Blog Archives
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Weapons on Planes
By Art Kosatka - Wednesday April 17, 2013
To its credit, TSA continues to do its mandated job: finding weapons and other prohibited items at screening checkpoints throughout the country. The chart shows just one week of guns discovered during mid-March, and contrary to my own view that they might be concentrated in one region, they are pretty much everywhere. The same week yielded eight stun guns in carry-on and eight inert grenades in checked baggage. While I seriously doubt that any of the gun-bearers had grandiose visions of hijacking, the fact remains that weapons in carry-on are illegal, and in today’s security-intense environment, one would have to be pretty dense to claim they “forgot” they are packing heat on an airplane (the most typical excuse), or to do so... -
History Of Regional Passenger Bridges
By Steve Smith - Tuesday April 16, 2013
We'll turn this week's blog over to Ed Jacob who recently filled us in by email on how passenger bridges for regional aircraft came to be: “Here is my recollection of the birth of the jetbridge adaptor for regional aircraft. “Simmons Airlines, aka American Eagle were operating ATRs in the Chicago market (both 42s and 72s) when I got a call one day to come down to the Champaign (CMI) airport. “I flew down and met the staff whereupon GM Rick Gorham introduced me to one of his staff - Gordon Stewart (NOTE: Ed’s not sure of the spelling of Gordon’s last name.) Gordon, who always had an impish smile, asked if I'd like to see something they were working on, whereupon he cranked up the jetbridge and swung it around to a position... -
By Steve Smith - Tuesday April 16, 2013“Here is my recollection of the birth of the jetbridge adaptor for regional aircraft. “Simmons Airlines, aka American Eagle were operating ATRs in the Chicago market (both 42s and 72s) when I got a call one day to come down to the Champaign (CMI) airport. “I flew down and met the staff whereupon GM Rick Gorham introduced me to one of his staff - Gordon Stewart (EDITOR'S NOTE: Ed’s not sure of the spelling of Gordon’s last name.) Gordon, who always had an impish smile, asked if I'd like to see something they were working on, whereupon he cranked up the jetbridge and swung it around to a position close to the aft (and only) passenger door on the ATR. He then pushed an aluminum ramp out to the door sill of the ATR, and voila...
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Aviation doesn’t settle for average
By Ronald Donner - Thursday April 11, 2013Paging through the May 2013 Consumer Report, a small article on page 11 titled “U.S. hospitals still not safe” caught my attention. The article explained how more hospitals are required to track and report safety data, and it provided a summary and a few rankings based on a 100-point scale. The average score was 49; highest 72 and the lowest mentioned 14. Also mentioned was teaching hospitals, “which are supposed to prepare future doctors” are lagging. I’m not a health care professional and understand a comparison between aviation services and hospitals regarding safety, quality, and risk management is perhaps not an easy or even fair comparison. But the article did prompt me to think these two industries share some... -
A Change in Customer Service
By Ralph Hood - Wednesday April 10, 2013I have trained people in customer service longer than I care to admit. Now, it seems things have changed a bit. I always thought that customer service worked only when coupled with a great product. Recently, though, I’ve noticed that some products are less than totally desirable. Does anyone really enjoy being cramped into economy seats on an airliner? Does anyone enjoy waiting for hours in an emergency room while surrounded by people who cough, sneeze, hack, and wipe their noses? I doubt it. In the last month or so I’ve sat in that emergency room and flown coast-to-coast in economy class. Neither was fun. Here’s the surprise: Everyone in the emergency room was unbelievably nice, friendly, and courteous. The airline flight... -
Givers & Takers
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday April 10, 2013Every organization’s success depends on the generosity of its employees. Every organization has employees that make decisions every day about whether to be givers or takers. When employees act as givers , they contribute to others without seeking anything in return. This contribution may be offering assistance, sharing knowledge or making valuable introductions. When employees act as takers , they carefully guard their own time and expertise while trying to get others to serve their ends. Organizations will benefit from fostering giving behavior because this willingness to help others benefits more effective collaboration, service excellence, quality improvement and innovation. The benefits are exponential to the organization... -
Final Injustice For Swissport
By Steve Smith - Tuesday April 9, 2013
Kangaroos aren’t indigenous to Ukraine, but kangaroo courts seem to be another matter. On April 7, a Ukrainian court ruled against Swissport International in a shareholder lawsuit. The verdict meant that a minority shareholder in Swissport Ukraine won the right to pay just $400,000 for a business that Swissport valued between $25 million and $30 million. The Loadstar , an excellent blog on global cargo and logistics, reported that Ukraine has “developed something of a reputation for ‘corporate raids’ in the past few years.” As the country looks to integrate with Europe, government officials have initialed free trade and other business agreements with the EU. The EU, however, says much more needs to be done over “the... -
Is High Turnover On The Ramp Causing Simple Errors?
By John Goglia - Tuesday April 9, 2013
When I read reports of mistakes no novice should even make, I worry that high turnover is eroding safety margins on ramps and airports. The l atest incident that came to my attention took place in Ottawa, Canada, but could have taken place anywhere in the United States or the world - at least the parts of the world that need aircraft deicing, where high turnover makes training and staffing a challenge. In this particular incident, a Sunwing 737 headed for Varadaro, Cuba had to make an emergency landing back to Ottawa after smoke was reported in the cabin. The smoke turned out to be vapor from anti-icing fluid, which as you all know, when it gets into an engine will vaporize and can then be drawn into the cabin through the... -
Are You a GOOD Customer?
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday April 3, 2013In the 1980s and 1990s, businesses across the country were taught the now-common-mantra that "The customer is king." This mindset established a couple of principles that everyone in business was to follow: Any product or service's design, production, distribution, marketing, and advertising should have the customer as the central focus for all decision-making The customer is boss The customer is always right The evidence is clear: employees and service providers who really believe that the customer is king do a better job at delivering service and establishing greater customer loyalty. At the same time, experience has also shown that the customer is not always right---especially in complex, high tech, high frequency, high... -
More Ground Support Equipment History
By Steve Smith - Tuesday April 2, 2013
We heard from a few readers recently about our cover story in February’s issue on “The History Of Ground Support Equipment,” as well as last week’s blog on a boarding bridge installed in Atlanta, which in itself was the result of another reader’s email. Last week, we heard from a reader who promised more information on the first boarding bridge for regional aircraft. Stay tuned for more on that. But about a week before, we received a long email from a retired GSE veteran: “I started in GSE for American Airlines in 1963. The only tugs we had at the time were made by Clark. They were the CT-21. At least half of the tugs we had were made prewar.” “We also had David Clark headsets at the time. I still have my...
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