songbirdstew
Senior
- Sep 10, 2003
- 478
- 51
Management finally admits the reasons for the holiday customer disruptions.
January 2, 2005
Dear Members,
Happy New Year, and hope all of you had a pleasant and safe New Year celebration.
What a way to start 2005...
In the Pittsburgh Post Gazette today, Jerry Glass finally admits that the Company had cut their "employment base" in an effort to fight for survival this year. Glass states, that "absences by employees hurt this airline's ability to cope with the circumstances. He maintains that foul weather was the primary culprit in US Airways' failing during Christmas."
AFA can make no excuses for sick calls by folks who are not sick on any day, any holiday, in any year....however, the operation in Philadelphia has been a "fragile" operation on a daily bases since the downsizing of the PIT operation. Much of the holiday traffic used to go through Pittsburgh, but it turned into a "focus city" this past October. We had basically the exact same number of sick calls during the holiday. And on Christmas Eve we had even less than 2003.
One has to ask oneself...what happened in Philadelphia this holiday? And why did we fail the customer?
With PHL airport having one of the highest O/D traffic of any airport, coupled with an increase in holiday traffic, increase in bag transfers, same staffing levels that you have monthly that admittedly are lower than last year, add in some bad weather, along with holiday sick calls, and your set up for the "perfect storm".
This management was not prepared this year for running Philadelphia's holiday operation; a solo HUB on the east coast, with in climate weather, and keeping staffing at the same level as if it were a regular day. We still operate as a Hub and Spoke System, only thing is with such a large airline, we operate out of two hubs to connect the passengers and transfer the luggage. And I know that the "powers that be" didn't take these issues into consideration when staffing PHL and anticipating different scenarios that could create a "mishap".
By the Company's recent admission, the Company has taken the first step to improving relations between management and labor and shouldering some of the responsibility for the lack of foresight in anticipating increases in holiday travel through Philadelphia. As Jerry Glass admitted, "the Company considers the troubles of Christmas week a painful lesson that will be learned from".
There were tens of hundreds of volunteers throughout the system that went to PHL airport to assist with the holiday travel by providing the extra staffing desperately needed to handle this traffic.
This weekend we had no cancellations. In fact, we were able to carry hundreds of Comair (Delta Subsidiary) passengers through Philadelphia, due to their hundreds of cancellations.
With the 'black eye' Labor and the entire Company received this holiday, it will take a lot of concentrated effort to win the customers back and gain their trust. We will prove that we at USAirways CAN deliver. This endeavor is not insurmountable. It will just take some newly generated energy to rise above and meet the challenge.
Teddy Xidas
MEC President, AFA-CWA
January 2, 2005
Dear Members,
Happy New Year, and hope all of you had a pleasant and safe New Year celebration.
What a way to start 2005...
In the Pittsburgh Post Gazette today, Jerry Glass finally admits that the Company had cut their "employment base" in an effort to fight for survival this year. Glass states, that "absences by employees hurt this airline's ability to cope with the circumstances. He maintains that foul weather was the primary culprit in US Airways' failing during Christmas."
AFA can make no excuses for sick calls by folks who are not sick on any day, any holiday, in any year....however, the operation in Philadelphia has been a "fragile" operation on a daily bases since the downsizing of the PIT operation. Much of the holiday traffic used to go through Pittsburgh, but it turned into a "focus city" this past October. We had basically the exact same number of sick calls during the holiday. And on Christmas Eve we had even less than 2003.
One has to ask oneself...what happened in Philadelphia this holiday? And why did we fail the customer?
With PHL airport having one of the highest O/D traffic of any airport, coupled with an increase in holiday traffic, increase in bag transfers, same staffing levels that you have monthly that admittedly are lower than last year, add in some bad weather, along with holiday sick calls, and your set up for the "perfect storm".
This management was not prepared this year for running Philadelphia's holiday operation; a solo HUB on the east coast, with in climate weather, and keeping staffing at the same level as if it were a regular day. We still operate as a Hub and Spoke System, only thing is with such a large airline, we operate out of two hubs to connect the passengers and transfer the luggage. And I know that the "powers that be" didn't take these issues into consideration when staffing PHL and anticipating different scenarios that could create a "mishap".
By the Company's recent admission, the Company has taken the first step to improving relations between management and labor and shouldering some of the responsibility for the lack of foresight in anticipating increases in holiday travel through Philadelphia. As Jerry Glass admitted, "the Company considers the troubles of Christmas week a painful lesson that will be learned from".
There were tens of hundreds of volunteers throughout the system that went to PHL airport to assist with the holiday travel by providing the extra staffing desperately needed to handle this traffic.
This weekend we had no cancellations. In fact, we were able to carry hundreds of Comair (Delta Subsidiary) passengers through Philadelphia, due to their hundreds of cancellations.
With the 'black eye' Labor and the entire Company received this holiday, it will take a lot of concentrated effort to win the customers back and gain their trust. We will prove that we at USAirways CAN deliver. This endeavor is not insurmountable. It will just take some newly generated energy to rise above and meet the challenge.
Teddy Xidas
MEC President, AFA-CWA
