Ralphie

I disagree, it confused the hell out of me.

johnso29

Glad I'm not the only one.

Elliot

Since we're all speaking of "rising oil prices", "rising ticket prices", "Southwest Airlines", and of course, "Delta Air Lines (a.k.a. WN Haters).
It looks like Southwest has joined the club for those "compensating" for oil prices, or more appropriately "the product of speculation and global fear".

SouthCoastToday.com

GJ

johnso29

How can we consistently suck this bad?? Are we ever going to get better?

bizjournals mobile: Atlanta: BTS: Delta had longest tarmac delay in January

Boomer

According to the article, their referenced ticket price went from $200 to $260 in just the last few months.

What they don't say is that if every pilot worked for free, that $60 increase would only have been around $54, saving our valued passengers six dollars per ticket.

Selfish pilots! (sarcasm)

iaflyer

It is my opinion, that the operation has become too complex. In many of my trips that have a delay, it's because the airplane or the FAs are coming through a hub that's being impacted by weather. Also, because airplanes/crews are so tightly scheduled, a minor delay in the morning on the other side of the country can make the departure out of the west coast 12 hours later, delayed. No time to make up the delay.

Columbia

IPads In Cockpit Raises Seriously Troubling Issues | The Daily Feed | Minyanville.com

iPads in Cockpit Raises Seriously Troubling Issues

With iPads winning approval from the FAA to display navigation charts for charter pilots, the stage has been set for Apple to aggressively boost corporate sales in this important industry. Businessweek reports that with US regulators endorsing iPads “in a test project at Executive Jet management, a unit of Warren Buffett’s NetJets, the way is open for pilots at airlines and other commercial carriers to see authorization for the devices.”

Clearly, this is a coup not only for Cupertino, but also for the airline industry. You see, in a mind-blowing revelation that frankly shocks this writer, pilots have been relying on the “decades-old tradition of paper maps in the cockpit.”

That’s right, apparently paper maps are still the preferred navigational tool for pilots and we can only pray to God that these maps are small enough not to obscure the entire windshield when unfolded and that co-pilots are particularly adept at folding and refolding them when in a bind.

Consider:

“Emergency landing! Bank left or right up ahead? Left or right??”

“I don’t know!”

“Check the map!”

“I’m unfolding it now!”

“Hurry!”

“Agh! I can’t get it open. Did you fold this last time?”

“I don’t remember. Which way?!”

“The creases are all screwed up. Whoever folded this last time is a moron. I can’t see anything!”

“Oh well. Left it is!” Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Compare this little exchange with one had by pilots using iPads:

“Emergency landing! Bank left or right?? Left or right??”

“Left.”

Ahhh. So much easier.

Now, the iPad isn’t the first “electronic flight bag” to win FAA approval. These navigational tools have been used for over 10 years, even though they weren’t exactly convenient. One popular model, from Astronautics Corporation of America, weighed 18 pounds. Apple’s iPad is 12 times lighter.

Still, most carriers still rely heavily on paper maps. Businessweek reports that “Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s second-largest carrier, is ‘still vastly paper driven,’ according to Gina Laughlin, a spokeswoman. Delta is pursuing approval to test iPads and other tablet devices next quarter, Laughlin said in an e-mail.”

Now, iPad’s integration into cockpit life may sound all well and good. But it seems that regulators failed to account for one seemingly innocuous yet devastatingly dangerous iPad-related use.

Angry Birds.

The addictive game wherein players attempt to navigate infuriated flying Neornithes into pigs is adored by millions, and there’s little reason to believe the game would not be particularly enjoyed by pilots. After all, these are pilots. Hurling across the skies is their thing.

Fact is, any device that can double as a navigational tool for planes and a platform for Angry Birds must be seen not only as a threat to pigs, but flying humans as well. Whether or not iPads in the cockpit will allow for games remains to be seen, but there’s little reason to doubt that the devices won’t be full fledged iPads, complete with such distracting apps as Yelp, Flixster, and Solitaire.

Don’t get me wrong. Moving away from paper maps is a good thing. But for the sake of all flying life, the FAA must address the Angry Birds. After all, the last map you want your pilot to be looking at when faced with a crucial navigational decision is this one:





I could never get past this screen.

DAL 88 Driver

Along these lines...

What do you guys think (especially fNWA guys who flew the DC-9) is the reason why the DC-9 has become so unreliable recently? Every single trip I fly, we end up with a major mechanical delay or even a cancellation due to mechanical. I find myself calling maintenance way more frequently than I have ever had to do with any other aircraft in my entire career. Now, the F/O's I fly with, who have flown the airplane for a long time, tell me that the DC-9 had an extremely high dispatch reliability at NWA. Is it that we're utilizing the aircraft more post-merger? (More utilization on an old aircraft = more maintenance problems?) Or is Delta doing something different in terms of preventative maintenance? Or maybe a combination of both? What do you think?

PilotFrog

I wonder what the author would think if we told him most pilots were already very good at cross words and Soduko.

KC10 FATboy

Actually, I've read through this entire document. Much of the data can be skewed in lots of direction considering *most* of the airports out there aren't considered mandatory reporting. In other words, the airlines do not have to self report if they don't want to.

With that being said, our connection carriers are having issues. They have chonic delayed flights and a hire percentage of the delayed flights. Also, they have significant baggage issues. Some of our connection carriers are losing bags almost twice as much as mainline. Mainline lost less bags than last year. Ironically, Southwest, who doesn't transfer bags between carriers or codeshares, lost more bag this January compared to last year and those numbers were hired than DAL. Additionally, you are three times as likely to get involuntarily denied boarding on Southwest as you are with Delta ... and more likely, it is the people who bought the teaser fares.

There's some good in there, and some bad. We gotta get our hands around our connection carriers. Our passengers deserve that.