Zorro Posted March 8, 2005 Report Share Posted March 8, 2005 OH I have a good idea for further reducing costs. Get rid of most of the flight attendants and in flight food and beverages. What is the deal with food on planes? I always pack my own anyway. Maccas is like gourmet compared to what you get on the airlines. Many people will gravitate to low cost carriers and be prepared to sit in cramped surroundings on sub standard seats to save money BUT most people expect that safety standards will not be compromised and blindly believe that the relevant authorities will ensure airlines maintain basic safety standards. OH said As for union bashing, I agree, it is to convienient. Why is it o.k. for CEOs to loot millions, but a union worker can't make enough to buy a house or pay his bills? Shit is expensive! and working people need increases to stay even with inflation and maintain a standard of living...getting harder to do in this industry...o.k. rant over... You haven't seen the worst of it by far. Things are only going to get worse for most people. However if you are in the lucky top 10-20 percent you will be creaming it. The middle classes are disappearing. It will be much easier soon. You will either be rich or poor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean Posted March 9, 2005 Report Share Posted March 9, 2005 Concerning maintenance, TWA's main maintenance hub was and is in Kansas City. When American acquired TWA, they fired around 25% of the K.C. maintenance employees over a 3 year period. American has several maintenance centers, in both Dallas and Tulsa. For the past 4-5 years, they have been playing off Tulsa against K.C. to get the most concessins from each city, saying they would close the plant in K.C. because they couldn't afford 3 maintenance plants. Guess what, once they had their concessions, they decided that they could afford 3 maintenance plants. In this timeframe, they also have extracted concessins from the maintenance union. Back in their hayday, Kansas City was the headquarters of TWA (although Howard Hughes didin't make many trips here, especially in the later stages of his life) and I made it a point to fly them when possible. Now, its strictly price that dictates my choice of airlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegasdave49 Posted March 9, 2005 Report Share Posted March 9, 2005 I agree with OH. Back when Raygun busted the PATCO union, he set the stage for the corprates to follow suit. To this day the air traffic control system has not recovered. In respect to maintainece ect. Long ago I had a pickup truck. I started a part tme hauling business. Cleaning out basments and garages ect. I charged $35 per load. Well of course there where a few time people would say, I found a guy that will do it for $10. I was pleased to hear it and asked for their number so I could hire them to do the work for me. That never really happened but I also knew that in no time at all their truck would need repair or insurance, or their dads would get pissed and take them back from their kids. The bottom line was that after a few months I stopped hearing about these "low cost" guys. It costs a certain amount to run an airline, and you can try and strech things as much as you can, but you will not be able to sustain it for very long. Large corp's have a long history of trading lives for money, and I think that is just whats happening here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted March 9, 2005 Report Share Posted March 9, 2005 I basically blame the allowing of overseas maintaince as a major culprit here. Never should have been allowed. As for us, we now outsource what we used to do in house. We actually made money doing it for other airlines as well, now...well we pay for sub standard work, which we have to fix in house, doubt there is any real savings... Keep in mind, the planes are maintained in limits, but at the lower end of the limits...think of a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. 4 is minimum standard, so the maintain a 4-5 to save money. The plane could fly at 2-3 but would be shaky...this is what it is comming to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 Would not want the offshore maintanence do what happened in the maintanence facility in Chicago (with union labor). They used a forklift to mount an engine on a DC10. The engine fell off after takeoff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted March 15, 2005 Report Share Posted March 15, 2005 Incidently, one of the Domestic maintaince centers the airlines outsource to, just got raided for hiring undocumented workers, i.e. Illeagle immigrants...as in no license, no papers, no nothing...but hey, they work cheap... "...Would not want the offshore maintanence do what happened in the maintanence facility in Chicago (with union labor). They used a forklift to mount an engine on a DC10. The engine fell off after takeoff! ..." Incidently, forklifts and cranes are used to mount engines all the time. How else would you raise the engine from the stand to the wing? If you are referring to the American airlines flight 20 + years or so ago, that had other factors involved... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitney Posted March 15, 2005 Report Share Posted March 15, 2005 I put more trust in a rattlesnake than management, at least I know my position with a rattlesnake :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.