Yesterday, there was mention in the news that Northwest had to cancel a number of flights due to an what the airline claimed was an unusually high absenteeism rate from pilots. Pilots are easy to blame because they represent a high labor cost. People think to themselves these pilots: blah, blah, blah, look at all the money they make why are they always crying and the airlines know that so they capitalize on customer dissatisfaction by shifting the blame from their own ineptitude and greed.
I have a certain self interest, I am married to a pilot. The truth about yesterday was not a high rate of absenteeism or pilots being unavailable: it was poor planning straight up. The airline gambled, lost and quickly blamed employees as corporate masters often do.
Here is a more accurate scenario for why flights were canceled yesterday: pilots were unavailable due to being furloughed ( laid off) and the union actually recommended bringing these pilots back in order to avoid having disruptions during the "summer push" and the company ignored them. Pilots were also unavailable due to being on military leave, or because they were scheduled that day for training. There was not a massive organized or spontaneous call in by pilots designed to frustrated customers, and while the airline can claim anything they wish they will never be able to show you facts and figures to back up the assertions they made because they lied.
A lovely irony, Mr.Undercovercalico was scheduled to leave on a three day trip starting on Saturday and they called to cancel it. Just one day after the airline claimed they were unable to provide service due to pilots being unavailable they canceled a trip. We are guessing they will change their minds and try to re-schedule a trip. On Saturday if you are flying and there is a delay because pilots are unavailable just remember that the company willingly canceled at least one of them.
Another potential scenario: pilots at Northwest used to fly about 70 hours a month a few years ago and now they fly approximately 90 hours a month. Federal aviation regulations dictate that pilots can fly no more than 100 hours a month and 30 hours in any seven day period. A pilot cannot fly more than 1000 hours in a calender year. There is a remote possibility that in December there will be unavailable pilots because they have maxed out their allowed flying time. Of course, the reason pilots at Northwest are flying more hours is because it is cheaper to do that than simply bring back pilots that have been laid off.
Prior to declaring bankruptcy, Northwest also hired new and cheaper mechanics many of whom have no to little experience particularly on the older planes like the DC-9 so often customers are delayed because the mechanics are not familiar with the plane they are supposed to be servicing. In addition, new gate agents were given minimal training and half of them don't even always understand the computer system because Northwest doesn't like investing much in training or wages.
It might also interest you to know that Doug Steenland, the current CEO of Northwest, got a 26.6 million dollar bonus when Northwest came out of bankruptcy. This could have been spent on training and hiring but of course that would have been considered a prohibitive "labor cost".
This is how corporate America works now, CEOs are rewarded for essentially doing nothing or sometimes doing harm while snafus are shifted to the employees. I laugh my fucking ass off every time I hear some pious pronouncements about how the market always corrects itself, and the market doesn't need to be regulated, and the market is free unfettered and ruled ultimately by logic. I am tempted to go to MBA school just to figured out what the hell they are teaching. Isuspect the average MBA is an honorable person who does use logica and critical thinking to make decisions. I think maybe those folks are not the ones who become CEOs.