The Airlines

A LETTER TO AIRLINE EXECUTIVES

By Stephen Sachs

Just the other day a piece of disturbing news was blasted over the airwaves. It is threatened that three airlines are about to go on strike. Delta, United and Northwest are all having labor problems which again might result in yet more delays, frustration and headaches for travelers. As I think back, something has become very apparent to me. The airlines have over about five years or so really changed, and not necessarily for the best. Air travel used to be something I enjoyed. Service was great, people got where they needed to without much problems, and though it was not perfect, there was nevertheless an element of quality. Airlines used to try and win your business. Today, it seems they want to sell seats at whatever costs and cram as many flights into an airport as they can. The greatest decline I feel has been found in United Airlines, the world's largest carrier. United's example however is symbolic of a general trend downward with all the airlines.

Two summers ago I really took notice of United Airlines's decline. For many years I was a shareholder of this airline, particularly because I loved the airline. Flying them was always a pleasure. Their staff were helpful, their attitude was wonderful, their fleet comfortable, and even though I was only a teenager at the time, there was no other airline I would have flown. Suddenly, the employees bought the company, United's chairman, Stephen Wolf left, and I liquidated my shares. Corresponding with United's change in management, the airline reached its apex, becoming the world's largest airline. Well, it was not just that they became the world's largest airline, but they acted with an arrogance reserved for those companies and began their decline with that distinction.

Over the last five years or so, United's service has been mercurial, good one day, bad another. However, there was one thing in particular which upset me immensely. When I was flying in coach on their new Airbus A320 airplanes, and noticed a disturbing fact. When I sat down, my knees were touching the back of the seat in front of me. I joked that it was "some short man in the fleet department getting back at all those tall people who made fun of him during his life." In actuality, I realized extra rows of seats were crammed onto these planes, reducing not only the legroom of all passengers, but crowding airplanes even more. In an attempt to squeeze every bit of profit out of their planes, passenger safety and comfort was sacrificed.

Flight attendants were tripping over passengers. To move trays from meals out of seats were damn near impossible, and I will not tell you the problems with getting up to allow other passengers go to the washroom. When seats reclined in front, do not attempt to eat or put down your tray for food. It offered no room at all. If you tried to get up, you would pull back the person's seat in front of you more. Do not even try to bring carry on bags onto planes any longer because there is no room any more. Do you wonder why? It is because there are more people on these planes than intended.

Also, this epidemic is not restricted to United, but Continental, Air Canada for those going to Canada, and I am sure American, because they are leading an advertising campaign to profess their attention to customer comfort by removing "a row of seats in coach." Well it is very nice that they are reconfiguring their planes to their original intended configuration. However, what is being shown now is a lack of commitment on the part of airlines to passenger safety and comfort. Were an emergency to happen, more people crammed into smaller spaces means that it will be harder to evacuate passengers. Moreover, for crew, to attend to more people in smaller working conditions is dangerous because of stress. Take a look at most crew members, they are less cheerful because their job has become much more difficult due to single-minded profit-driven tendencies of ratios and cost analyses from head offices.

Now that I have flown 25,000 miles in one year, I am promoted to Premier status with United where I can sit in "Economy Plus." These seats are the old style, where you have room to stretch your legs out and not have the person in front of you in your lap. However, these seats are few and far between, and frankly an honor like this is to placate business travelers who now have enough miles to get upgrades to first class and the airlines cannot accommodate them. The fact is, airlines today have wider markets than ever before. Passengers are more demanding, and management is not heeding these demands. Planes are being used in unprecedented rates, crews are spent quicker, and passengers no longer enjoy traveling by air. Delays are abound because airlines are clogging ground space at airports, resulting in ten or twenty minutes being added to airline timetables instead of admitting delays. In all, airline travel is a sad state today. Perhaps if those executives wake up and realize their own faults, then we all can travel with the comfort and safety that air travelers have been accustomed to for many years. If that cannot happen, then I would seriously consider enhancing train service. Certainly a little competition to airlines would not hurt them in improving service.