Attention All Passengers: The Airlines' Dangerous Descent---and How to Reclaim Our Skies

338 Pages·2012·1.41 MB·English

by  William J. McGee

Attention All Passengers
The Airlines’ Dangerous Descent—
and How to Reclaim Our Skies
William J. McGee
Dedication
For Nick
Contents
Dedication
Author's Note
Prologue: Flying Sucks
1
Sit Down and Shut Up or We’ll Turn This Plane Around: Why Airline Service
Has Collapsed and Air Rage Is Soaring
2
What Happened to the Airlines?
3
Collusion and Confusion: How Airlines Don’t Play by the Rules—and How
Passengers Pay
4
So You Think You’ve Found the Lowest Fare
5
A Mad Race to the Bottom: How Airlines Mistreat Employees, Outsource, and
Ignore Passengers
6
When Your Airline Isn’t Your Airline: Regional Carriers Provide Lower Levels
of Service and Safety
7
Outrageous Outsourcing: The Single Greatest Threat to Airline Safety
8
Unsafe at Any Altitude? Facing Unprecedented Dangers
9
Threats to Survival: Why Many Air Crashes Need Not Be Fatal
10
Lights, Camera, Strip Search: The Tragicomedy of Airline Security
11
Cloudy Skies: Aviation's Carbon Footprint
12
Ink-Stained Wreckage: How Airlines Manipulate the Media
Epilogue: Fighting the Clock
Conclusion: A Manifesto for Taking Back Our Skies
Appendix A: Domestic Mainline Airline Partnerships with Regionals
Appendix B: Domestic Regional Airline Partnerships with Mainlines
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Author’s Note
The author does not receive any income from airlines or other travel suppliers
and does not invest or own shares in any travel companies. He also does not
collect or redeem airline frequent flyer mileage or travel loyalty points. Although
he worked for three U.S. airlines between 1985 and 1992, all three were
financially liquidated and he receives no pension or benefits. Furthermore, he
did not accept any compensatory flights or other free services, accommodations,
or gifts from airlines or other travel suppliers while researching this book. All
quotes in the book that are not cited with an endnote originated in a series of
interviews conducted by the author between January and August 2011.
Prologue
Flying Sucks
I
used to love the airlines. I loved everything about flying. In fact, aviation
seems to run in my blood. I have relatives who have piloted airplanes, fixed
airplanes, and ridden airplanes into combat, and I have quite a few siblings and
cousins who have toiled for airlines over the years. Way back in June 1927 my
grandfather Bill McMullen snuck my mother out of school and escorted her onto
a trolley car so they could travel from Queens into Manhattan. She was six years
old and had spent most of the winter in a sanitarium fighting for her life against
diphtheria, so my guess is that he left his other kids behind so he could remind
her just how sweet life can be. He hoisted his little girl onto his shoulders as she
watched Colonel Charles Lindbergh, the world’s most famous pilot, pass by in a
ticker-tape parade. They were celebrating the Lone Eagle’s triumphant return
from Paris, a city my grandfather—and namesake—had visited just a few years
earlier during World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces.
It’s a year worth considering. The American Century was unfolding the way
Broadway unfolded before Lucky Lindy during that parade. The possibilities
must have seemed limitless: America was moving faster, further, higher. Despite
the ominous stock bubble and the nascent march of fascism, the country clearly
had faith in its workforce, in its technology, and in itself. It’s no coincidence that
1927 was also when a blue-blood Yalie and former U.S. Navy pilot named Juan
Trippe founded what would become the world’s all-time greatest airline, Pan
Am.
More than six decades later, in 1991, I was the operations system control
manager on duty when the final Pan Am Shuttle flight rolled up to the gate at
LaGuardia Airport in New York. In 1985 I had taken what I thought would be a
summer job in the airline industry, which quickly led to working for four
different carriers, and in many ways, it’s as if I never left. After twenty-seven
years, I’m still immersed in the business, though now I write and advocate about
it rather than work in it. As the old-timers say, I’ve got Jet A-1 fuel coursing
through my veins.
I really did love the business. I loved airplanes. I worked in the airlines, went
flying on my days off, served in the Air Force Auxiliary, vacationed at air shows,
and even stayed up nights writing about AirFair, my own fictional air carrier. As
Ed Acker, the former CEO of Air Florida and Pan Am, aptly noted, “Once you
get hooked on the airline business, it’s worse than dope.” Amen.
And so, like millions of other Americans, it pains me to see what’s happened
to what was at one time the exhilarating experience of boarding a flight. Today,
commercial flying sucks. And everyone knows it.
The first time I traveled to an airport I was five years old. Most of my very
large family piled into our 1965 Mercury Colony Park station wagon and my
brother and I had to be extra careful crawling over the tailgate to settle into the
rear-facing third seat. That was because we were wearing dark suits, white shirts,
and ties. My sisters were wearing dresses and shiny shoes. We were en route to