Blog Archives
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Some Good News
By Steve Smith - Tuesday August 28, 2012
U.S. airlines are not only on time, but passengers and their bags are more likely to be reunited at their final destinations. So says the latest data from the Department of Transportation. Here are two highlights: Nearly 84 percent of domestic flights arrived within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time in the first half of this year – a record high since the DOT began tracking these numbers almost 15 years ago. Fewer than three suitcases per 1,000 passengers were reported lost, damaged or delayed during the same time frame – in this case, a record low. If the last six months of this year are anything like the first, the airline industry will end 2012 with its best numbers since 1991. Wondering about the worst? Just 73... -
Our Digital Side
By Steve Smith - Tuesday August 21, 2012
My first job came complete with a typewriter. Computer? The office did have a mainframe that only one person could command. I remember I needed to give this manager 10 business days just to get a printout -dot matrix, of course - of mailing labels. High tech? We did have in-house typesetting that spit out all of one column of news print that then had to be cut with a razor-sharp knife and glued – yes, glued – to a board. Things changed. But my line of work hasn’t seen anything like the past few years. The digital world has completely remade how I cover and how you consume the news. We can find information instantly on Google. Twitter and Facebook allow any of us to post news, share an insight, add our 2 cents and reach out... -
A Club Of Our Own
By Steve Smith - Tuesday August 14, 2012I’ve been with Ground Support Worldwide for one full year now. One aspect of this job I found different from other editorial posts I’ve held is the lack of a bona-fide trade association for the ground support industry. Most readers of B2B magazines, for example, belong primarily to one trade association, but might have others to join that cover industry specialties. Typically, the main class of membership for a trade group spotlights the needs of a particular occupation or business, but another class of membership is also open to manufacturers of products and services used by the main class. Sure, there are subsets of IATA that cater to ground support issues. And after coming on board last year, I heard about the Aviation Ground... -
The Need For ...
By Steve Smith - Tuesday August 7, 2012The Need For Green GSE The percentage of green GSE in any one handler’s fleet remains low if only for the simple reason that new equipment – green or not – comes with a big price tag. The industry’s default has always been to maintain existing GSE even if that equipment is decades old. And let’s face it: the stuff is built to last a long time. However, rising fuel prices may make new electric models more attractive. Plus, changes in FAA VALE funding may provide an added boost. There is new language in the legislation that reauthorized the administration last year that may offer more dollars. Like all thousand-page laws, however, until rules are promulgated no one knows exactly what it will all mean, but the potential for... -
The Right Equipment
By Steve Smith - Tuesday July 31, 2012
We’re wrapping up our 2012-2013 Worldwide Directory issue this week. This year’s edition includes 26 pages of GSE manufacturers and service providers, plus a handy cross index that runs the alphabet from “Air Starts” to “Vehicle Lifts.” While there’s more than 300 listings included in the issue, one of the best pieces of GSE is the magazine itself. We recently polled a sample of our Ground Support Worldwide readers for their thoughts on the magazine. In the answer to the question, “Which of the following publications do you feel helps you most in your ground support responsibilities,” Ground Support Worldwide beat out the next nearest magazine by almost a 3-1 margin. Ground Support Worldwide also won an even... -
A Billion Here … A Billion There …
By Steve Smith - Tuesday July 24, 2012Airlines “earned” $22.6 billion last year charging for what used to be free, according to the latest research by IdeaWorksCompany and Amadeus. “Ancillary” typically means “in addition to,” but Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks – no, that’s not a typo; it’s all one word - says in a blog post that more and more airlines consider these fees to be a regular source of revenue to count on. Extra fees for Spirit Airlines, the King Of Ala Carte Airlines, for example, accounted for a third of its total revenue. Several airlines earned more than 20 percent of total revenue on add-ons. Although these extra fees are usually associated with low-cost carriers, traditional airlines take up all but three of the Top Ten. For... -
What Are You Doing To Pay It Forward?
By Steve Smith - Tuesday July 17, 2012
An AP story last week raised safety concerns over the forecasted shortage of qualified pilots to take the controls of expanding fleets around the world. Boeing expects commercial airlines will need about 460,000 new pilots between now and 2031. In the United States, that number is expected to be 69,000 pilots. Some airlines are already struggling. The story reported that airlines based in Asia and the Middle East have been holding pilot job fairs in the United States, and thousands of pilots laid off due to U.S. airlines bankruptcies and mergers are now flying for foreign carriers. With the pilot market stretched thin, we’ve also heard the same problems from our sister publication, AMT, over finding the next generation of techs to... -
Innovations On The Ground
By Steve Smith - Tuesday July 10, 2012
As luck would have it, three stories came our way more or less at the same time touting alternative ways to move planes from gate to runway and other points between. All are different, in particular the TaxiBot system that we got a first-hand look at last year at inter airport. But in one fashion or another, the systems from TaxiBot, WheelTug and the GreenTaxi system co-developed by Crane Co. and L-3 all look to save money and the environment by reducing fuel consumption, lowering ground operation costs and decreasing emissions. Remarks from a WheelTug exec also promises his company’s system will “increase safety and flexibility of airport operations; provide airlines faster turnaround times, reduce engine wear and... -
‘Ice-Phobic’ Coating
By Steve Smith - Tuesday July 3, 2012
Considering most of us are cooking in temperatures reaching into the 100s, de-icing might not be on many of our minds. But we picked up some interesting posts from the Aircraft De-icing/Anti-icing LinkedIn Group after posting the news last week about Harvard researchers touting the possibilities of an ‘ice-phobic’ coating. The coating works particularly well on aluminum surfaces so aircraft deicing applications are a natural. Here are the basics of the research: A nano-structured surface is applied to aircraft wings. This surface has what the researchers call “SLIPS” – slippery, liquid-infused porous surfaces. Think tiny, tiny holes. Next, oil or any other liquid that does not mix with water sinks into these... -
Get A Load Of This Picture
By Steve Smith - Tuesday June 26, 2012
Southwest Airlines has always prided itself on its upbeat, go-the-extra-mile workforce. For us, look no further than the precise turns its ground support staff have done since the first day the airline flew its intrastate routes in Texas more than 40 years. That punctuality is exactly what helped the airline make its mark. In turn, the airline has supported its workers with increasing wages and no layoffs even as other airlines were eliminating 160,000 jobs last decade. A strong relationship with 37,000 employees is certainly a tremendous accomplishment for a heavily unionized, publicly traded, $15 billion corporation in, as one publication recently put it , a “profit-obsessed, viciously Darwinian industry.” Charles, however...
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