A nice Turkish Airlines Airbus A340 up front, lots of other Turkish planes in the background.
The argument for “passengers of size” has been going on for quite some time now. Now Turkish Airlines is looking to add “flight attendants of size” into the mix. 28 flight attendants have been put on unpaid leave to shape up or be reassigned.
Izzet Levi, head of a cabin attendants’ association, and one of those trying to lose weight, told the Haber Turk newspaper he must drop 22 pounds or he will get re-assigned.
This is a tricky situation. With larger passengers, it is easy just to have them purchase a second seat, but flight attendants need to be able to safely get up and down the aisle and help passengers get off the aircraft in case of an emergency.
It is easier with passengers to tell when they have to buy a second seat. If you can’t put your seatbelt on or put down the armrests, there is a good chance you will have to buy the seat next to you, but with flight attendants, it is not as easy.
US Airways CRJ-900 with United Airlines nose, operated by Mesa Airlines. Photo by Alastair T. Gardiner.
There are a lot of regional airlines out there. Most are independently operated and contracted out to larger carriers. In most cases, the regional carrier will wear the livery of the larger airline and flying under a capacity purchase agreement.
This relationship is well known to many of us airline nerds, but most of the general public might have a basic idea, but see them as the same airline.
Most regionals are flying just using a bigger airline’s brand. In many cases there are more than one regional airline flying under the same legacy airline’s brand. For example there are nine individual regional airlines currently flying under the same “United Express” brand. When most passengers see “United” or “United Express” they come to expect the same level of service, even if technically the same airline is not flying them.
For me, it is that brand the airline wears that makes all the difference. I have blogged about quite a few instances where employees of a regional airline screw up. When bad things happen with a regional airline, I question whether I should just blame the contracted airline or the legacy carrier whose name is on the side. In most cases I decide to point out that it is a regional airline, contracted out, but blame the legacy carrier.
I have had quite a few people disagree with me on this, even take offense. I can understand the frustration, but the legacy carrier has decided to put their name on the side of the regional carrier’s plane and people expect a certain level of service. The legacy airline’s name is on the ticket, reserved off their site and the employees wear their name tags. As you enter a regional plane, you might noticed the “Operated by ______”, but most people won’t. When the average Joe flies on a regional airline, they feel and expect it is just like them flying on the legacy carrier and I feel the legacy carrier is responsible for the service received.
United Express CRJ operated by Skywest Airlines.Photo by Paul Filmer
When an airline puts their name on something, it is putting their seal of approval for the way they do business. If a passenger has a horrible experience flying on US Airways Express operated by Mesa Airlines, do you think they will be say, “I am never flying Mesa Airlines again?” Of course not, they will blame it on the parent company, US Airways.
Some might think my opinion enforces most passengers’ ignorance to the differences between regionals and their legacy counterparts, but I feel it is important that the legacy airlines hold a lot of responsibility for the actions of employees wearing their uniforms and flying in their colors.
Let’s face it, the use of regional carriers is probably going to continue to grow. Personally, I enjoy the smaller aircraft experience, even when I know most passengers don’t. The reality is it is more cost effective to fly smaller planes and routes where you used to see Boeing 737’s or Airbus A320’s you are starting to see regional jets and props. Where most passengers complain about the smaller cabins, the regional airlines provide cheaper and service more often to more airports than their legacy carriers can accomplish.
Do you know what airline you will be flying on next time you are on a regional flight? I tried to create a list of smaller airlines that fly under the flag or legacy carriers and it wasn’t easy (let me know if I missed anything):
US Airways Express
* Air Wisconsin
* Mesa Airlines – PSA Airlines
* Chautauqua Airlines – Piedmont Airlines
* Republic Airlines
* Colgan Air
* Trans States Airlines
American Eagle
– American Eagle
– Executive Airlines
Note: Airlines in italics (with a “-” in front) are actually owned by the legacy’s parent company
I would like to hear your thoughts on this. How do you perceive regional’s relationship to legacy airlines? Should the airline business make more of a distinction?
Images (both used with permission):
USAirways by Alastair T. Gardiner
United by Paul Filmer
Thanks Court for your help!
UPDATE: Some readers have pointed out some regionals I missed under the legacy headers and I have updated them. Thanks!
I am ready to rock and roll out side of Alaska Airlines Board Room at SEA.
In Part 1 I looked at airline lounges as a whole and what they can provide passengers. Then in Part 2 I explored what it is like to be a passenger at Alaska Airline’s Board Room. Today we will see what it takes to provide that high level of service to passengers in an airline’s lounge. What better way to do this then roll up my sleeves, put on a suit and work as a concierge at Alaska’s Board Room at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
It starts with an early arrival. Luckily they let me sleep in and I didn’t have to be at SEA until 6:30am. The Alaska Airlines Board Room opens at 5:00am, meaning employees will start arriving at 4:30am… yikes!
There aren’t too many jobs where you have to take off your shoes and go through a TSA scanner, but many airline and airport employees get the privilege of doing this daily. By the time I arrived, the security line was already long, but since I was being escorted by an Alaska employee, we got to go to the front of the line… booya, I need to do that more often! Then it is just a short walk to Alaska Airline’s boardroom which is located between the C and D concourses.
Mmmmm...automatic pancake maker. I want one.
I was assigned to follow concierge veteran Gina who was to show me the ropes. I was excited to see what it takes to do her job and learn a bit more about Alaska’s Board Room. In the passenger areas, the Board Room is pretty quiet that early in the morning, but behind the scenes things are very much in motion. Around 7-8am the Board Room sees a huge rush and when I arrived it was all about getting things ready for the rush, while taking care of the customers that were already there. There was no relaxing; wine tasting or good food for me, like in my previous visit, because this time it was all about business.
A big part of the job involves connecting with customers. Many times the concierge will know the names and stories of regular customers. This morning there was a regular customer of Gina’s in the lounge of the Board Room with his family. Even though Gina had never met his family before (it is normally just him flying), she knew about his sons and wife from stories the passenger has told her, which was quite impressive. The family was supposed to be leaving on a flight to San Francisco, but due to fog there, it was delayed. Now, it was our job to help make their delay as easy to deal with as possible.
It was early, but there were a lot of requests for bloody marys!
The first thing to help out was getting the pancake maker up and running. This is probably one of the coolest things I have seen in an airline lounge. Press a button and the machine makes a nice, hot double stack for you. The only bad thing was I was working, so no pancakes for me, however the passengers (especially the kids) love it.
The concierge job is multi-faceted and to be successful, you have to be able to multi-task. These are just some of the duties they must perform on a daily basis: passenger relations, greeter, food prep, bartender, cleaner, dishwasher, ticket agent, hospitality, cashier, stocker, sales person, and of course pancake machine setter-upper. One of the nice things for the employees is they are constantly rotating positions. A person might do a few hours down at the front desk checking people in, selling memberships and assisting with flight/seat changes, then they will do a few hours in the upstairs bar serving drinks and preparing for the next round of food service. This helps employees from getting bored and knowing all aspects of the board room. One of their biggest duties involves being a problem solver. Whether a passenger needs a package shipped or a hot drink, a concierge are going to help get it done.
The front desk is where you get to welcome new passengers and wish others a good flight.
The job is not easy, but sure is a lot of fun. Everyone I talked to there (on and off record) absolutely loves their jobs. They get to work with people, see airplanes out the windows (not sure if that part is a benefit to most of them) and get awesome job perks, like free flights. I have talked to a lot of flight attendants who say they have the best job in the world, but I wonder if airline lounge workers might have a leg up. Unlike flight attendants, they aren’t stuck in an airplane with a customer. If one gets too rowdy, they are able to call security or maybe take a walk to calm down. However, it is rare for passengers to misbehave in the Board Room.
Alaska sees about 40,000 passengers per month go through their SEA Board Room… that is a lot of people, but the employees there are always up for the challenge. If you have the extra funds, the cost of admission to Alaska Airlines or other airline lounges become very worth it. Even if you don’t have the funds, spoil yourself sometime and splurge $40 for a day pass next time your flight is delayed, I am guessing it will be worth it!
Two big announcements came from Virgin America last week and I think they are both worth looking at. First, they stated they will start flying to Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport (DFW). There will be daily flights from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Fransisco to DFW starting in December of this year. This will become the 12th destination that Virgin American visits.
’œDallas-Fort Worth is one of the largest metropolitan areas in North America and a major center of business with strong ties to California most notably in the financial services, energy and the Silicon Prairie-Silicon Valley high-tech sectors,’ said Virgin America President and CEO David Cush.
These new flights will obviously compete against American Airlines to the same destinations and their dominance at DFW. As Dan Webb in his Things in the Sky blog points out, Virgin America is not the first low-cost carrier to compete on these routes. AirTran tried the DFW to LAX and wasn’t able to make it work. Will Virgin America be able to wow American passengers with their fun atmosphere and superb in-flight entertainment? With Virgin America’s recent order of 40 new aircraft (and 20 more options) they seem pretty confident they will be successful.
In typical Virgin America style, there has to be a sexual innuendo tied into this announcement and I am not surprised they went with “Virgin America Does Dallas,” (if you don’t understand it, Google it…but not while at work).
On the bottom of every Virgin America’s press releases is the statement, “Virgin America is a U.S. owned, controlled and operated airline. It is an entirely separate company from Virgin Atlantic. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is a minority share investor in Virgin America.” Even though Virgin America shares the same brand name, the ownership structures are very different with the other branded airlines. Where the different Virgin airline brands were kept pretty separated previously, the second bit of news connects them like never before.
Virgin-brand airlines; Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin America and V Australia/Virgin Blue have become mileage partners. That means if you fly any of those Virgin brands, you are able to earn and redeem frequent flier miles. As a nice little bonus, if you end up flying on two of the brands before the beginning of the year, you can actually win a trip to Sir Richard Branson’s private island.
So what does all this mean? It means that Virgin America is becoming a real player in the domestic market. They might not be making profit right now, but they are improving and have the confidence and motivation to succeed, which always seems to work out well for competition and passengers.
I think if you are reading this blog, you probably have a pretty good idea what jetliner ended up winning transporting passengers across the Atlantic. However, at the time of this video, it wasn’t quite sure if the Boeing 707 would be able to beat out the Comet. The Comet had some serious issues with coming apart in mid-flight, but the Boeing 707 was an unknown new-comer. Boeing put a lot of money and hard work to make the Boeing 707 successful and it paid off.
