The author has some valid points but he's is dead wrong on a couple of items. The congestion that he mentions is caused by most of the airlines all trying to fly at the same time instead of spreading out their flights more evenly throughout the day. There are times at MIA when there isn't a vacant international gate (because American has domestic flights on international gates in order to make their hub work) and other times during the day when virtually all the gates are empty long enough for numerous flights with normal turnaround times. If that someone was Southwest you could probably have 4 or 5 back to back turnarounds on one gate. Southwest averages something like 10 to 12 turnaround flights per gate per day at FLL. Average gate utilization at MIA is something like 3.something or 4.something flights daily depending on the concourse. It's isn't the government's fault, or the fault of airports, that virtually every airline schedules 1 to 5 hour turnaround times on a gate. Someday, hopefully, some of these airlines will absorb the Southwest line of thinking that their aircraft only make money while flying, not while sitting on the ground hogging a valuable gate and creating gate shortages for other aircraft that are arriving or need to return for some reason. The writer's comment on airports not having enough space for lines of passengers at ticket counters is inaccurate. Airlines usually decide how many ticket counter positions they want when they lease from the airport and then inadequately staff the counters to create long lines. I've stood in line many times to buy a ticket and one of the first things I notice is that the airline has 8 ticket counter positions and 3 people working, or 20 positions and 10 people working. So what if there are 30 people in line and some folks are going to miss their flights? Add ticket counter personnel? That's too expensive! Some airlines lease more counter space than they need to put the hurts on competitors who would like more space. The comment about the pilot apologizing and the writer's opinion that he must have thought he would get in trouble for blaming the the airport or air traffic control system is absurd. I've heard numerous reports of AA pilots blaming "Dade County" on the aircraft intercom at MIA because they had to hold for a gate, when in fact AA was given preferential usage of 47 gates virtually all day long and they did their own gate planning that caused the lack of gates. AA preferred to leave dead airplanes on gates and foul up the works than have them towed off to a remote parking position. This is the airport's fault? What BS.... The writer makes a statement that the lack of gates at government airports prevents startup carriers from starting service. The US DOT monitors this situation at commercial airports nationwide and I don't believe it to be a major problem at most airports. It's not a problem at all if the startup airline avoids peak existing operational times since scads of gates are available then. In addition, more and more airports are taking back control of their gates instead of leasing them to airline "x" for 20 years and airline "y" for 30 years. Thanks to MIA airport director Dick Judy, who could foresee the impacts of airline deregulation on airports, MIA started controlling approximately 22 gates in 1977 and took total control of various concourses over the years as the long-term airline leases expired. The airport controlled all gates at MIA by 1991 when Eastern died and the airport will control all gates in the future. MIA replaced all the airline-owned jetbridges and airlines pay for their usage and concourse fees on a flight by flight basis. This policy has allowed countless new airlines (most of the deregulation startups and failures) to start service at MIA, usually whenever the airline desired to operate. Jose Prize Fan of the truth once in a while In a message dated 4/25/2002 3:28:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, exatc@neo.rr.com writes: > Subj:Re: improving air travel > Date:4/25/2002 3:28:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time > From:<A HREF="mailto:exatc@neo.rr.com";>exatc@neo.rr.com</A> > Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU";>AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU</A> > To:<A HREF="mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU";>AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU</A> > Sent from the Internet > > I see another well informed individual voicing an opinion. Remember > opinions are like ******** every one has one. > > At least folks who post here have an opportunity to voice their > opinion/expertise and explain it. I love one way communications. > > This article gives the appearance that the authors experience goes as far > as the "Admirals Club". Pardon AAL for use of your name. > > Al > ----- Original Message -----=20 > From: damiross@attbi.com=20 > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU=20 > Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:27 AM > Subject: improving air travel > > Improving air travel > by Harry Browne > Posted: April 25, 2002 > 1:00 a.m. Eastern > > =A9 2002 WorldNetDaily.com > > Pity the poor airlines. > > That's right - I said pity the poor airlines. > > Yes, those airlines that try to bump you from flights, that keep you > sitting in the plane on a runway for an hour, that take so long getting > your bags to you, that > have the long lines at the ticket counters. Those airlines. > > I'd estimate 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. > > Prior to Sept. 11, the airlines kept offering cheaper and cheaper fares, > the demand for air travel kept increasing and increasing, the airlines' > inventory of planes and employees kept growing and growing, while the > airports and air traffic control system became more and more out of date. > > The government-owned airports are always so far behind the curve that > there's never enough room at the ticket counters to process passenger > volume quickly, never an efficient baggage system, never enough gates > available to handle all the planes. > > And those flight delays? When they're not caused by the weather, they > almost always are caused by a federal traffic control system that operates > with ancient > computers and typical bureaucratic inefficiency. > Taking the blame But who gets blamed for all these problems? > > The airlines, of course. > > Two years ago my wife and I boarded a plane at LaGuardia Airport to go to > Atlanta. The plane left the gate on time, but we got no further than the > runway. The control > tower held the plane on the LaGuardia runway for four and a half hours. > > Why? Because the traffic control system was overloaded and planes were > backed up arriving at Atlanta airport. > So why didn't the plane simply go back to the gate and> let us wait inside > the airport? Because there were no available gates at the overloaded > airport. > > The pilot was on the Intercom apologizing profusely for the delay as though > it were the airline's fault. It was almost as though he thought he'd be > punished if he said > anything bad about the airports or the air traffic control system. > > And the airline paid for an Atlanta hotel room for the night (because we > missed our connection to California), even though the airline wasn't > responsible. > > Making a bad situation worse Since the sad state of air travel today is primarily the> fault of > governments, the Ralph Nader types have a solution - more government. > > They want a "Passenger Bill of Rights" with such intelligent provisions as > making an airline pay a passenger 200 percent of the ticket price when a > flight is more than two hours late. Presumably, that will "send a message" > to the airlines that they should make government more efficient. > > Public relations > > The biggest failing of the airlines themselves is probably poor training in > public relations. > > Not only do their employees too often apologize for problems that aren't > their fault, the employees don't show empathy when it really is called for. > They apologize inappropriately in a collective way, but they too seldom > apologize in a personal way. 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.) > > I said 75 percent of the air-travel problems are really government > problems. Probably most of the other 25 percent would be reduced > considerably if new competitors could come into the market and pressure > existing airlines to improve their public-relations skills. But a lack of > gates at the government airports makes it > virtually impossible for a new airline to get started. > Solving the problems > > It would take a separate article to explore all the possible improvements, > but two general remedies are obvious: > > Cities and counties should sell their airports to private companies and > make it easier for competing airports to open within each city. > > 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. > > 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 >