? The bummer was that we couldn't de-board and AC was out and Hawaii was a pretty hot place: Pretty sweaty, pretty quickly, not so pretty, if you know what I mean! My second experience, was last saturday when flight to Detroit was delayed by four hours due. The cause, the no show of the plane due to maintenance. It was frustrating at depart time changed from 10:20 to 11:00 to 11:30 to 12:30 to 1:15 to 1:30 to 2:45.
So, after probably 10's millions of dollars in lost revenue and 300,000 discontented passengers disrupted in their lives, tarnished reputations all around, is the Maintence policy of an aircraft a marketing thingy? You mean a competitive advantage? Uhm, I guess so.

No. I'd argue it is an enabler but a competitive disadavantage if you don't have it.

Could you expand on that? I am not going to select my flight based on a company that has a good maintenance record. However, it is going to influence my decision over a competitor that has a poor policy. Even though Houston is a hub for Continental, I do look at alternatives to not fly with them.

Bottom line : I am prepared to pay some premium to an airline that is more enjoyable to fly with, spacier seats, offers me a free beer, gets me there on time. Oh yeh. I just received a text from someone in Terminal 5 - see previous - it would be nice to have my luggage with me.

Thank you Mr. Fogg for the conversation, Sorry but I must dash. I have a flight to catch.

Not if you are flying AA you ain't....

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
April 12th, 2008

BTW: The Chicago Times has a great article on this which discuss the complex issues.