Profile: thomas
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What's Happening Now
Don’t forget the obvious reasons they don’t do better; no enlightened effective regulation; executive compensation; union rules; airport and FAA inefficiencies; monopoly status (no other way to get there quickly); ultimately the bottom line (quest for profitability – short-term vs long-range thinking).
Thank you for your comment. You mentioned Eurocontrol – do you think a similar agency should replace the FAA in the United States or do you have other recommendations for solving some of the problems you have highlighted?
Thank you very much for the clarification. We will be sure to modify the language in the final summary that we send to DOT.
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Aren’t we spending too much time debating what airlines should be doing when things go wrong, and spend some time figuring out how to avoid things going wrong? Why is it that congested European airports don’t have the same tarmac delays that US airports have? What about Japan or Canada or …? Not saying the Europeans or the Japanese or the Canadians have a magic solution, but what are they doing differently so they avoid the horrors of US airports?
We’ve had an extensive discussion here about what the airlines are doing wrong when stuff happens and what they should be doing when stuff happens.
What are DOT’s ideas about stopping stuff from happening in the first place? We don’t see these tarmac delays outside of the US. Why is this? Is DOT considering doing anything to reduce the occurrences of tarmac delays?
I thought the question wasn’t about foreign carriers, but about international flights on all carriers.
We must understand that other governments may not view these rules as being benign and could very well impose restrictions on US carriers. Beware the law of unforeseen consequences.
The tarmac delay problem is not caused by airlines, and in particular foreign airlines. To submit them to significant operational or financial consequences because of something outside of their control doesn’t seem appropriate.
Lets not forget the tarmac delay problem is the fault of the FAA and airports, allowing over scheduling and not restricting slots. Eurocontrol (the FAA’s equivalent) directs European airports to implement flow-control restrictions whenever an airport (or airspace) cannot… more »
Let’s fix the problem, not the symptoms. « less
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Eurocontrol perform similar functions as the FAA (but Europe is complicated with overlapping ATC responsibilities). What should be done is a review of how slots are determined and how they are allocated. Additionally clear and transparent rules need to be in effect and applied when ‘stuff’ happens. For example we often know 24-48 hours before a major snow events happens. A committee made of the incumbent airlines, the airport and the FAA should be empowered (and immunised) to discuss the situation and to make decisions. For example if it is determined that the airport can only handle 75% of the schedule then the airlines can get on with it, rebooking / rerouting their customers long before they get the airport. The way it works today the each… more »
Let’s be honest here. Free market principles don’t work when two of three industry components are monopolies and really have little incentive to fix the problem. « less
You state one of my suggestions was that: “A committee of representatives of affected airlines, affected airports, and the FAA should be empowered (and immunized from liability) to discuss the situation and make decisions.” The immunity I was suggesting was more in respect of competition laws, than for liability. Normally airlines cannot discuss their schedules or other plans with their competitors (that would be a per-se violation – meaning there is no valid legal excuse for doing so). In these situations airlines should be allowed to do so and to agree on solutions that may appear to be anti-competitive, but on the day may be the best solution.
As an example two airlines ZZ and XX each operate one daily flight between two airports. In an crisis situation they should be… more »
Can I suggest you amend your comment to read: “A committee of representatives of affected airlines, affected airports, and the FAA should be empowered (and immunized from liability and from anti-trust laws) to discuss the situation and make decisions. « less