Blog Archives
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Off We Go
By Steve Smith - Wednesday November 2, 2011Remember when getting a 5-pound Sunday newspaper was a big deal? Well, it’s the same feeling for me with this morning’s launch of www.AviationPros.com . What editors do is much more than simply publish a print product these days. We certainly won’t take our eyes off print, but we’re not limited to paper and ink and we also need to reach out to the digital, mobile and social media platforms to tell our industry’s full story. Readers expect it. Advertisers demand it. Our idea is to leverage our knowledge by combining what were three separate web sites for Ground Support Worldwide and its two sister publications: airport business and Aircraft Maintenance Technology into one comprehensive, easy-to-use portal. But we... -
Thoughts On Inter Airport Europe
By Steve Smith - Tuesday October 18, 2011
What to take in first? Certainly, the sheer size of the exhibit space. Not just two big halls inside, but an outside pavilion just as immense. Having an outdoor exhibit in October in Germany seemed like an iffy proposition to me. Given the nature of GSE, however, the great outdoors is a fitting choice – maybe the only choice for this much variety of equipment. From squat pushbacks to towering deicers to working, full-scale belt loaders, the outdoor pavilion was a great place to learn. I was told the industry was a bit short on new products. However, I didn’t find that to be the case. I was barely 30 minutes into the show’s first day when I attended a JBT AeroTech press conference introducing four pieces of... -
See You In Munich
- Tuesday October 4, 2011I’m looking forward to my first trip to inter airport Europe, Oct. 11-14, in Munich. I can’t think of a better opportunity to meet people, learn what’s on their minds and literally kick the tires of every piece of ground service equipment I can jab my toes on. My calendar already includes a number of booth visits scheduled throughout the week as well as RSVPs to a couple of after-show parties. Plus, after editing our September cover story on the Munich Airport from 4,500 miles away, I’ll actually be there for a tour of the airport’s de-icer recycling plant. I know there are plenty of hands I’d like to shake. Stop by the Ground Support Worldwide booth (or “stand” as they like to say in Germany). You can find me in Hall B5... -
The Uncertain Make No Plans
- Tuesday September 27, 2011“What keeps you up at night?” It’s a great question. Certainly not an easy one to hear. But it’s a question that’s been on my mind over the past week following a meeting we had to discuss long-range planning for Ground Support Worldwide. Of course, everybody’s bound to toss and turn over the uncertainty of the economic times we’ve all been enduring for several years. Just when it looks like things are picking up, it all comes crashing down by the end of the day with news of a potential national collapse in Greece. Or was it Italy? Or, maybe, it was Portugal. For us in the U.S., a recent headline in USA Today put it well: “Consumers Won’t Spend Until Economy Improves, Which It Won’t Until Consumers Spend.” If we had... -
Holding Pattern Again
- Tuesday September 20, 2011Do the 4,000 FAA workers furloughed for two weeks last summer have “real” jobs? I wonder. Last Friday, President Obama signed another short-term deal to fund the work of FAA. Let’s set aside, for now, that the money will last until only Jan. 31 … that this last-minute deal was almost derailed by one senator squabbling over highway beautification mandates … and that another short-term fix – No. 23 – seems like a sure bet considering the uncommon ground between Democrats and Republicans in D.C. But here’s one item that should be pointed out since I didn’t read about it in any major press accounts of last week’s FAA extension. Paying FAA workers back for the 13 days they missed had been included in an early draft of the... -
Ground Time At MSP
- Tuesday September 13, 2011I toured the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport one week ago today. I knew things were going to work well right from the start: I ran into an old sales rep I hadn’t seen in five years waiting in line at O’Hare for the same flight to the Twin Cities; our flight arrived about 10 minutes early and meeting me at the gate was my fellow colleague Ronald Donner, editor of our sister publication, Aircraft Maintenance Technology, along with Paul Sichko, assistant airport director, MSP. Paul gave us the grand tour for the first couple of hours and I’m pretty sure I saw all 117 gates. I also knew I was in good hands when Paul stopped his truck near a runway just to pick up a piece of paper and also what turned out to be a scarf. “You... -
Where Were You On 9/11?
- Tuesday September 6, 2011Everyone on earth knows this Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Where were you on that day? We’d like to know. I remember sitting at my desk reading the headlines on CNN.com. The big news of the morning was the possibility that Michael Jordan would return to play for the Washington Wizards. I typically kept CNN.com up throughout the day, but for whatever reason, clicked off the site. Shortly after, one of our salespeople came to work and told me he’d heard about “a small plane” hitting a building in New York. Sounded like a terrible, but understandable accident. The news turned out to be anything but understandable. Good luck getting back on CNN.com – I think this might have been back in my dial-up AOL modem days... -
A Delicate Balancing Act Between Demand And Capacity
- Tuesday August 30, 2011I admit that upon reading a brief “MarketWatch” news story last week about the state of the airline industry’s finances, I immediately figured we could heap all the blame on the guy I typically sit next to on the plane. You know the guy I’m talking about: The one who thinks nothing of chowing down on an Italian beef in the middle seat. “What we want is a leaner industry that no longer carries every person at any cost,” John P. Heimlich, vice president and chief economist for the Air Transport Association, told reporters last Wednesday at a mid-year economic review conference in Washington, D.C. Business travelers, he added, would be a bigger part of the passenger mix for many airlines. I contacted the trade group, however, and... -
Just Call Me A 'Fat Cat'
- Tuesday August 23, 2011I suppose with a starting price tag for a private jet at $10 million and another $500,000 needed for annual fuel and upkeep, the term “fat cat” naturally comes to mind to describe the corporate jet set. So just call me a fat cat from now on because I’ve been a passenger on two private jets. Thing is I don’t remember eating filet mignon and swilling champagne by the bucket on board or lighting a cigar with a $100 bill upon arrival. No, what I remember most was the sheer convenience of the trips. From parking my car for free right in front of a small airport (by O’Hare standards), not having to take my shoes off going through security since there really wasn’t any, and handing my bag to the pilot no less. I also remember the... -
What I Didn't Know About FAA
- Tuesday August 16, 2011Before becoming editor of Ground Support Worldwide, all I knew about FAA was that it kept the skies safe for everyone’s air travel throughout the United States. The regulators must be doing something right: Fatal accidents in commercial air carriers now happen once in every 10 million flight hours – less than a third the rate just two decades ago. What led to FAA’s recent shutdown, however, didn’t have anything to do with its safety mission. FAA needed new authorization from Congress to fund its operations. The agency has had to go hat in hand to Congress quite often since it’s been without a long-term plan for the past four years. Republicans and Democrats turned a relatively straight-forward request for dollars to run a...
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