>I'd estimated that about 75 percent of the problems we >blame on airlines are caused either by government-owned >airports or by the federal Air Traffic Controller >system. Not 75 percent but less than that. There is one other factor that people forget to remember, or fail to realise: the weather. When you have thunderstorms all around your route even though you may have clear skies at the origin and destination airport that changes everything. On a flight from BWI to DEN two years ago the F/As were apologetic about the delay because of weather. The women behind me made a comment about how nice the weather was in DEN. OF course, she didn't see all those nasty CB clouds in the plains. Most of the people who b*tch about the airline service have no idea about the complexity of the airline service at all... I'd say if I was an airline , I'd take some of my pax to a "field day" and make them see what involves to keep the airplanes in the skies. >When you wait forever in line at the ticket counter, >rarely does the ticket agent say, "I'm sorry you had to >wait so long." When you can't get the seat selection you >ask for, you don't hear, "I'm sorry we can't accommodate >you." When your baggage is lost or late getting rerouted >back to you, no one says, "I'm sorry you've had to put >up with this." >An airline employee needs to learn only two simple >lessons: 1) No one likes to be inconvenienced, and 2) >when inconvenienced, anyone will feel a lot better if >you just show a little sympathy. It amazes me that, in >such a "people" business, I'm not aware of any airline >whose ground personnel are noticeably well-trained in >public relations. (Southwest is probably the best I've >seen, and the telephone reservation clerks for most >airlines seem very well-trained.) When you pay $8/ hr for the job , the people you attract are either deadbeats or working on this job for a second income. You have college kids who are trying to make a living while earning their degrees, etc. As you can see the airline job , or the people who represent the airline to you are doing this job just because this is only one notch higher than a job in local Taco Hell or Burger King. >Cities and counties should sell their airports to >private companies and make it easier for competing >airports to open within each city. Running an airport is extremely capital intensive service. If a privitized airport with bad service is an outcome of this solutions , it's not like some other private company can open an airport nextdoor and say "fly with us, we are better" . It just doesn't work that way.. >The federal government should get completely out of air >traffic control. Let the airlines operate the system, >modernize it, and make it efficient. >Let's make air travel fun again. FAA is doing a good job so far. The problem was that they didn't get enough funding until a year or two to improve the service at the airports. All that money that came in from the PFCs were locked up in the fund and was not released for improvements at the airways, airports, etc. BAHA Fan of FAA providing a good service to airlines and General Aviation Harry Browne is the director of public policy at the American Liberty Foundation. You can read more of his articles and find out about his network radio show at HarryBrowne.org. -- David Ross http://home.attbi.com/~damiross