I think it’s a good thing that Neeleman himself is stepping up and addressing the issue, and doing so head-on the way he is. It removes a lot of uncertainty and third-party culpability that occurs when you hear things like “It’s being investigated” or “We are looking into it” when what they really mean is “We hope this story will blow over and we won’t lose too much business”. If my analysis meant anything I’d say he’s making the right move.
A big problem, as I see it, is that this stuff DOES happen, and it happens EVERY year. It never fails that during the winter some city is going to be hit by a huge snowstorm and flights will get delayed. It’s a fact of nature, I can deal with that. But it also seems that no one learns the lessons of the previous year and inevitably you hear these stories about people being stuck on the planes as the system switches into chaos mode. I mean, seriously, it’s called having “A Back-Up Plan” or “Emergency Procedures”.
I don’t know why the FAA hasn’t put forth guidelines for these situations. Obviously the airports and airlines can’t work it out, or it would have been done years ago. One would think that such a plan would be pretty simple: If you are going to be waiting on the runway longer than the flight time to your destination, get the people off the plane. You could even put the DHS color codes on the weather conditions if it makes you happy. For the passengers sake, do SOMETHING to avoid these fiascoes.
February 27th, 2007 at 22:56
I think it’s a good thing that Neeleman himself is stepping up and addressing the issue, and doing so head-on the way he is. It removes a lot of uncertainty and third-party culpability that occurs when you hear things like “It’s being investigated” or “We are looking into it” when what they really mean is “We hope this story will blow over and we won’t lose too much business”. If my analysis meant anything I’d say he’s making the right move.
A big problem, as I see it, is that this stuff DOES happen, and it happens EVERY year. It never fails that during the winter some city is going to be hit by a huge snowstorm and flights will get delayed. It’s a fact of nature, I can deal with that. But it also seems that no one learns the lessons of the previous year and inevitably you hear these stories about people being stuck on the planes as the system switches into chaos mode. I mean, seriously, it’s called having “A Back-Up Plan” or “Emergency Procedures”.
I don’t know why the FAA hasn’t put forth guidelines for these situations. Obviously the airports and airlines can’t work it out, or it would have been done years ago. One would think that such a plan would be pretty simple: If you are going to be waiting on the runway longer than the flight time to your destination, get the people off the plane. You could even put the DHS color codes on the weather conditions if it makes you happy. For the passengers sake, do SOMETHING to avoid these fiascoes.
~Nighthawk