Travelers expecting to fly on Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) had another tough couple of days this past weekend. The company has been plagued recently by an insufficient pilot workforce, which forced the airline to cancel hundreds of planned flights over the weekend.The official line coming out of the company is that flights were forced to be canceled as a result of "significant spikes" in pilot absenteeism, but has been very careful not to come straight out and accuse the pilots of an illegal job action. Northwest emerged from bankruptcy a couple months ago, and during the course of its bankruptcy procedures was able to win concessionary labor contracts. This, obviously, has not gone over too well with its workforce, and could be part of the problem that has led to the "spike in absenteeism."
This train of thought, however, is quickly negated by Monty Montgomery, who is the spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association branch at Northwest. According to Mr. Montgomery, the problem here has nothing to do with any unhappiness among Northwest pilots, but instead, the blame can be put squarely on Northwest's shoulders. In an official statement regarding this past weekend's cancellations, Mr. Montgomery stated that the problem "is and always has been a staffing problem."
So just how bad was this past weekend? Airlines are typically able to fly around 98 to 99% of all scheduled flights. Northwest, on the other hand, was only able to accommodate travelers booked on 92% of its flights. That leaves a lot of unhappy customers scrambling to find replacement flights.
This same sort of problem also occurred at the end of last month when the company was forced to ground around 15% of its flights due to lack of pilots showing up to work because of sickness and other reasons.
In response to the recent troubles, the airline is trying to make up for its shortage of pilots. It plans to cut 4% of the flights it had intended to have in August and is putting in place plans to expand its workforce. The company intends to hire between 250 and 300 more pilots and will try to bring back some pilots that are currently on furlough.
Right now it almost seems like the pilots are putting on their own informal "silent strike." Maybe this past weekend's canceled flights will serve as an eye-opener for Northwest, and reinforce the need to build up staff once again in order to restore customers' faith in the airline.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-03-2007 @ 12:35PM
larry said...
the flight attendant is right on!!I don't know how they put up with the ignorant passengers that fly these days. they should be given an ettiquete test before they are allowed to buy a ticket..
Better yet the airlines should raise their fares high enough to make a reasonable profit;quit jerking their employees around and treat them fairly, fire the inept schmucks in the ivory tower and let the goober passengers buy bus tickets!!
NWA management should be tarred and feathered and run out of town in a rental bus.
Rock On staffers, we are with you!!!
westgo1609
7-30-2007 @ 10:38PM
marcopolo said...
Welcome to the modern world of running a business. Neither the customer or the employee is much of a concern to the present ceo's. Make as much as you can by paying out as little as possible, get out and move on to the next business to take under. You see it and read about it every day. Employees making less, customers getting less, ceo's making obscene salaries even when destroying decades old companies. The airlines used to be a prestigious way to fly and place to work. Now, like many businesses, it's a "McDonald" industry. Get used to it. You're buying tickets on an airline that told it's laid off workers to go "dumpster diving" for food and clothes. What would you expect in service from them?