[HN Gopher] Why we've canceled flights, and what we are doing to...
___________________________________________________________________
Why we've canceled flights, and what we are doing to get back on
track
Author : aoetalks
Score : 29 points
Date : 2022-04-11 21:32 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.alaskaair.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.alaskaair.com)
| kepler1 wrote:
| Why is it that in even in an explanation about flight delays,
| pilot staffing, shortages, we have to inject a political
| statement that "... we founded a program to develop and support
| BIPOC pilots..."?
| hindsightbias wrote:
| When your basic right seater needs a minimum of 1500 hours flight
| time, maybe your career path should include a salary higher than
| a union bus driver.
| totalview wrote:
| Yeah, they make way more than any bus driver.
|
| "An Alaska Airlines captain, according to a news release from
| the airline, averages about $341,000 a year, but pilots say
| it's not just about money"
|
| https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/04/04/cancellations-c...
|
| FWIW I just traveled on 4 flights with Alaska Air and this
| didn't impact us at all.
| sparrish wrote:
| Right seat != left seat. Check salary of first officers.
| faangiq wrote:
| You will earn nothing. And you will be happy.
| bumper_crop wrote:
| Airlines in America are traditionally extremely capital
| intensive, and the customers are very price sensitive. (e.g.
| "If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars
| and launch a new airline.") The low salary and unfavorable
| hours pilots face really originate at the customer level, with
| most people being unwilling to pay higher ticket prices. It's
| easy to blame airlines here, but that's a mental shortcut that
| doesn't represent the truth.
| bumblebritches5 wrote:
| tmp_anon_22 wrote:
| Would Airlines be so capital intensive if not for the
| security theatre of the TSA and all its related expenses?
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Yes. TSA security theater is all paid for with a specific
| line item on your ticket. It is not that expensive:
|
| > The fee is currently $5.60 per one-way trip in air
| transportation that originates at an airport in the U.S.,
| except that the fee imposed per round trip shall not exceed
| $11.20
|
| The rest is covered by tax payers, not airliners
| specifically.
|
| https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/testimony/2020/03/03/examini
| n...
| ceeplusplus wrote:
| Yes. During COVID multiple airlines either almost went
| bankrupt or suffered huge losses because most of the cost
| of flying is depreciation of the airplanes themselves.
| That's why even though the US govt paid for airline
| employees' wages and fuel costs were 0 because no one was
| flying during COVID, airlines still suffered big losses.
| iooi wrote:
| Pilots at the majors earn 200k-500k. There's evidence of some
| pilots hitting seven figures. How much does a bus driver make?
| ericbarrett wrote:
| Pilots not flying major routes for major airlines make less,
| in some cases a lot less ($30-40k a year).
| jabedude wrote:
| How is this information relevant on a discussion about a
| pilot shortage affecting a major carrier?
| uoaei wrote:
| Right seat is the first officer / copilot. Not the pilot. You
| must spend a long time as a copilot before advancing to the
| pilot role.
| nathanaldensr wrote:
| > _10,000 pilots left the airline industry_
|
| Hmm. I wonder. Why. That was. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......
| reedjosh wrote:
| "To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not
| allowed to criticize."
| evan_ wrote:
| wow I had no idea society was ruled over by children with
| leukemia. Learn something new every day.
| reedjosh wrote:
| Children with Leukemia are mega whiny.
| monitron wrote:
| Sorry, I'm dense...what is this comment referring to?
| reedjosh wrote:
| https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/alaska-airlines-employees-
| ne...
| uoaei wrote:
| From the subheadline:
|
| > more than 97% of its staff received at least one shot
| after the deadline this week.
|
| If pilots and copilots are massively, _massively_ over-
| represented in the remaining 3%, you might have a point,
| but that is a huge and unsupported assumption.
| newacc9 wrote:
| vax mandates. pilot deaths are up 4x yoy.
| kossTKR wrote:
| I don't get this - is the vaccine killing the pilots? Why
| is pilot deaths up 4x and what is the source?
| nukemaster wrote:
| It might not be as deadly as some people are saying but
| it's more deadly than all the previous ones combined. The
| data is still coming in.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I assume it's because if you're not a senior captain in a major
| airline, most pilots earn very low wages and work long hours.
| Though it may be tempting to blame vaccine mandates depending
| on your ideology.
| reedjosh wrote:
| An article posted below:
|
| https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/04/04/cancellations-c.
| ..
|
| > An Alaska Airlines captain, according to a news release
| from the airline, averages about $341,000 a year, but pilots
| say it's not just about money -- they also want work rule
| changes, job security and scheduling flexibility.
|
| So, money doesn't seem to be it alone...
|
| > work rule changes
|
| interesting.
| uoaei wrote:
| What's interesting is how hard people struggle to force a
| narrative that isn't there.
| reedjosh wrote:
| If you find that interesting, have you investigated why
| _people_ do it?
| bpodgursky wrote:
| That which cannot be questioned, isn't.
| jmcgough wrote:
| Probably because they furloughed a good chunk of them, and it
| gave them the time and space to decide they didn't want to go
| back to their miserable, underpaid job.
| m1gu3l wrote:
| Not alaska air but: Currently stuck from a flight canceled on
| Saturday, next available flight out is Thursday night. I've gone
| through every state of rage and have settled on just never flying
| again when i get home.
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| I love this. It feels like only in America (perhaps Canada,
| Aus/NZ, and parts of Northern/Western Europe?) would a company
| cop in direct terms to screwing up and needing to do better.
|
| There's little (but not zero) PR-speak here and little (but not
| zero) passive voice or blame on uncontrollable circumstances:
| it's a decent enough post-mortem.
|
| In most countries, especially in East Asia or central/Eastern
| Europe, I never see companies say in public "we messed up and
| here's how". It's always caused by acts of god, unforeseeable
| industry conditions, etc. It's never mea culpa.
|
| But speaking of Canada, it'll be a cold day in hell before Air
| Canada ever admits to being the worst major airline in the
| developed world.
| talal7860 wrote:
| > But speaking of Canada, it'll be a cold day in hell before
| Air Canada ever admits to being the worst major airline in the
| developed world.
|
| I wouldn't agree more.
| Marazan wrote:
| Liking the passive voice which manages to mention Omicron and
| illness in the same sentence without actually saying the staff
| were sick with Covid.
| nukemaster wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=660ZCEhvbnw
| p0wn wrote:
| Flying sucks. Flights are always packed and the seats are too
| close together for comfort. I wonder if a plane was packed with
| all first class seats how expensive the tickets would be.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > I wonder if a plane was packed with all first class seats how
| expensive the tickets would be.
|
| It's pretty normal to have all lie-flat business/first-class
| flights between major business centres such as New York and
| London. You wouldn't know about them unless you were booking a
| first-class ticket in the first place, so they're not very
| visible.
|
| I think the prices are the same as normal? Otherwise nobody
| would use them, of course.
| andrejguran wrote:
| they're not if you're willing to pay extra for comfort
| atdrummond wrote:
| I used to fly a route from London City to JFK (with a stopover
| in Shannon) and a similar route from Newark to Singapore. Both
| were competitively priced with the business class seats on the
| 3 class birds on similar routes. In the case of the former, it
| was much slower than the larger jets, so I assume that put
| downward pressure on the flight price. For the Newark flight, I
| think the departing airport being Newark also helped contribute
| to slightly lower fares than say if it was JFK to SIN.
|
| Having worked in the industry previously, I'm not sure there
| are many city pairs where all business works but carriers such
| as La Compagnie have made it work for at least stretches at a
| time.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Double, more or less, if the sole requirement was to have the
| same revenue per flight for a full plane. E.g. a small short
| haul aircraft with, say, 35 rows of economy class (six across)
| would end up with 30 rows of first class (four across). That
| cuts capacity by about half.
|
| But some people will pay more for comfort. And most regular
| people are _incredibly_ price sensitive, they 'll suffer quite
| a lot just to save even 10 bucks on an airline ticket, so your
| hypothetical airline doing this strategy went bankrupt.
| yabones wrote:
| I would love if blimp travel would come back, so long as you
| get more personal space. A modern airship could make the
| transatlantic trip in about 24-36 hours, so it doesn't really
| matter for casual vacation travel. It would be quite relaxing,
| just floating across the ocean with a nice cup of tea and a
| good book in a small but cozy cabin.
| bombcar wrote:
| Once the "fastest possible" is broken zeppelin travel offers
| significant energy savings - it can ride the Gulf Stream and
| spend most of the actual energy positioning itself correctly
| there. They could even be designed as sails to catch more.
| lisper wrote:
| Here is a good analysis of why the situation will never
| improve:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll92ud6Nufw
| drstewart wrote:
| That experiment existed, it was called the Concorde
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-04-11 23:00 UTC)