Running The FAA Like A (failed) Business

Good news:  The FAA has decided to run like a business.

Bad news:  The FAA has decided to run like the airlines, who haven't made a profit since the Wright Brothers rode a glorified bicycle down the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk.

Worse news:  The FAA now wants you to give a damn about the airlines.

Worst news:  The FAA actually thinks you will.

Best news:  Until you get a ratified contract, you should take the information in the attached idiot document and turn it on it's ear.  If I read this piece of crap correctly, you can send the entire industry down the crapper if you add just THREE MINUTES to every flight.  That shouldn't be too hard, should it? 

Download airlinesrus.pdf 

Do you think the people who run McDonalds care if their customers are on welfare?  No.

Do you think the people who run the casinos in Vegas care if they empty your pockets, completely?  No.

Do you think firemen care if they go out on a call?  No.

Do you think Bill Gates cares if his computers have enabled the porn industry to flourish?  Nah.

And likewise, you shouldn't give a damn about the airlines.  They chose their business...let them wallow in it.  The FAA chose to demean, destroy and humiliate you.  What are you going to do about it?

I suggest you run off their customers, one airline at a time.  The hell of it is, every time you manage to send another millionaire and his airline into bankruptcy, another one pops up like a zit on a prom queen.  There is no shortage of "businessmen" willing to get in line for some free government cheese, your taxpayer dollars used to subsidize their ignorance and hubris and ego.  After September 11th the government bailed out American and United.  They used that free money to declare bankruptcy and rob their unionized employees of BILLIONS of dollars in pensions and benefits.  Nice guys, huh?  Sounds like they went to Marion and Bobby's Charm School.

Don't let them.  In addition to calling your boss "Boss," add another tool to your tool belt:  Add three minutes.  Until the airlines man up and insist that the FAA treat you with dignity, respect and a ratified contract, they are targets of opportunity.  The friend of my enemy is my enemy.

Take 'em down.

Comments

[Big&Rich]

What ever happened to the bill introduced in congress that would prohibit the agency from referring to the REGULATED ENTITIES as "customers"??

I work in a tower. Have done so for almost 20 years. I have ALWAYS put efficiency high on my list of priorities, even before this sys-ops rumpswab wrote this piece of trash. But it's efficiency from MY perspective. I consider what's efficient from the standpoint of my operation and the many other regulated entities I have on my frequency at the time. Sorry, sys-ops, but I will not be taking the time to explain my atc decisions to the captain/fo so they can provide input. I will not be including them in the decision making process as if that given flight crew is managing the only airplane in the sky or on the ground at that point.

Airlines losing money? Too bad, so sad. I'll remember that the next time United tells me he needs to go sit somewhere and burn off 15 minutes of fuel before he takes off.

Thanks, Mr TMU/sys-ops, for that truly enlightening piece of crap. I'll give it the full attention it deserves.

[Yeehaaaaa]

Sounds like a job action request from our former Captain. Hmmmmm Yeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaa

[delayking]

Give us a f***ing contract and I'll think about it!!!!

[west coast reader]

Good grief! It's sure interesting to see the Sys Ops organization put out a newsletter advising the world that the more tools they put in place to improve efficiency, the higher the delay numbers climb. Safety vs. efficiency - this will be an issue for time immemorial. Air traffic vs Sys Ops. Sys Ops is all about the least amount of spacing possible all of the time, air traffic controllers know that safety means incorporating a little extra space to allow for weather, pilot technique, emergencies, compression, go-arounds, etc. I agree that hanging the airlines' bottom-line on air traffic controllers is incredibly unfair.

[RJ in Port A]

High efficiency while maintaining safety sounds like a job for experienced controllers. The "business" decision to run those folks off by the thousands just isn't working out, ya think?

A good business decision would be to fire all those idiots that are still implementing that bad "business" decision. Oh wait, that requires direction from a politically appointed government official.

Huh....please explain that FAA as a business thing to me again.

[NYC Blues]

TMC's telling us to be more efficient? That's rich!!! Biggest mistake this union ever made was organizing that group of traffic dodgers and non-hackers. You want to make the system more efficient SYS-OPS? Grab a headset and do it yourself!!!! Weaksucks.

[Southern_ATC]

How can SysOps put out such rubbish, when at my level 5 facility they don't have the staffing to run the most efficient operation? Which fyi adds about 1 mile of extra taxi to the gate time for 1/2 the flights on an ILS day - happened every single day over the Labor Day weekend, how very FAAish indeed - say one thing and then do the opposite.

[ATC@ATF]

When we had a contract I would always do my best to coordinate direct, get opposite direction arrivals and departures when possible run them tight on final.

But not now, I do what is required for my nob. Nothing more.

Eff the FAA

[Train Wreck]

The only way to get the atention of the Airlines is to hit them in the pocketbook. Knowing about the hours worked , including rdo's and missed breaks the controllers have imposed on them I do not fly any where in the US. If I go to Europe I make sure I fly out of Phil, Dulles or NYC. Travel for me and my wife in the US is by automobile. Three extra minutes per flight is what the FAA controllers needs to do to get the dumb asses back to the bargaining table.

[Ben Dover]

TMU wants us to include the flight crew in our planning? Even the airlines don't do that any more. The flight crews are screaming about how little fuel they're being allowed to carry; to the point that they took out a full page newspaper ad. Encounter a 15 minute delay at the destination due to a thunderstorm, then take a one hour or longer round trip flight for more fuel. This decision making process is "penny wise, pound foolish" and erases a whole bucket full of three minute savings.

Want us to tighten up spacing? Not with half the people we need and half of them new, without the experience to get themselves out of trouble. I'll encourage the newbies to add an extra mile or two for years until they feel comfortable and consistent.

[iamatool@mica.org]

I'm not a nit picker but American Airlines never filed for bankruptcy protection. They did ask the unions for givebacks, which they agreed to, then turned around and gave out huge bonuses to management and, in turn, screwed their employees.

[iamatool@mica.org]

P.S. That $500/minute cost to run a B737 is BULLSH*T! Not even close. That's $30k per hour, or exactly twice what it costs the USAF per hour to operate the behemoth, 4-engined, gas-guzzling C-17.

A 2-hour flight with 150 pax paying an average of $300 per ticket would lose $15k. Multiply that figure by the hundreds of B737 flights in the country and we wouldn't have an aviation industry.

[Not ME]

I know it has already been mentioned but it warrants repeating: THE AIRLINES ARE NOT OUR CUSTOMERS!!! THEY ARE USERS!!! WE ARE REGULATORS!!!

[socalatc]

For more than three years now (about the time contract negotiations started) I quit giving shortcuts and directs. Not one person form anywhere in the airline industry came out publically for our cause and said they had our back so why should I do anything for them. However, we have too many ATCSs here don't see the big picture and keep bending over backwards to help these worthless "customers". I would never under any circumstance promote a "job action" but by keeping an aircraft on the STAR or SID, it actually adds those three minutes and I haven't done anything illegal.

[ZZ-Retired]

Here are a few more things you can do to help the cause.....put yourself on the "No List" for OT, stop talking to FlM's, Don't go in for call in OT (that means not answering your phone), don't take the FAA blood money and remember that ALPA does not give a shit about you or NATCA.

[JMarinitti]

RNAV SIDS and STARS have definitely hurt the airlines. We used to turn aircraft early and get them out the DTAs quicker. The airlines and the FAA pushed for RNAV SIDS and claimed that it reduces verbiage and would make the system more efficient. The airlines stated that they could better predict fuel usage.

Well, I don't cut any corners and aircraft stay on the SID. It has reduced verbiage, but aircraft are flying 10-15 miles further for each flight and that is just on departure. Not my problem.
Jim

[imgoneandhappy]

Interesting, the Air Transport Association lists the airlines average cost per minute as $60.46 (based on 2007 figures)(http://www.airlines.org/economics/specialtopics/ATC+Delay+Cost.htm)
Again, either outright lies or reckless inaccurate information from the fine folks at Independence Avenue.

THIS is why controllers have been kicking and screaming, especially since the imposition of imposed work rules: Management at the FAA says WHATEVER it wants to say, completely ignoring FACTS. They are only trying to "play business professionals", when in fact they are all posers, imposters, people that get wood from having "vice president of janitorial services" as a job title.

I screwed up as a controller, especially the last few years. I DID try to be as effecient as I could. I ran aircraft closer (legally) than I should. I tried to accomodate pilot's requests as much as possible. I thought I was doing the right thing.

BUT each level of management has their own motives. At the local facility level, managers ONLY consider operational errors as the measure of performance. So I try to run planes tighter, some managers form an opinion that I was being either reckless or "too old" (at 47) to do the job. When I had an actual operational error, unrelated to any of the opinions of my performance, management imposed a draconian ODP, forcing me to decide to retire.

25 years ago, our facility (one of the busiest centers) had a record daily traffic count of 7400 ops. Today, an AVERAGE day is 9,000 operations. This is done with less controllers, often with only ONE controller at a position that would have required THREE during the busy days in the 1980's.

SAFETY is THE ONLY MEASURE of performance that a controller needs to be concerned about. DO NOT, for one second, let concerns for fuel costs, airline profitability, etc, enter your mind while working. SAFETY. Allow my family to get from point A to point B as SAFELY as possible. I am going to be a grandfather. Everyone reading the Mainbang has loved ones.

DO NOT allow the airlines' ineptness (the business model does not work. the marketing departments are out of touch with the realities of the operations. labor relationships have been destroyed.) determine the level of SAFETY you provide, nor determine the fate of your CAREER.

In my heart, I knew I was being too concerned with "efficiency and effectiveness". I didn't think it would degrade the "SAFETY" component.

It did. Deep down, I knew it. I thought I was doing the right things. I wasn't.

SAFETY. That is the controller's JOB. Effeciency and effectiveness are only secondary concerns, usually addressed with rules and procedures; stuff that should come automatically.

SAFETY is what you give to every person in an aircraft, or on the ground under the flight path of 85+ tons of metal and flesh.

Don't let the Wharton Business School grad-wannabes lie and manipulate you or anyone else into taking your eyes off of JOB #1--SAFETY.

And in the meantime, you might inquire as to who came up with the $500/minute figure, and why they either screwed up royally or bold-faced lied to everyone. Of course, it was probably someone either that came from the airlines, or has a nice cushy position awaiting them.

In the real business world, a person making that grave of a mistake would be out on their ass the second the mistake was uncovered. In the FAA, they will probably get a promotion.

[Stunned]

This guy is on crack and ecstacy. I had all kinds of a ideas after my first game of T.R.A.C.O.N too.

[GoingGoingGone]

At our ARTCC management has been busting controllers for saying "I have your request" when a pilot asks for a direct, it's not in the 7110.65, so now we say "unable". This agency is run by dummies! Oh, what the hell! It is happening at ZOB.

[blue cat]

"Biggest mistake this union ever made was organizing that group of traffic dodgers and non-hackers."

I agree that allowing Traffic MANAGEMENT into this Union was an error but it was far, far from the biggest mistake. Ain't that right, Pat?

[John J. Tormey III, Esq.]

Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Quiet Rockland Offers US$500 Reward For The Lawful Capture Of Congressman John Mica's Toupee.

http://indictsturgell.blogspot.com/2008/09/quiet-rockland-offers-us500-reward-for.html

[zabnut]

I heard Mica had to have that "Top" dyed 10 times to get the white stripe to go away, after all, that is a skunk skin cap he is wearing, right?

[lowskillset]

I'd choose a name other than "Bobby." No senator is going to take that seriously.