Wall Street article today?

[orioleman]

"To address late flights, his team assembled a standard departure checklist every department now follows. The new "countdown to departure" checklist sets concrete metrics and goals for each workgroup. In the past, varied procedures led to delays of four to six minutes that cascaded across cities. Mr. Isom, who earlier oversaw ground operations and customer service at Northwest Airlines, says, departure planning "had not been done in a coordinated fashion.""

It's funny he says he assembled a standard departure checklist .. the old USAIRWAYS followed this for years.. IT'S NOT NEW
Mr Isom quit trying to reinvent the wheel.

maybe just maybe the reason things aren't going as smoothly as the sandcastle wishes is because this employee group has been there and done that and I think has finally had enough . GIVE the employees back what they DESERVE and you might see a different airline
until then keep p--sing in the wind and hope it doesn't hit you in the face

 

[PI Blue]

Anyone else seeing BK III

 

[orioleman]

"decisions have to be cleared through the airline's centralized operations control center."

thats also called the tower operations, been in place for more than 20 years.. as far as checking the decing trucks and fluid
supply also been in place for over 20 years.. MR Islom You maybe NEW TO a EAST operation , but we the employees are not
so stop acting like your coming up with new concepts . because your not. If you truly want to get the operations side of the airline
back up to par , You need to take your boy Doug out for a beer or two or three and explain to him that WITHOUT a HAPPY EMPLOYEE group
you have NO AIRLINE. Give us back what was taken away in bk1 and bk2 or else your stuck with this thing called an AIRLINE.
it's that plain and simple .. NO need to spend millions on annalists and numbers guys.

If you have a happy workforce you have HAPPY CUSTOMERS.

thats from business 101.. You might want to read up on it.

 

[sharktooth]

the article fails to mention that without the merger one or both of the airlines would not be flying today. I know its hard for anyone to acknowledge that point. In a scale business you need to grow to drive revenue up and expense down with over capacity in the industry the only strategy for the old line carriers is to merge to drive out capacity and increase profitability.

I agree things have gone wrong with the merger however in the end it did keep alot of people employeed.

Airlines are not a "scale business".

Over capacity at present fare rates, with 85+% load factors?

You're drinking a lot of koolaide there.

 

[OldGuyinPA]

Isom, Dougweiser, Scotch Kirby...

We will remain two different airlines.

Pay needs to be increased, staffing needs to be corrected, and seniority needs to be honored..DOH.

Other than that....

Get over it. We will never be one. Sell it...NOW !!!

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

Anyone else seeing BK III

The "annalists" will advise Amen!

BTW, the pay and benefits will never again approach your fat-n-happy days of the '70s & '80s
because consumers have a choice. Certainly there are many fine people at USair but you've got to face reality -- the market is moving too quick for your cobbled-together airline.

Good luck to you!

 

[orioleman]

lets see now ,
the fat n happy days of the 70s & 80's is OK for the inept Management team that so called runs the airline

but not OK for the hard working front line people that ACTUALLY does run the airline. I'm guessing you didn't lose close

to 30% of your pay and benefits in BK ..

Doug would rather pay baggage delivery fees of 50 to 75 dollars a pop not to mention customer dissatisfaction than to give his

employees what they should be earning and what according to the contract the company agreed to (cic) an extra 32.00 dollars aday

that makes for smart business

 

[leprechaun]

After three months on the job meeting managers, Mr. Isom's prescription is at once simple and hard to implement. Getting flights back on time is the first priority. "The most profitable airline you can run is an on-time airline," says the 44-year-old executive..

So far, Mr. Isom is off to a good start. The airline's on-time performance improved to 80.6% of flights in November from 75.7% in October, though other airlines also improved.

At what price? Isoms got local manangement so brow beat and intimidated about on-time departures, that we will leave passengers and bags behind if we cannot process them on-time,(through no fault of the customer).

I kid you not. Here in Beantown, lack of staffing, and elimination of overtime makes it impossible to process passengers and their bags on busy days. Local management is so scared of delaying flights, we leave them behind.

I guess on-time is more important than customer service.

 

[linemech]

On his initial tour of US Airways facilities, Mr. Isom zeroed in on the lack of plans. He observed that the airline needed help preparing for winter, and started asking questions. Do you have the de-icing trucks and fluid you need? Have you worked on a strategy with the local airport authority and the Federal Aviation Administration? Have people been trained? He ordered tests on all winter equipment and a review of the airline's employee training.

If Mr. Isom observed that the airline needed help preparing for winter, he must have been looking in the wrong place.
USAirways has one of the best in the industry when it comes to deicing In the form of a full time Deicing supervisor overseeing the entire fleets deicing needs not only during winter operation events but throughout the entire year. (He obviously doesn't know it)

1. Deicing Trucks
2. Deicing Fluid
3. Strategy
4. Training
5. Tests of Equipment

These are things that are done throughout the year and prior to every deicing season.
USAirways East put alot of time and money into new deicing pads and enclosed cab trucks in addition to upgrades of fluid replenishing stations.

Winter operations surveys of deicing stations included throughput, staffing available and time required to have manpower and equipment in position for short and long term events.

The amount of time taken to refuel and refill deicing trucks is also taken into consideration and USAirways East has taken steps to reduce these times through discussions and planning with local airport authorities.

It looks like Mr. Isom is blowing smoke when it comes to deicing, Unless he was referring to the lack of plans in Tempe.


Linemech

 

[freedom]

I’ve said it before , and I’ll say it again , Isom strikes me as a guy who can definitely handle the operational problems that plague our airline (aside from employee issues ).As far as doing the job he’s been tasked to do , I’m sure he will excel in it .You know I can’t understand why so many of you are giving this new guy such a bad rep before he even has a chance to get started …. Yes I understand that we are all low paid and bitter , but Isom isn’t tasked with resolving those issues , so why drive him down ?

 

[700UW]

Cause nothing has changed since he has been here.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

The Isom article sounds like a puff piece.

Micro-managing deicing is not the way to fix the airlines problems.

Restricting your station managers ability to make judgement calls negates their function. Another example of poor micro-management.

As far as improvements in on-time performance, thank mother nature, since it hasn't been such a bad winter out east this year.

Did Isom do this at Northwest? I can only imagine how that turned out for them.

 

[pilot]

I’ve said it before , and I’ll say it again , Isom strikes me as a guy who can definitely handle the operational problems that plague our airline (aside from employee issues ).As far as doing the job he’s been tasked to do , I’m sure he will excel in it .You know I can’t understand why so many of you are giving this new guy such a bad rep before he even has a chance to get started …. Yes I understand that we are all low paid and bitter , but Isom isn’t tasked with resolving those issues , so why drive him down ?

Not him Freedom. It's the process he's been tasked with. He should know better. So should you if either of you truly knew anything about this business. You cannot resolve the operational issues that exist without the employees. The operational issues ARE the employees. They cannot be separated. Your thinking mirrors that of people like Isom, Parker and Kirby. That is the point.

It's a classic Catch-22 that Tempe or Isom doesn't understand. Apparently you don't either.

 

[freedom]

No I do understand it and I think isom does as well , but what can he do about it ? Nothing …. I just tire from reading about people who constantly complain they don’t have the “Tools†to do their job , when what their really saying is “PAY ME A LIVING WAGE AND I’LL PERFORM “ …. at least you say it straight up instead of trying to hide behind this “we don’t have the tools†b/s .

Ah well , at least by the time the super bowl comes around I’m sure we will have ALL our operational problems fixed… cause gee , I’d hate to see some sort of meltdown that makes national news and ruins the game for thousands of the flying public .. Here’s to fixing our operational problems!

 

[jcw]

freedom you are right on. you can't make anyone happy on this board - if they aren't complaining about US management they would not have a life. You two posts are spot on.